The Longhorns ended their season last year in the third round of the Men’s Basketball Championship against Arizona by one point.  One point separated them from possibly going all the way to the National Championship.  One point and a lot of bad calls.  All of that is in the past though.  We have the future to look forward to now.  They ended the season with less than 10 losses which hadn’t happened since their last run with Kevin Durant.  This team will be nothing like that team having almost no height at all on the team this season.  With Kevin Thomas not qualifying academically, we are going to have our eyes set on the run and gun. 

*****I have updated the schedule as of 1/9/2012 with the updated times and TV channels the games appear on.  I hope this pleases everyone who has been emailing Sidelineblog.   It looks like the Longhorns have had a rough start to the season but can make up for it during the conference stretch.  Hook em’*****

Texas Longhorn Men's Basketball Schedule 2011-2012

Tiger Woods should theoretically be able to come back from all of his current problems.  He lost his wife which means he should be able to go out and get er done whenever he wants now.  The problem is that I bet the tabloids are following him everywhere.  My guess is he either needs a major psychological treatment as to his major addictions or he needs to get some tender lovin for his game to come back.  Otherwise I am with the rest of the media when I say we might have seen the last the last of Tiger Woods, at least as the most dominate player in world history.  We also all know that all Tiger needs is one win to spark that fire of his.  One win could mean 4 in a calendar year (he has done it before).

So what does this mean for Golf and the PGA?  My guess is that someone is going to have to step forward as a crowd favorite or I think Golf is going to slip back behind Soccer, Nascar, etc.  Golf has always been one of those sports that needs to have a few great players at the top in order for it to thrive.  With Tiger Woods, we had a guy who dominated the sport for years but every once in a while slipped up to give us some parody.  With Tiger Woods, there is no drama.  While Tiger has never been a comeback kind of guy, he has always managed to finish at least in the Top 10 at most tournaments.  Now it feels like he isn’t even just an average golfer, he is just a hobby golfer.   We can only hope that either Tiger Woods (who has lost his wife, most of his sponsors, his swing coach, his caddy and pretty much everything else) some how miraculously comes out of this slump or one of the up and comers steps up to win a few tournaments in a row to generate some talk about a Tiger replacement.

Self proclaimed bad boy Alex Rodriguez has found himself in a heap of trouble once again.  At least, that’s what we have been hearing for the past week.  Now we are getting reports that Major League Baseball isn’t going to do anything about it.  Are you kidding me?  Supposedly, ‘”He will be warned again and not lightly.”Major League Baseball investigators still want to speak with Rodriguez about his alleged involvement in the high-stakes games and are expected to do so “in the next couple of weeks,’ a source with close ties to Rodriguez told ESPNNewYork.com’s Wallace Matthews on Thursday.“  Can you say enabler?  I mean what do we have to expect now, that the New York Yankees (as money driven as most of them are) are going to discipline their own star player for something that the League as whole has no problem with?  A slap on the wrist isn’t going to keep this guy from eventually pulling a Pete Rose and being laughed out of baseball for the rest of his life.  Whose to say that some Atlantic City casino doesn’t already have their hooks in him right now?  That’s a dangerous game to play if you ask me, but when no one is there to say, “NOOOO you can’t go into that room with the illegal gambling….Yes, I mean the one with the poker table in it.”  I realize that there are not been a full investigation or conclusion as to what is exactly going on (and I doubt the actual truth will ever come out) so maybe I am wrong and have no idea what I am talking about…but it all just seems a bit much to me.  Gambling when you play professional sports is a slippery slope my friends, then second you get down, the first thought goes to point shaving.  If sports aren’t real then the people who watch them will not care.  In order for him to have gotten in trouble he probably would have had to have made a side bet at the poker table on baseball…We all know that side bets is basically small talk at the table and everyone knows A-Rod as a baseball player.  How much do you want to bet it got brought up?

You didn’t think I would leave you hanging did you?  Of crouse not.  Here is the video of the final goal against Brazil.  

The biggest news lately has been the fact that Tiger Woods has decided to pull himself out of the past few tournaments because of his knee/leg issues.  I would suspect Tiger is really the only person who knows what is really going on.  I think he just needs to get his family issues in order.  His wife needs to just tell him she loves him and forgives him or something because its honestly ruining Golf.

Texas Longhorn 2010-2011 Regular Season Schedule

New York Yankees – I figured I would start out with the team that is always making huge moves.  Because I put them first, does not mean that I actually think they made off the best, I just figured I throw the obvious stuff at you first.  While they did not get the player they were after at first (Roy Oswalt) they were able to pick up Lance Berkman, Kerry Wood, and Austin Kearns.  These moves are considered to be gap fillers at this point, but I think it might be just what they need to pull off another World Series run.

Texas Rangers - Wait a second??? I thought they were operating in Chapter 11??  Yes, they actually are, but they made out like rats still.  They picked up the best player that was available in Cliff Lee, then  managed to  wrangle up Jorge Cantu, Bengie Molina, and Christian Guzman.  I know, I know…This is the baseball team who has an 8 game lead in their division.  It does not take a genius to realize the implications of all of these moves.  While having to give up their top first base prospect Justin Smoak, you only need to look past Lee to see how good of a trade the Rangers got.

So we have had a great look at the two biggest winners.  I would have to say Honorable Mention goes to the San Diego Padres and Atlanta Braves for their decent moves over the past weekend.  Both are looking forward to the rest of the season.  Lets take a look at the biggest losers (aka teams that really busted over the past few weeks) shall we?

San Francisco Giants – There was word they were interested in several people but as usual the Giants end up with jack diddly just a game in a half back in the NL West.  If tomorrow were the playoffs they would be in the last spot so you would think they would really be out there looking for someone to get.  They apparently were just not serious about it.  They need a big bat to increase some offense going into the playoffs because they have a clutch playoff pitching trio.

Tampa Bay Rays – So if you are in the same division as the New York Yankees, one would think you would want to be out there shopping for something.  At first I thought they would end up with Adam Dunn but such is life…then when the Yanks picked up Berkman I freaked out because I think any chance of winning the division has now gone and passed for the Rays.  I would have to say that the failure to go out and get some offense is really going to hurt them in the long run.  I wouldn’t be looking for the Rays to go very far through the playoffs this season.