Reveille Starts a Blog

I was able to work out a comp plan for Reveille to join the LandThieves network. Check out her latest work at http//reveillevii.blogspot.com

Income

News this week came out (don't know why it's "news", it's been in his contract for the past three years), but if the HeadVisor sticks around to 12/31/08, he will make a $3 million bonus. Add that to the $2.775 base, and Bob stands to make $5.775 in 2008, even if he doesn't make a bowl game. The cool thing is there are some performance bonus pieces where he can still make some money if spending gets out of hand in the Stoops house.



For history's sake, here is Stoop's guaranteed salaries by season, gleaned from several web sites (in thousands):

• 1999 - $600
• 2000 - $675
• 2000 pt 2 - $1,400 (given new contract mid season)
• 2001 - $2,000
• 2002 - $2,100
• 2003 - $2,200
• 2004 - $2,300
• 2005 - $2,400
• 2006 - $2,500
• 2007 - $2,600
• 2008 - $2,775

Lots o' weeping and gnashing of teeth about this in several places. Most folks that sat in the stands through the Blake and Schnellenberger eras got over it in a hurry. If you want to get depressed about it, check out the Bob Stoops Salary calculator.

Next week, I expect Stoops to get a bonus for getting those eight wins back. No truth to the rumor they will cancel the Cross Country team to fund the move.

Decision Time Today

Why doesn't the Big 12 play Men's Soccer?

A good friend of mine asked me this a couple of weeks ago. He told me OU didn't have a soccer team, neither did OSU. I was sure he was misinformed. Being a former auditor, I decided to check it out. Sho'nuff, neither school has men's soccer. actually, no school in the Big 12 does. Nor the SEC. Here's a list of schools that play Division 1 soccer. There are 198 schools that play D1 soccer, from Adelphi College to Yale University. Amazingly, just one of those 198 schools is in Texas.

On the other hand, there are 221 young men that list a home town in Texas playing D1 soccer. These men are peppered over 90 different campuses from coast to coast. There are 10 schools in states where big 12 universities reside that play D1. There are 477 men from those states that play on 120 different teams. Yet the Big 12 doesn't have men's soccer. Why is that?

One of the obvious culprits is budget Title IX. That's a lame excuse, though. Bob Stoops will earn a $3 million bonus this year for staying put for 10 years. Earlier this decade, UNC-Chapel Hill spent $9.9 million funding 23 sports with revenue (mostly from corporate sponsorships and contributions) of $7.8 million. The HeadVisor's stay bonus could fund soccer and have some spare change left over for women's lacrosse. And just like in football, we could recruit the bejeebers out of Texas and have a formidable team every year. After all, 18 of the 28 ladies on the women's soccer roster are from Texas. Back to the point at hand. If you're interested in some info on Title XI and it's impact on sports, you can read here or here. TBone Pickens probably has enough spare change in the couch cushions to fund men's soccer in Stillwater.

It could be that soccer is dangerous. A report published in the Journal of Athletic Training indicates that intercollegiate soccer is the most dangerous sport women play, and the third most dangerous sport amongst males, trailing only football and soccer.

We here at landthieves don't delve into serious stuff very often. It's beneath us. So, what do you with this info? a) You can storm the castle and petition the Big 12 to sanction men's soccer for its member institutions; b) You can move along, and look for the picture of Erin Andrews in the post preceding this; c) you can keep spending money on select soccer, in the hopes that you can also save some money along the way to pay for the trip across the U.S. to visit your son in the hospital after he sustains a soccer injury at a faraway school.

It's up to you.

We now return to our regularly scheduled programming.

Why Erin Andrews Covers Big 10 Basketball

Earlier today, I got to thinking. After a few weeks of watching some hoops, I found that Big 12 men's hoops viewers get Ron Franklin and Fran Fraschilla (just to remind Sooners of that upset by the Manhattan Jaspars in the mid 90s) or the pleasant tones of Bob Carpenter and Paul Splittorf. The Big 10 gets play-by-play icon Brent Musberger alongside Steve Lavin, and the bonus of Erin Andrews as sideline reporter. I’ve decided this is unfair, and decided to examine why…

My top 5 reasons Erin Andrews covers Big 10 Basketball.

1. Allows Florida fans to demonstrate continued dominance of SEC over Big 10.
2. In Big 10 country, any girl with all her teeth and weighing in at less than a buck- fifty is a looker.
3. It's ESPN’s way of differentiating itself from the Big 10 Network. Check the “talent” at the Big 10 Network. You've never flipped over to the Big 10 Network wanting to get a glimpse of Vera Jones.
4. Duke fans only have eyes for Dick Vitale
5. It’s the only way to make a 53-51 game interesting
   
   Got additional reasons? Add ‘em in the comments.

Dang, that was fun...

Watched the game last night and what a doozy that was. First of all, I felt horrible for Curtis Jerrells. He played an outstanding game up to the point where we went 0-2 from the line with :01 second left in OT. Second, first time I've watch an entire Baylor game. They are fun to watch. I was quite impressed with the way BU rallied after the scrum at 4:58 where Mark Shepard was ejected. Drew took the Bears to small ball and they roared back into the game. the Bears scored 21 points in the last 4:30 of regulation. If my calc's are correct, the Bears made 6-9 from the field during that stretch. Never mind the matador D the Sooners played during that time.

Blake Griffin had a monster game against the smaller Bears, scoring 29 and grabbing 17 boards. BG went 13-17 from the line,which is remarkable for him. The ESPN highlights on the web don't show a couple of spectacular dunks by Griffin, one on a fast break, bounce it off the backboard (assist by Austin Johnson), the other on a great give and go with Longar Longar.

The four point play by Crocker came on a three pointer that looked like Crocker spent more time looking for contact than he did trying to make the shot, but he managed to make the shot and draw contact.

Other random thoughts on the game. Bears reserve to be named later was ejected for coming off the bench in a peacemaker role. I understand the need for the rule, but I hate it when someone gets kicked out for brining the peace. The Sooners were 4-5 from 3 point land in OT, an impressive feat.

Next up for the Sooners are the dreaded Horns.

Kelvin Sampson update and flashback

Forgive my fascination with Sampson's situation in Bloomington.


There were some interesting articles recently from the Indianapolis Star on the Sampson situation.


Column by Bob Kravitz. The most interesting note in this column was the Sampson's predecessor at IU, Mike Davis, told Krativz that Sampson would have the Hoosiers in trouble within three years. This from a University that consistently played hoops at a high level for 30 years without a sniff of impropriety until AGB showed up.


While you're at the site, Kravitz's column on the 14th was interesting as well.


Most MSM types are projecting that the seven day investigation is merely due process as a prelude to firing, to minimize lawsuits. This genius at the NYT seems to think otherwise. My favorite part of Rhoden's column is a statement that "Sampson coaches a style of play that fans want to watch and that players like to play." Makes me think Mr. Rhoden hasn't watched much basketball. decided I'd check to see if Rhoden wrote much about basketball. Rhoden's last article in the Old Gray Lady that covered basketball was on December 24, when he wrote a column defending Isiah Thomas as coach of the Knicks.


I didn't have a blog at the time, but here are some old stats on Kelvin Sampson's tenure at Oklahoma from 1994-2006:

• Record in NCAAs - 11-11. There are 25 teams that have played more than 20 games in the NCAAs during that period. The two teams with the worst record in that era in the tourney are Oklahoma and . . . Indiana.
• There are 31 teams that played eight or more first round games during that time frame. Oklahoma and Penn are the only teams of those 31 with a winning percentage below 500.
• Nineteen teams have played 15 or more games against lower seeded teams. Kelvin Sampson's Oklahoma squads had the worst record (9-6) of those nineteen teams.
• The Sooners were one of three schools (UCLA and Florida were the others) to lose three games or more to double digit seeds.

One of Kelvin's comments was that you couldn't recruit premier talent to Norman, Oklahoma. Sampson's predecessor, the Honorable Billy Tubbs (great article, by the way here on scoring), was able to recruit Wayman Tisdale (#2 pick, 12 years in NBA), Stacey King (#6 pick, 8 years in NBA), Mookie Blaylock (#12 pick, 13 years in NBA), Anthony Bowie (#66 pick, 8 years in NBA) and Harvey Grant (#12 pick, 11 years in NBA) to Norman.

Kelvin was able to recruit 3 2nd round picks in his 12 seasons in Norman. And he had all those extra phone calls! One of the problems there was you didn't see anyone develop under him. Do you think Longar Longar would have improved with two more years under Sampson? I don't. I can't think of a player that showed marked improvement - outside of Eddie Najera - during KS tenure. Kevin Bookout didn't seem to improve at all during his time. Ebe Ere, Australia's greatest scorer, did little at OU under Kelvin.

I was glad to see sampson gone from OU. After going to school during Billyball, watching Sampson's gutsy gritty teams stand around the perimeter while praying for the post defender to fall down so they could pass it inside, only to be forced to jack up a forced shot with no time left on the shot clock, was painful. He ran off good players - Ryan Humprhies, Drew Lavender, D'Angelo Alexander come immediately to mind. You can't really name a player that you can say, wow, they really got better during Sampson's tenure.

Now, he's been accused of lying about his cheating at IU. I don't see how his career survives that. If he had coached at ND along the way perhaps he could land a job at ESPN.

We'll see what happens later this week.

Kelvin Sampson Limerick

Was Coach Sampson caught cheating?
His rep has taken a beating.
His word's worth less than dirt
In His trademark blue shirt.
A new coach IU is needing.

No! No! No! Yes!

Wow. The Sooners won a barn burner in Lubbock today. The Sooners were down 47-40, but roared back to take a lead, TT fought back, then OU needed David Godbold to nail a forced up three pointer that gave the Sooners a lead with 1.4 seconds left. Austin Johnson came off the bench to score 20. The Sooners were aided by 16 offensive rebounds and 9-21 shooting from beyond the arc. Horrible free throw shooting (9-18 by the team, 5-10 by uber frosh Blake Griffin) nearly cost them this game.

On Jan 30, I predicted the rest of the Sooners path to a NCAA bid. Let's look at how that's holding up now.

Lose At TAMU - correct
Lose hosting Texas - correct
Win at CU - incorrect, and way off. Sooners looked awful.
Win hosting ISU - correct
Win at TT - correct. Thank you, David Godbold.
Win hosting Baylor
Lose at Texas
Win at Nebraska
Lose hosting TAMU
Win at Oklahoma State
Win hosting Mizzou

I predicted 3-2 through this 5 game stretch, and the Sooners missed that by one game. Frankly, with the Sooners road performances, I an skeptical about the victory at Boone State. Going 3-3 through that stretch would leave the Sooners at 8-8 in the conference, or 9-7 if my prediction holds up of 4-2 through that stretch.

I was having doubts about the Sooners March Madness prospects after the CU loss and Longar's stress fracture becoming a broken bone, but I'm optimistic now. I'm not crazy enough to think that the Sooners will go very far in the NCAAs, but am looking forward to getting back in there.

Alexander Graham Bell

As it becomes popular to call for the head of Kelvin Sampson at IU, I'd like to share with you some endorsements published on Kelvin's own web site. Note that it's also clear that these endorsements were taken after Kelvin's departure from OU with NCAA violations already documented.


Dick Vitale, ESPN - "Kelvin Sampson brings a big-time, winners mentality to Indiana. He is a master communicator who has a great feel and understanding for building a winning team. He'll do a fantastic job guiding the Hoosiers."

Seth Davis, Sports Illustrated and CBS Sports - "Indiana hired a great coach and an even better person. His teams are defined by hard work, toughness and true togetherness. This is a great job by Indiana, a brilliant hire." To Davis's credit, his column earlier this week, is a pretty fair assessment of the situation, and he acknowledges he knows the coach person and hopes the charges are incorrect.

Thad Matta, Ohio State Mens BB Coach - "I have great respect and admiration for Coach Sampson and what he has accomplished at Oklahoma. I think he will be a tremendous asset to the Big Ten Conference. Coach Sampson has been a great friend and mentor for me. I'm excited to have him in the Big Ten." NCAA infractions committee next stop, Columbus.

Jay Bilas, ESPN Analyst - "Kelvin Sampson is going to bring a winning identity. He is an outstanding coach and a terrific person. The fans will love him. He is all about winning and a winning attitude." Lack of an ESPN Insider subscription (low budget free blog limitations) prevent me from seeing what Bilas published this week.

Bob Stoops, Oklahoma FB Coach - "I have always respected what a hard-nosed, tough, hard worker that he is. I love the way his teams play - the effort, defense, toughness, not turning the ball over. I have always identified with him on that. In addition to being a tough, hard-nosed coach, he is a great friend and a quality person to work with." Okay, that one scares me the most.

More on Sampson later this wknd.

An Interview with Reveille

Yesterday we learned that Reveille VII will retire at the end of the year. Today, we rushed down to College Station to interview the beloved beast. Read on for a LandThieves exclusive:

LT: Reveille, congrats on your career. What do you see yourself doing now?
R: I'm looking forward to the basic dog stuff...licking myself, chasing my tail, eating my own poop, stuff like that. I'm also looking forward to settiing down with a mate. After six years of being fawned over by a bunch of socially misfit males, I'm looking forward to just settling down with a dog. I underestimated the creepiness of Mascot Company.

LT: Have you ever thought about blogging? http://reveillevii.blogspot.com is available, you know.
R: I gave it some thought. It's tough to type with paws.

LT: Your predecessors served a longer period as Reveille than you. Why are you retiring early?
R: Are you kidding me? In dog years, I'm in my mid40s. How many other mascots in their mid 40s do you know? Bevo XIV's only been on the job three years. Ralphie's in transition. You don't see ponies in their mid-40s up in Norman do you? They just retired the old ones there, I believe. It was time to move on.

LT: Who was your favorite coach during your tenure?
R: I really liked Coach Slocum. He was a down to earth guy. He would feed me table scraps when no one was looking. I told him to get rid of Dino Babers and promote Kevin Sumlin. It almost saved his job.

LT: Miss Rev, some of your detractors point to the football team's lack of success during your tenure. How do you respond to that?
R: That's a crock. Coach Fran and I never really connected. He wanted to run the show, and wouldn't take any advice from me. I can coach any sport. Some of the less informed believe Billy Gillespie resurrected the basketball program. That's not true. I played a major role behind the scenes. Look how he's doing in the Bluegrass State. He's nothing without me. We're still winning and I'm still here. Coincidence? I think not.

LT: Are you sure you can claim to have resurrected the basketball program? that would imply it was alive and well at a previous time.
R: Good point.

LT: Last year, you were suspended for a football game after biting a handler on the thigh. You were not made available to comment at the time. What's the rest of the story?
R: He had it coming. Those long legs can cover more territory than my short little collie legs. He was dragging me along on that dad gum leash again. I was going for his crotch, but he lunged away from me and I got his thigh.

LT: Do you have any insight as to who the Reveille VIII will be?
R: I think they're still reviewing their options. I did hear that one of the dogs they're considering is a real bitch.

Billy G

While collecting my thoughts on the latest Alexander Graham Bell violations, here's a motivational poster for Ashley Judd and other Kentucky fans.

Next OU Women's Coach

Poop, you wanted pics of Coach Coale. I did a little searching on the intertubes for a good pic for you, and instead found Coach Coale's successor, should she decide to retire. Lisa Curliss-Taylor is a Sooner grad, easy on the eyes and appears to be climbing the coaching ranks as well. She's no Pokey Chatman, that's for sure.

p.s. Two posts in a row about womens' college hoops. I'm probably going to lose my three readers.

Coach Coales' Laundry

interesting thoughts here from Coach Coales. I would think with her making $800k and all, she could afford the laundry bill.

Longhorns Offer Scholarship to Kevin Hart

by Edwin Simmons, Austin Bureau Chief
Austin, TX (LTP) - late this evening, Texas University FB Coach Mack Brown offered a scholarship to Kevin Hart, a Nevada high school student who apparently concocted a press conference and story about getting an athletic scholarship to Cal-Berkeley.

In a prepared statement, Mack said, "We talked it over with Honorary Athletic Director Joe Jamail. We decided if the kid could pull of a ruse like that, he would be an excellent resource for our football team. Clearly, he's either going to choose pre-law or political science as a major. He says he's a 4.0 student and scored a 2000 on his SAT. hat will balance out the Phys Ed majors and make us look smarter."

Mr. Hart was unavailable for comment.

Sooners -Horns Hoops Haiku

Sooners lose to Horns.
Taylor and younger bro Blake
Need to be cloned. Now.

Another Knight Motivational Poster

Ok, we'll have a little bit more fun with the General here, but I do want to say those call Knight a quitter and whatnot (see Pat Forde at ESPN) are full of crap. I don't even like Coach Knight and I think that's an incorrect assessment. For all I dislike about him, he's been passionate for 40+ years about his career, and how many people can say that?

After all, he's inspired me several times at this point.

Recruitin' - A Pictoral Essay

You haven't seen any talk here on the recruiting trail here. My father-in-law is a big fan. Here is why I don't follow....the girl the said recruit left behind looks like this.

The campus escorts look like this.

Neither of these groups of ladies talk to you once you get on the college campus. This is distressing.

One of said recruites teammates introduces the 6-5 250 lb 4.5 recruit to their high school classmate, Biff. This is Biff. This is the academic counselor. With all these distractions, plus easier access to alcolohol the campus experience provides, many a "recroot" ends up with a BAL that exceeds his GPA or his 40 time. See Wall, Hunter; Rawls, Brent; or Bomar, Rhett. They might not even make it to campus, courtesy of that icky "ess-ay-tee" thing.

If they are eligible to play in September, I'll make an effort to learn their name.

Knight Retires

Sooner Super Bowl Trivia

Got to wondering about this today, so I looked it up. The only Sooner to score a TD in the Super Bowl is Kenny King in Super Bowl XV. The only other Sooner to score in the series is Uwe Von Schamann, who kicked a FG and 2 XPs in Super Bowl XVII.

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E Coli, it's what's for Dinner

Surfing the internets this morning, I came across the note that Texas Tech had won the national meat quiz. Didn't know there was such a thing, but shonuff, there is. Never mind the fact that this was done in July 2007, when this blog was in its infancy and had even fewer readers than now.

My favorite part of this (other than knowing that there is a national meat quiz), is knowing that Mark Miller is professor of Meat Science and Muscle Biology at the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources as well as the SAN ANTONIO LIVESTOCK SHOW DISTINGUISHED CHAIR IN MEAT SCIENCE.

I believe the chair is starting to reek a bit, and probably should be replaced with a new chair. Alsways keep the chair refrigerated, and covered.

Sooners Lose to Cash Machine U, 60-52

The Sooners lost to TAMU last night in a game much closer than I expected. As I had projected earlier in the week, beating the Aggies on the road would be quite difficult. Well, the Sooners had one player in double figures (David Godbold, or this would have been a rout), Longar Longar and Taylor Griffin fouled out, the Sooner were outrebounded, and had a 15 points deficit at the free throw line. In spite of the above, the Sooners were up 46-45 with 4:45 left in the game. I'm sure Kelvin Sampson thought this was a great game, but it was freaking ugly.

Nonetheless, congrats to TAMU.