A few stray thoughts as the week closes out
Published 12:00 am Sunday, December 16, 2001
Sports Editor
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The BCS creates a big mess and sends Nebraska to play Miami for the national title. Nebraska got waxed by Colorado in its regular season finale, didn’t win their division and missed out on a chance to play for the Big 12 Conference Championship, proving once again that tradition means everything. It’s tradition that keeps FSU, Florida and Tennessee ranked high in the polls year in and year out and it was tradition that got Nebraska into the Rose Bowl.
So who else benefited from a Nebraska-Miami match-up for the national title? Why an itty bitty Division I-A infant named Troy State University, that’s who.
At the beginning of the season, who would have forecast the Trojans’ coaching staff turning into all-knowing experts almost overnight, simply because TSU was the only team to have faced both the Cornhuskers and the Hurricanes in the regular season?
Larry Blakeney’s name shot to the top of ESPN’s and everyone elses list last week. Blakeney joked that he was going to try and parlay the attention into a commentator spot on a sports network.
"Maybe I’ll become bigger then Terry (Bowden)," he said.
George O’ Leary takes a job at Notre Dame. On Friday, George O’ Leary resigns from Notre Dame.
It seems some little white lies finally caught up with the former "Ramblin’ Wreck" head coach. He never played college football at New Hampshire and he never completed his master’s degree.
What I really find interesting is O’Leary’s closing comments in a statement released by Notre Dame on Friday: "In seeking employment I prepared a resume that contained inaccuracies regarding my completion of course work for a master’s degree and also my level of participation in football at my alma mater. These misstatements were never stricken from my resume or biographical sketch in later years," O’Leary said.
What I wonder is if these "misstatements" had been taken off prior to all of this information becoming disclosed, would O’Leary still be the head coach at Notre Dame?
It’s nice to be sorry, but is he sorry he was caught or sorry because he lied?
Charles Henderson High School is 5-2, heading into next week’s Barbour County High School Christmas Tournament and ranked tenth in the state in Class 5A. The Trojans got a major monkey off its collective back with the 61-46 win over Northview, the program’s first in two years over the 6A school. The Lady Trojans, meanwhile, sweep Northview in the regular season with less experienced team then last year’s, one which couldn’t get past the Lady Cougars in two tries.
Pike Liberal Arts School pulled off the double whammy in Camden, beating both the Wilcox Academy girl’s and boy’s basketball teams at the Wilcox Academy Christmas Tournament.Both teams were ranked in the AISA top ten. The Lady Patriots are now 5-3, while the Patriots have evened their record at 4-4, after suffering through four straight losses two weeks ago.
Pike County has yet to play a competitive basketball game, but the Bulldogs and Lady Bulldogs get knee deep in things next week. The boy’s travel to Clayton for the Barbour County Christmas tourney, while the girl’s head to Dothan for the Northview tournament.
Thanks to Luverne backing out of hosting the SEAC boy’s tournament this year, an act that eventually caused the cancellation of the entire thing, Major Lane and the Goshen Eagles will have to wait 10 days between games. The Eagles last played at Straughn on Tuesday and it looks like they won’t play again until the Baldwin County Tournament next Friday. It’s tough to get any consistency on the court with that type of early season schedule.