Big 12 Quote Board - Shifting Focus To Basketball

The bowl season hasn't been especially favorable to the Big 12 Conference so far and Texas A&M has the opportunity to at least help the conference finish 4-4 when they play LSU in the Cotton Bowl. With all of the bowl games featuring conference teams finished, except for A&M, the majority of the conversations on the Big 12 Blogs is moving to basketball. 

With the amount of crappy games in conference this week, it's no wonder that there was VERY little movement.  As a whole, the league went 20-2 on the week. - Big 12 Basketball Power Rankings, Big 12 Hoops

A surprise to no one. LSU's 1000 yard rusher has been declared eligible to compete in the Cotton Bowl against A&M. - I Am The 12th Man

This is a big get for Jon Embree and the Colorado Buffaloes program. All you need to know about Kennedy is this: 2010 Texas Commitment List - The Ralphie Report

Up until the opening kickoff of the 2010 season, I was sure that Zac Lee would be the starter again the 2010 season, despite the new guy, Taylor Martinez, generating all the preseason buzz. 

Yet when the Western Kentucky game started, there was Martinez walking onto the field. I was surprised - not because I didn't think Martinez capable (who knew anything about him?) but because Nebraska's stated goal for the season was to win the Big 12 Championship, and winning any kind of championship with a first-year starter at quarterback is difficult at best. - Corn Nation

Well the Cowboys took care of business at home again and continued the annual ritual of getting Brooks Thompson's team seasoned for conference play.  Watching the game a couple of things really stood out.  - Cowboys Ride For Free

Iowa State was missing the top three point shooter in the Big 12 tonight, and it showed in a somewhat listless effort against Northern Illinois. Looking like a team that had partied a little too hard on New Year's Eve (looking at you Jordan Railey), Iowa State shot just 36% without Scott Christopherson on the floor. Part of the reason, no doubt, was Diante Garrett starting the game 0-12 from the field. Garrett, however, would finish 8-12 after those first twelve mulligans, and ended up leading ISU in scoring with 22. Bubu Palo started in place of Christopherson, and more or less took up space on the floor. Jake Anderson played well against his former team with 16 points, while Calvin Godfrey was strong off the bench with 9 points and 9 boards. - Clone Chronicles

In the old but good to be official news category, Kansas has announced the singing of Brock Berglund to a financial aid agreement and Turner Gill has confirmed that he will be on campus and enrolled this Spring.

Thus begins a three way quarterback competition for next fall.  If he had to say today, Gill probably goes with Jordan Webb.  But it's clear that Berglund is a player that they see a bright future in, and perhaps a future that could begin as soon as next fall. - Rock Chalk Talk

Sources in Madison confirm that Wisconsin offensive coordinator Paul Chryst was in town yesterday to interview for the University of Texas offensive coordinator job, and rumors are starting to surface that Mack Brown has indeed hired Chryst, and with him, Badgers offensive line coach Bob Bostad.

On the defensive side, Stanford locked down Virginia Tech in impression fashion last night, and Cardinal defensive coordinator Vic Fangio is a name that's being mentioned as a leading candidate for the Texas defensive coordinator position.This article provides a nice overview of the job Fangio's done in his first year at Stanford.

It's looking a lot like today's going to be a big news day on the staff hiring front. - Burnt Orange Nation

The 2007, 2008 and 2009 recruiting classes are all under our belt and with the 2010 recruiting class, head coach Tommy Tuberville had about a month or so to keep a class together and add some of his own players. Obviously, Tuberville's first class was over the limit of only signing 25 players, but the truth is that there's a handful of players that never actually even stepped foot on campus and there were other players that were signed relatively late, i.e. into the spring practices. - Double T Nation

So I'm going to go about my recap a little differently than I've done them in the past.  I'm going to do kind of a running summary/recap as a rewatch the game.  If you hate the idea, well you only have to suffer through it for one week.  If you like the idea, my apologies for only starting it in our final game of the season.  As always, you're comments are welcome if there is something I miss, fail to point out, or just something you wanted to add.  Let's get it started.

First of all, since I got the defense let me give you what I believe to be the latest onRonnell Lewis.  According to both Stoops and Venables, Lewis suffered a similar type stinger/neck injury to the one Brody Eldridge had late last year.  All indications are that he will be just fine and there will be no long term effects.  He'll be in a neck brace for a couple weeks, just like Brody was, but he should definitely be ready for spring practices.  Thank you 8lb sweet little baby Jesus for watching over our Hammer! - Crimson And Cream Machine

Can you smell it?  Conference play is in the air.  Let's go around the nation.

Old Domination:  It seems like ages ago now, but it has been less than a week since Mizzou's thorough destruction of Old Dominion.  I'll confess that I thought that the Monarchs, with their heady mixture of size, experience and talent, had a great shot to hand Mike Anderson his first non-conference loss ever at Mizzou Arena.  But, as we know, I've been wrong before.

There's no need to rehash the game; Bill already did that. 

Instead, let's try to figure out what it means. First, it confirms that this team is really, really good.  Even though Missouri looked sluggish early in the season against lesser opponents, once the competition got tougher, so did the Tigers.  Falling behind Georgetown by 18 in the first half was the he best thing that has happened to this team. Since that moment, the Tigers have been one of the nation's elite teams.  They got staggered and they responded.  That's a great sign. - Rock M Nation

Monday was another successful day for K-State opponents - the only one to lose, obviously, was Savannah State.

Iowa State, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State all cruised easily in their final home tuneups before conference play. Texas A&M, however, struggled at home for the second consecutive home game, failing to put Nicholls State away until late in the game. I don't think the Aggies are in any trouble, though - they're probably just bored. - Bring On The Cats