It was a great weekend to be a golf fan. Whether you were rooting on former South African farm-boy Louis Oosthuizen, former Texas Tech QB Billy Joe Tolliver in the celebrity challenge in Tahoe or just the local guys in the Lakeridge Stampede you had plenty of great moments.

With Tiger Woods matching two of his biggest droughts without a major leaving Scotland without the Claret Jug or a top-ten finish we can ask today’s question. What is the toughest record in sports to break? Is it Jack Nicklaus’ 18 majors? Is it Nolan Ryan’s 7 career no-hitters? What about that little 56-game hit streak Joltin’ Joe had? Look around and tell us what you think the toughest record in sports is to break today and we’ll read your answer on the show tonight. Of course you can call-in from anywhere at 1-866-984-5326 starting at 3.

We will also look at Texas Tech’s decision to end the PSL program at the United Spirit Arena for Lady Raider and men’s basketball. A great move, to be sure, and maybe one that comes a year too late.

We’ll also check in on some early high school football with the A-J’s George Watson and we’ll look at a productive weekend for the Texas Rangers, even if Cliff Lee is learning what like was like for Nolan Ryan with the Astros in 1987 . . . and that ain’t a good thing.

We’ll see you at three!

Don’t miss interviews like today’s with Tech Pres. Dr. Guy Bailey and Tech A. D. Gerald Myers.

Take The Show where ever you go. Sign-up today and keep up with your Red Raiders and everything else you love about Lubbock and West Texas. You’ll be glad you did~

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There aren’t many times I’d say it is a great day to be in Kansas City in mid-March but this is one of those times. With the Tech men taking on #1 Kansas and the Lady Raiders getting Kansas State in the Big 12 Tournament for the first time since an emotional semi-final win in Dallas back in 2003 you’ve got a day of drama and hope.

With their win over Colorado yesterday the Tech men proved they haven’t quit or the season or their coach. It was an important win for Pat Knight to show that his team was still working hard and hadn’t tuned him out. It was debatable after last weekends no-show in Boulder when the Red Raiders looked like a team ready to go on Spring Break.

Now with a first round win in K.C. I think Tech’s played their way into the N.I.T. I hate the N.I.T. but someone from the Big 12 has got to play in it so it might as well be Tech.

As for their chances against Kansas, just look back to a year ago and what Baylor did with their upset. Since then the Bears have been on a tear. winning 30 games. Not saying Tech pulls off what might be the biggest upset in school history or at least since 1970, but anything can happen in March.

The Lady Raiders can take the confidence of having beaten Kansas State in Manhattan a few weeks ago before free-falling during their final three games and putting themselves firmly out of the NCAA Tournament going to K.C. Right now it would most likely take a win today and a win over undefeated Nebraska to get back into the NCAA Tournament picture. The bubble on the women’s side is just as soft as the men’s side when it comes to teams getting in. If Jordan Murphree, Ashley Roberson and Kierra Mallard all show up today Tech will get their shot at Nebraska. If not . . .

If you happen to be reading this in Kansas City I heartily encourage you to head over to Arthur Bryant’s BBQ for some great eats. They also have some of the best fries you’re going to get anywhere. Make sure you go to the original by the way. That’ll be one of the things I’ll miss most about the Tournament up there this year. (That and a certain craps table at Harrah’s, but that is a different story for another day!)

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Congrats to Coach Leland Bearden and his Smyer girls squad for winning the State Title with a very young team. Great to see the South Plains represented so well once again down in Austin at The Big House. There isn’t a ton of high-level DI talent out there in West Texas these days like we saw ten or fifteen years ago. The college game has changed and the high school coaching has gotten better around the state while more and more quality female athletes are choosing to play sports. That said, Texas Tech and Kristy Curry can count on the best of the best either already coming to Tech or on the line ready to make the move in future years. That’s a good thing.

Tech Baseball got the kind of pitching it takes to beat Rice Saturday night but not nearly enough from the bats. It is like a bad movie that keeps showing up at night on cable. Rice beats Tech. Again.

It doesn’t seem to matter if it is Larry Hays, Dan Spencer or Casey Stengel in the dugout for the Red Raiders, Rice figures out a way to win. Usually it has something to do with talent, by the way. Tech pitcher Bobby Doran got the start and for a second straight game proved he’s got plus stuff, but again came away with a loss as the bats went missing.

This Tech lineup stretches out a little better than last year but it is still in big need of some power that pitchers will be afraid to challenge and pitch to. Spencer’s got this bunch on the upswing but they still have a long ways to go.

Meanwhile there was the Tech men getting stomped in Colorado. That is seven straight losses if you’re scoring at home. I wish I could give you something encouraging but I can’t. I really think they’re a more athletic team that should have competed better against lower to middle level competition in the Big 12. For the most part they haven’t. Pat Knight is going to have to make a major commitment to getting in top high school talent and coaching them up. The JuCo route hasn’t worked and for the most part it won’t work. The question now will become: Does Knight have enough time to get high school players in and turn things around before a new Athletic Director decides to make a change? Answer: I don’t know.

Enjoy the rain on the South Plains today. It should put everyone in a great mood.

HYATT

5 Things

1. Baylor University has no code, no honor and has now officially exposed how they operate in the realm of college athletics. Winning matters more than anything else. Their handling of Brittney Griner’s criminal act in Lubbock has cost them any credibility they have moving forward. To say the things Kim Mulkey said Wednesday night about taking it seriously and then giving Griner only one game is a joke and should be viewed that way by fans and media alike. Anything they say and do will ring hollow with me from now on.

2. The Big 12 Conference and commissioner Dan Beebe also have no honor or code today. To blithely go along with the one-game suspension and even praise it is the utmost in abdication of responsibility. This of course is nothing new for the Big 12 “leadership”.  The next time there is an instance of violence on the court in the Big 12 you can lay the accountability right at the feet of Beebe and his office. They seem to care more that the 6’8″ super-freshman makes headlines in the NCAA Tournament and generate money and exposure for the league than they do about fair-play. The Big 12 can now quit running those TV PSA’s about sportsmanship during the games by the way. They are meaningless.

3.  I have many folks that I consider to be good people and good friends that surround the Baylor women’s basketball program. I hate for them that they get lumped in with this sad chapter. They are better people than those making the decisions.

4.  It is a shame Kim Mulkey didn’t learn much from Marsha Sharp’s suspension of Lady Raider Plenette Pierson for a full year in 2001-2002 for doing much less than punching another player. Mulkey says that you shouldn’t define Griner by one act, but it is Griner that is defining who she is right now by her actions and Mulkey, Baylor and the Big 12 are affirming to Griner that it really isn’t a big deal. Sharp on the other hand sent a message to Pierson that Pierson accepted and grew from. Pierson would not have had a WNBA career or a trip the next year to the Elite Eight if Sharp had blindly allowed her to continue to self-destruct and destroy a team.

Mulkey on the other hand will enable Griner to continue down a path that won’t serve her or Baylor women’s basketball well in the near future. I am beginning to think that Griner will be the first two-and-done player in the Big 12 and will seek her employment in the WNBA after another tumultuous season next year. Heck even Kristy Curry, a coach with a job on the line, sat down sophomore Kierra Mallard for five games for having a bad attitude in a year where Curry really needed her. Curry wasn’t willing to compromise her values though to win. . .

5.  Since Baylor and the Big 12 have abdicated their responsibility to police the game it is now up to others to do it. I call upon Lubbock County District Attorney Matt Powell to bring misdemeanor assault charges against Baylor’s Brittney Griner. Powell is charged with doing the right thing for the right reasons and this is a clear-cut case of a criminal act taking place in front of thousands of witnesses with video evidence, and resulting bodily harm.  If the league can’t take care of this it is the moral responsibility of the District Attorney to do. After that Griner can face a jury of her peers and perhaps learn from that that her actions weren’t just wrong but criminal as well.

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“There’s no place for that in sports,” Baylor coach Kim Mulkey said. “I will deal with Brittney Griner and it won’t be discussed in the media. Not me or [Tech coach] Kristy [Curry] or any player will be proud of what took place on the court tonight.”

-Baylor Coach Kim Mulkey

Mulkey is right.

There is no place in basketball or in life for sucker-punching another person. If you weren’t at the Texas Tech Lady Raider game last night against Baylor or you haven’t seen the video of Baylor’s Brittney Griner punching Tech’s Jordan Barncastle in the face then do so. Here’s some light reading for you.
Avalanche-Journal
A-J’s Column
ESPN

I’ve got to be consistent here and demand that the Lubbock County District Attorney’s office look into filing assault charges on Griner. I’ve said for years that athletes should face the same consequences as the guy at the bar if they cross the line of “acceptable risk” in a sporting event. For far too long we’ve excused criminal behavior in the name of sports. Why?

If you can’t do it to another person over a highly competitive game of shuffleboard at The Fox and Hound, why can Griner do it in front of police and others at The United Spirit Arena? It makes no sense and it is time this stupidity in our culture came to an end.

Just like Oregon’s LaGarrette Blount after the Boise State game in football received an initial season long suspension Baylor should do the right thing and sit down Griner for the rest of her freshman year. If they don’t I think we’ll continue to see this be a problem for her and the Bears both on and off the court for years to come.

If Griner can’t learn to handle her emotions now she’ll never serve Baylor or herself well in the future. I have a lot of respect for Kim Mulkey as a coach and I’m quit sure she’ll do the right thing. I wonder if the Big 12 Conference would have the guts to do anything beyond a one game suspension though. . . They hit OU’s Longar Longar a few years back with a two-gamer for a flagrant foul. What does a sucker-punch get you now in this league? We’ll find out.

Coming up later today on The Williams and Hyatt Show we’ll visit with legal experts about the chances of charges being filed against Griner and why or why not athletes get special protection. We may or may not visit with a representative of Lubbock’s D. A. office. That’s developing. See you at 3 on The Fan.

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TEXAS TO THE BIG 10? SERIOUSLY.

Do you really think for a minute Texas is about to give up the sweetheart deal they have in the Big 12 to be just another “big” school in the Big 10? Forget it. There’s tons of “sources” out there right now saying that the Big 10 and Texas are talking and I’m sure they’re right. They just aren’t seriously talking about Texas joining the league.

The Big and Texas both benefit right now from having those stories out there however. For Texas, it sends a shot across the bow of the other Big 12 schools to remind them not to mess with the deal they made with the devil when it comes to revenue sharing. Elsewise the devil might get up and leave.

For the Big 10 having rumors out there that Texas is “interested” forces the school the league really wants to join to move faster and get on about the process. Nothing like a little sales pressure being applied to schools like Missouri or even Notre Dame it that’s the target.

Out west you’ve got rumors of the Pac 10 looking at Colorado. I can see that happening easier than a Boise St. getting elevated to Cal and Stanford status by the eggheads out west. They’ve got as much academic hubris there as the Big 10 does and they don’t want just anyone showing up at their club. Arizona State is bad enough but Boise? Come on.

Three years from now the Big 12 will very likely have two new partners. Replacing Texas won’t be a part of that equation though. They’ve got too good a deal to leave until they have to and that hasn’t happened yet and won’t happen until the BCS is dead.

HOW ‘BOUT THOSE LADY RADIERS

Back-to-back wins over top 15 teams for first time in I don’t know how long should be proof that this year’s squad has improved talent and certainly a base of youngsters like Monique Smalls, who did a stellar job on OSU’s Andrea Riley Saturday night, that Kristy Curry has this program moving forward. Getting pay-off wins in the Big 12 is rough when you’re growing. Just ask Pat Knight who saw his men’s squad give-one away to A&M over the weekend. The Red Raiders had just gotten that key road win they needed at OU only to give back the momentum at home. Tough league to get better in but I still believe both the men’s and women’s teams are vastly improved over a year ago. ‘Course fans in the microwave generation don’t wan to hear that. They’re the same people that would have run off Coni Yori at Nebraska a year or two ago before she could get the Huskers to 23-0. . .

BABY IT’S COLD OUTSIDE

I’m trying to get into the Winter Olympics. I really am. It just isn’t working. Sorry. Maybe next time around.

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