Thorpe Prediction - Mini Feature

San Antonio—Another year, another Big 12 corner predicting he'll win the Thorpe Award. Aqib Talib from Kansas is this year's culprit.
"I see myself keeping it in the Big 12, taking it from Aaron Ross. I think he'd appreciate that," Talib said.
Talib, who says the Jayhawks gave away four games last year, and should have been 10-2, also said that 9 wins and a berth in the Big 12 title game was a reasonable projection for this year's team. Last year, he said, was a warm up season. 2007 is the real thing.

Dwain Crawford might be the most likeable football player you've never heard of. That probably has something to do with the fact that he's a Baylor Bear, and as a defensive back, he was overshadowed by C.J. Wilson (another Thorpe Award self-nominee) and Anthony Airline.
Unlike Rhett Bomar, it's pretty safe to assume he actually worked at his summer job. The junior works as a rancher, feeding cattle and putting out hay in the Texas sun near Waco.
"That's what I'm used to doing," says the Giddings native, who started working on an oil field at 15.
This is Crawford's second summer on the job. Before that, he was clearing a lot for a realtor. But swinging an ax in the heat of the summer wasn't for him.
"It sucked," he says.
So now he's home on the ranch.
Crawford says he doesn't necessarily need the money; he's just accustomed to holding down a job. But, with a truck to keep running, the money comes in handy.
"It's costing me like 75 bucks to fill it up," he says.

Oklahoma City Miracle?

Oklahoma City, Okla. -- Ok, so it's never a miracle when a team with the best player in the country beats a team that lost to Oral Roberts at home, but no one here is giving Texas much of a chance against Kansas. They're playing for the Big 12 tournament title at the Ford Center in about an hour, and I'm among the many expecting KU to win.

Texas hasn't looked especially good in either of their first two games, and Kevin Durant has yet to put together two good halves. D.J. Augustine seems to be taking about 30 minutes of floor time before warming up and finding his groove, and Connor Atchley is, well, he's Connor Atchley. A.J. Abrams is Texas' most consistent performer here in OKC, and his specialty is the fickle-by-nature three-pointer.

Meanwhile, Kansas is looking fine, and that's enough to beat the Longhorns if they keep underperforming. To be fair, Durant's had two incredible halves to go with his to ho-hum halves, and Augustine made a huge shot against Baylor, then several shots down the stretch versus Oklahoma State. If they can get hot together and stay that way, Texas' chances increase exponentially.

***

After much soul searching and serious debate, Cody Hale and I have decided we'd rather live in Oklahoma City than Texas' panhandle. This has more to do with how awful the panhandle is than how great OKC is, but this town's not that bad if you stay in a select few areas.

When I say a 'select few', I'm giving OKC the benefit of the doubt. The only nice place we've found is Bricktown, but we haven't explored much. There are plenty of restaurants on and around downtown's knockoff Riverwalk, and the bars look nice from the outside. Circumstances beyond our control prevented us from checking out Skyy Bar or any of the others, but given the chance, we would have. We ate at Toby Keith's I Love this Bar and Grill, and a 1-hour 10-minute break not withstanding, it was pretty good. The cover band was too loud for conversation, but at least they sounded alright. The ribs were delicious, and the fried okra, "freedom fries," and caesar salad were all good. The corn bread was nothing special, but the cheap beer to wash it down with made up for it.

***

Alright, 30 minutes till tipoff, time to get my game face on.
Quick, meaningless predictions:
Texas loses, 65-75
Durant scores 28
Craig Winder has three steals, three fouls and two points
Texas gets into the NCAA tourney as a 4 seed

SI Cover Curse?

Kevin Durant has earned himself a Sports Illustrated cover, and it comes out today.

Jinx?

Dating back to 1954 when the Milwaukee Braves' Eddie Matthews graced the magazine's first issue - and injured his hand a week later - the superstition has percolated that a stint of bad luck came with a spot on the cover. In the '50s alone, one athlete was killed and another paralyzed from the neck down while their cover issues were still on the news racks.

But take heart. Though Texas athletes have felt the curse, it's been only in the form of a loss. In 1970 and 1977 undefeated Texas teams lost their next games, and in 1998, after Ricky Williams made a cover appearance, the Longhorns lost to Texas Tech. If history holds, a loss to Baylor on Saturday is the worst we can expect. OK, maybe he'll fail to notch a double-double and be outscored by an injured Aaron Bruce too.

Point is, jinx schminx.

Look at Vince Young. All he did while on the cover of Sports Illustrated was win Texas a national title and lift his draft status somewhere just above the stratosphere.

T.J. Ford and Cat Osterman weren't slowed by their joint appearance on a cover in 2002, but then they were there in the off-season.

Chris Simms was also on that cover.

Five days later, the Longhorns fell 35-24 to the Sooners. Simms was sacked four times, and he threw three interceptions.

All of a sudden, that game against Baylor doesn't look so easy. They are on the road; Bruce is an All-Big 12 honorable mention.

But he's also from Horsham, Victoria, Australia.

Nevermind.

Besides, that was Chris Simm's second cover appearance. In his first, he was being leveled by Oklahoma's Jimmy Wilkerson. It wasn't the covers getting to him. It was the Sooners.

Texas' history of overcoming any perceived jinx is long. Running back Jimmy Saxton made a cover appearance in 1961 and finished a close third in the year's Heisman race. Running back/punter Ernie Koy was featured after Texas upset No. 1 Alabama in 1965, and he began a successful NFL career that same year. James Street parlayed his appearance into a national championship in 1969.

Durant will join their company soon and surpass them all eventually. There's nothing to worry about.

Then again, after T.J. Ford found himself on the cover before 2003's Final Four, he turned in one of the least remarkable performances of his career. Among Texas players, he finished fourth in points - tied with Brian Boddicker.

Did I mention the 6-foot-3-inch, 190-pound Bruce led NCAA freshmen in scoring his rookie season and was labeled a "Diaper Dandy" by Dick Vitale?

Texas hasn't got a prayer.