OF CHEERLEADERS, WILDCATS, AND THE PING OF THE BAT!

Good morning West Texans and all you good, fine, friendly folks out there who wish you were. . .

 

SORTING THROUGH THE WEEKEND

 

Just like most Monday’s it takes a little time to sort through the weekend and put everything into perspective. Sometimes it’s just a good start to the week if you can find your boots and remember where you left your coat. Might be one of those weeks, judging from the start. I’m just glad to be home all week and be able to drop off my dry cleaning and pick it up again before I have to leave town. It’s been a rough stretch of highway for the Lady Raiders since January 5^th when they started 2008 on the road at Arkansas. Texas Tech’s played seven games since then with four on the road. That’s just one less road game than the San Antonio Spurs. The Lady Raiders also have to go to school. . .geez.

 

“IT’S NOT A CHEER-OCRACY, IT’S A CHEER-TATORSHIP”

 

Calling the Lady Raider-Colorado game Saturday reminded me of one of my pet peeves in all of college sports right now. Cheerleaders don’t lead cheers.

 

Several times Saturday the United Spirit Arena should have been absolutely rocking during time-outs with Tech going on some big runs and shutting down the Buffalos. Instead, every time a time-out came, it was like hitting the breaks on a bus and letting the air out of a balloon at the same time.

 

I realize that you’ve got to have some promotions and other time-out events to pay the bills, that are the nature of college sports today. At the same time, every time-out should end with at least a half-minute of the cheerleaders LEADING the crowd in an interactive cheer. I should be able to go to a Tech game and hear “Raider Power” three or four times a night.

This has been a growing trend over the years as cheerleading has turned from a support activity of the team to a “sport” of its own. More and more it looks as if college cheerleaders are put-out at having to actually be at the basketball games and lead the crowd in anything. Seems they’d much rather tumble, dance, build stunts and show-off their considerable athletic skills and competition routines than do what they were originally designed to do.

 

More coaches around the country need to take back their arenas and make sure that the crowd is being used to their advantage at each opportunity. A loud crowd during and coming out of a time-out can radically affect a game for the benefit of the home team. Sadly, fewer and fewer schools seem to understand that dynamic and instead fans get “entertained” instead of “involved”. Surely someone can fix this?

 

AND NOW THERE’S SHALEE

 

What a great game to watch Sunday afternoon as Kansas State ended OSU’s 12-game home-court winning streak in Stillwater. I was wondering who was going to replace ISU’s Lyndsey Medders as my honorable “favorite player in the North” this year. After close balloting, KSU’s Shalee Lehning has the award, just edging out Missouri’s Alyssa Hollins. Hollins should probably get the award just on what she’s done to Texas Tech. She’s great to watch when you ain’t playing her.

 

As for Lehning, she kind of sums up the Wildcats right now. She’s not as big as you are, but she beats you to a board, she’s not as fast as you are, but she beats you to a spot and she’s not as good a defender as you are, but she defends you better than you defend her. That’s exactly what the Wildcats are like right now. While they may not have a single player on this squad as good as Kendra Wecker, they’ve got solid scorers at every spot on the floor right now and have better range than any team in the Big 12. Scary. Can’t wait to see them match-up with Baylor in a few days. Course there is that little trip to Lincoln waiting on them that should be another dandy.

 

WHERE’S COLLEGE BASEBALL????

 

We should be getting ready for the start of college baseball next week and the glorious “ping!” of the metal bat on juiced up ball while shivering outfielders try and stay warm by building small fires next to the warning track. Instead, I forgot, the NCAA hates college baseball and college baseball players and is forcing them to compress their regular schedule into a much smaller time frame this year. The NCAA isn’t doing right by the players or the game right now and if it continues it won’t grow the sport, but rather force more and more talented players to choose the Juco or pro route vs. college. That’s not good, no matter what the pointy-headed intellectuals up North tell you.

 

MORE LATER.

HYATT

  

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