Michael Jordan once said, “You can practice shooting eight hours a day, but if your technique is wrong then all you become is very good at shooting the wrong way.” Jordan’s wisdom became philosophy during Lobo head basketball coach Steve Alford’s basketball camp last week at the Rudy Davalos Center, one of many camps scheduled throughout the summer.
by Chris Quintana Daily Lobo Six of UNM’s best athletes gathered outside UNM’s track Friday for interviews, but everyone could tell their minds were already at Hayward Field, the venue for the NCAA Championships. When championships kick off Wednesday in Eugene, Ore., the Lobos will send seven representatives to compete — Lee Emanuel, Jacob Kirwa, Chris Barnicle, Ruth Senior, Sandy Fortner, Deanna Young and Lamaar Thomas. Of the seven, five — Emanuel, Kirwa, Barnicle, Senior and Thomas — will compete in track events, while Young will look to bring home hardware in the triple jump and Fortner in the grueling heptathalon.
On the continuum of sport and dramatized exhibition, there’s a difference between Deion “Primetime” Sanders and “Hollywood” Hogan. With all due respect to the entertainers, Ultimate Fighting Championship is boxing and World Wrestling Entertainment’s bastard offspring. After watching Rashad Evans tactically obliterate hulking brute Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, I was temporarily considering rescinding my stalwart belief that UFC is not a sport, but rather neatly crafted spectacle masquerading as legitimate sporting competition. In full disclosure, I must admit that Evans-Jackson and the preceding undercards were the first UFC bouts I’ve seen since the MMA has been popularized.
The 48-year wait is over. And for head baseball coach Ray Birmingham, his three-year promise became a reality. On Monday, the UNM baseball team earned an at-large bid to the NCAA baseball tournament for the first time since 1962.
Looks are not deceiving. The UNM baseball team was literally horned by TCU Sunday at Isotopes Park, and after the game it looked it.
Willy Kesler needs to buy outfielder Max Willett a nice steak dinner after the UNM baseball team’s 3-2 victory over No.
If ever I am afforded the opportunity to pen an autobiography, there will inescapably be a chapter dedicated to my 2009-10 year as sports editor, a year that, synopsized, witnessed equal amounts of spanking and stroking. Yet few remember the stroking, just the spanking.
No, it’s not just Ray Birmingham’s patented hyperbole. By virtue of its 14-3 league record, and storied, year-to-year dominance, TCU is the team to beat in the Mountain West Conference. Not only that, said the Lobos’ head baseball coach. “They very well could be the team to beat in Omaha,” Birmingham said. First, though, the Lobos will take a crack at unseating the Horned Frogs from their proverbial conference lily pad during Friday’s toe-the-rubber matchup, the first in a three-game series between the two conference foes at Isotopes Park. To be assured of first place in the MWC, the Lobos, 30-15 overall and 12-5 in the MWC, must sweep TCU to take over sole possession of first place.
Playing golf during Minnesota’s bitter-cold winters is a task. Just ask UNM golfer Travis Ross. First, you have to layer with warm clothes.
Without Stephen Strasburg, the pitcher Lobo head coach Ray Birmingham once said was rumored to be worth $25 million, San Diego State is worth all of 25 bucks. The Lobos took the rubber match 20-8 Sunday at Tony Gwynn Stadium, snatching two of three games from the Aztecs over the weekend — this coming after the Lobos withered rather embarrassingly on national television Friday night, suffering their first shutout since April 17, 2009.
It is one thing for an athlete in an individual sport to talk about internal competition. It is another thing entirely to witness it.
Whipping winds and otherwise inclement weather tore a hole in the fabric of the UNM Football Indoor Practice Facility Thursday, calling into question the safeness of the Lobos’ structure after a report back in January said there were flaws in the design of UNM’s $7 million facility. The Lobos’ facility was evaluated by Chavez-Grieves Consulting Engineers Inc., a local engineering firm, after the Dallas Cowboys’ facility collapsed during a thunderstorm back in May 2009.
If San Diego State head baseball coach Tony Gwynn is considered one of the greatest batters in the history of MLB, that doesn’t mean his knack for clubbing balls has suddenly transferred to his players. The Aztecs are not hitting the ball like their head coach once did back in his hey-day with the San Diego Padres.
If you want the answer as to why Daniel Gonzalez has played in 89 straight games as shortstop for the UNM baseball team, just ask head coach Ray Birmingham. “Gonzalez can play shortstop,” Birmingham said about the senior.
The Lobos showed no mercy to the Red Raiders in Tuesday’s matinee duel. The UNM baseball team played Texas Tech at Isotopes Park, sealing the deal with one big inning. Tech’s sunny day was ruined by a six-hit, nine-run fifth inning by UNM and resulted in a 16-8 Lobo victory. The Lobos added four runs in the bottom of the seventh, and Rafael Neda hit a stand-up double to score two runs and UNM added two more with a Red Raider error on pitcher Justin Cooper to extend a 12-3 lead in the eighth inning. “I like to have a team that you never know who is going to be your poison that day, and that has happened every day this year,” said UNM head coach Ray Birmingham.
The arc of their careers makes it conveniently appropriate for the cult of sports writers — unified in theme and thought — to bill this first-round NBA playoffs series as rising star versus falling star.
The UNM women’s softball team fell 9-5 behind a five-run inning from Colorado State Sunday at the UNM Softball Complex, completing a two-game sweep by the Rams. Head coach Ty Singleton, echoing John Madden’s obvious and direct style of quote, summed up the weekend in which the Lobos dropped two games and fell to 10-29 overall. “Colorado State played better than we did,” he said.
Welcome to the NFL fraternity, Erik Cook. The UNM football team’s former center was the 27th pick in the seventh round (229th overall) during the 75th annual NFL Draft.
It is silly to make comparisons — Jodi Ewart is the measurement of success. “You have people that are mathematical geniuses,” said UNM women’s golf head coach Jill Trujillo.
Little-Kid Syndrome persists into adulthood. We’re all guilty of it. At one time or another, we’ve all idolized professional athletes.
Solutions by The State News
