Superman's kryptonite is his mentor - oh, the irony. The Ewing Theory lives on - in Patrick Ewing's protégé, Dwight Howard. Howard isn't as great as he's hailed to be. As one of my favorite columnists, Bill Simmons, said, he's the "worst great player" in the NBA.
UNM head football coach Mike Locksley dipped into the New Mexico talent pool and snagged two top athletes from the Land of Enchantment. Incoming freshman Dante Caro was among the two New Mexicans to sign with the University. The other was Artesia's Dallas Bollema.
It's no longer the country boys versus the city boys. Beyond all the burnt offerings, the smoking Aggie and Lobo effigies, and the swank claims of superiority from each student body, the rivalry between UNM and NMSU isn't as contentious as we are led to believe.
Paul Aitken has a tricky task at hand. It's more difficult than hurling a lacrosse ball 100 mph at a goalkeeper. As president of UNM's lacrosse team, he has to sell lacrosse, a highly popular East-Coast sport, to UNM and the New Mexico community. Aitken had plenty of problems when he took over as president.
Ron Artest isn't the NBA's resident reprobate. He isn't a pit bull on a short leash. In fact, he's more Ronald McDonald than Ron the Ripper. Yet, he's being treated like a criminal. Truthfully, I feel for Artest. I'm not an Artest apologist, but I don't believe what happened in Detroit was entirely his fault.
Ousted. The UNM men's tennis visit to the NCAA Tournament was short and unsatisfying. The Lobos were kicked to the curb by 33rd-ranked Minnesota 4-0 on Friday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Los Angeles. UNM finishes the year 20-6 overall. Despite the lopsided score, head coach Alan Dils said he couldn't fault his team.
Steve Saunders is having a Most Valuable Player-caliber season in the mold of his favorite athlete - LeBron James. But Saunders isn't dominating the court; he's unmatched on the golf course. Saunders won the Mountain West Conference Golf Championships in Tucson, Ariz.
In the battle of the bats, the visitor took the victory Sunday at Lobo Field. UNLV spoiled the final home game for the UNM baseball team and its seniors. The Runnin' Rebels took the weekend series, 2-1, and won 13-11 in extra innings on Sunday. On Saturday, the Lobos out-hit the Runnin' Rebels 12-8, but UNM walked and plunked too many batsmen.
Karl Marx once told us that capitalism is "vampire-like," and that it lives only by draining the jugular of labor. A century later, mosquitoes - the bourgeois - are still sucking off oxen - the proletariat - and complaining about the blood quality. On Monday, Vanessa Strobbe wrote a column addressing the uneven distribution of funds among UNM's varsity sports.
A win by UNM senior javelin thrower Anthony Fairbanks broke the gloom of a rainy day at the Don Kirby Memorial Invitational. Three lightning delays halted action for more than an hour and a half at the UNM Track Stadium, but Fairbanks wasn't affected by the distractions.
Home sweet home - at least for the weekend. The UNM baseball team is glad to be back in the Land of Enchantment after a three-game losing streak that rode from the edge of the Sierra Nevadas to the Great Plains. UNM dropped a 12-11 decision to BYU, only to follow that with two losses to Nebraska, 4-2 and 9-5.
Gobs of money aside, ESPN is the Republican Party - in short, an arrogant organization that no longer thinks it needs its constituents' input to remain in power. It just takes a keen eye to recognize it. In addition to its daily broadcasts, ESPN's supplementary online coverage has crippled and essentially stamped out real sports journalism.
No theatrics, no anxiety - the UNM men's tennis team already knew it would be in the NCAA Championships field. After winning the Mountain West Conference on Saturday, the Lobos won't forget to pack the sunscreen, because they are headed to sunny Los Angeles to take on Minnesota in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on May 9.
It's been an up-and-down season for the UNM softball team. But there have been more valleys than peaks for the Lobos, and UNM stands at 11-32. After dropping a game to San Diego State 10-4 on Friday, the Lobos were swept in a three-game series against UNLV 8-4, 12-1 and 10-4.
The parallels are all there. On Sept. 8, 2002, the Houston Texans became the first team in 41 years to win in its expansion debut, defeating the Dallas Cowboys 19-10. Sunday, former UNM cornerback Glover Quin, the first person in his county to play Division-I football, reached the summit of football and is surely the first person from his small Mississippi county to be drafted in the NFL.
The University of New Mexico boasts the motto "Everyone's a Lobo!" - and by everyone, it means only football and basketball players. The distribution of funds among the 19 varsity sports at UNM is uneven. In fact, few sports receive full benefits. The athletic administration demands sportsmanship and fairness of its UNM athletes on the field, but it can't seem to demonstrate the same accountability from its office.
The UNM men's tennis team is the 2009 Mountain West Conference champion. Senior Miles Bugby clinched the win in a third-set tiebreaker at the No. 3 singles position to give the No. 2 seeded Lobos a 4-3 win over top-seeded Texas Christian University on Sunday at the Jerry Cline Tennis Center.
New York media, here DeAndre Wright comes. Wright, who said he wasn't anxious before the NFL Draft, won't be scared when he faces the media frenzy. Despite his shy disposition, Wright said he will handle the pressure of the Big Apple with the same approach he used heading into the draft: Ignore it.
Glover Quin's stomach is probably tumbling like a washing machine on spin dry. He's one step away from realizing something that almost never came to fruition. Quin has a hulking physique - his biceps ripple. He's a junior college kid. He knows the definition of hard work.
Away from the cacophony of Radio City Hall, away from the backdrop of madness that surely will become the 2009 NFL Draft green room, DeAndre Wright will be in Maryland, Va. - his hometown - spoon in hand, crunching and munching on a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch.
Solutions by The State News
