NCAA Basketball – Kansas State stuns Texas Longhorns

They say that every good story worth telling has two sides to it. This might also hold true to a vast array of daily life circumstances. If you have made it past the play-for-fun stage and enter the realm of either recognizing that in sports there’s either winning or losing, you’ll know exactly what is happening in Austin, Texas.

For the Longhorns, both on college basketball and particularly in college football, there is always a huge deal of pressure set upon coaches, players, and even fans. The Texas Longhorns might not have the most ambitious educational program in the United States, but you can be quite certain that when it comes to collegiate sports, they are expected to pass with flying colors. Every season: no exceptions. Anything other then making it into the NCAA Tournament, or going for a BCS Bowl Game is considered failure.

Kansas State doesn’t really live up to the same expectations. At least they don’t have to. First of all because for decades now, the Wildcats have been overshadowed by the Kansas Jayhawks. Things are not as intense when it comes to NCAA sports in Manhattan as they are in Lawrence, Kansas. But this time around, it really seems as if the Wildcats are giving it their very best to change those expectations and perform against the odds.

Yes, for the most part, Kansas State had been somewhat of a disappointment. They started as the No. 2 team in the nation before the season kicked in, but surely but slowly the Wildcats were underperforming. But recently things began to click in. After a 75-70 win over the Longhorns, last night, the Wildcats have now recorded its 5th consecutive win and 7th in the last 8 games played. To really get things into perspective, the Wildcats have defeated 3 teams in the top 30 in this last streak.

Great games by Jacob Pullen and Rodney McGruder have pushed Kansas State to collect wins over Kansas, Missouri, and Texas just to name the latest wins against ranked teams.

The Texas Longhorns, on the other hand, are falling into a slurp just two weeks after some sports reporters had believed that they would have no trouble dominating the Big 12. Texas lost for the third time during the last 4 games, putting a very significant and lopsided end to an 11-consecutive-win streak that had prompted them into top 5 positions in the rankings.

Things have not been good in Texas. The Longhorns have not been able to rely on some of their key-players who have failed to live up to their expectations. For instance: Jordan Hamilton shot 5 of 18 from the floor on this last game. And it is not a matter of having just one bad game. Everybody has a bad night, but heck, it really seems as if Hamilton totally lost his aim. In the Longhorns last three losing games, Hamilton has gone 15-of-58 from the field.

An 11-0 start in conference play had the Longhorns among the top contenders for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. Now they’re trying finding their way back to the top and not having to worry too much about how much down they are going to fall.

Kansas State is finally figuring out how to get back on the winning side of things. There are some signs that warn us about what this guys could do in March. For instance consider that this is the Wildcats’ fifth straight win and first on the road over a Top Ten team since 1994. We’ll take that as a good omen.

NCAA football – South Carolina stuns Alabama

We weren’t expecting this one to go as it did. For starters, Alabama Crimson Tide was coming from an exceptional 31-6 rout of Florida last week, finding extraordinary success in the hands of the Mark Ingram and Trent Richardson duo in the offensive end. Their ability to take control of the land-based attacks had made a huge difference for Alabama’s offense.

Mark Ingram was finally giving sings of recovering the speed, agility and roughness that had him win Alabama’s first Heisman Trophy. It was also the chance to repeat what he had done last year during their home game against South Carolina, where not only did the Crimson Tide took a notorious win but Mark Ingram went on to put an amazing performance that certainly consolidated him as one of the better prospects of the season.

It is not too much of an extravaganza to assume that head coach Nick Saban via Mark Ingram, and Greg McElroy would have put on another win at South Carolina. But it seemed that Steve Spurrier was finally able to break the spell and defeat Alabama 35 to 21.

The secret ingredient: Quarterback Stephen Garcia and a bombproof defense that managed to keep both Ingram and Richardson unnoticed for most of the game as the dynamic duo completed an very sub par performance. The two had a season long combined mark of 64 yards. To understand just how well the Gamecocks defense performed in this game, you need to take into account that they were able to keep the Crimson Tide to 36 rushing yards. South Carolina on the other hand completed 110 yards on that department.

Now, via the talented quarterback Stephen Garcia, the Gamecocks put up the most points over Alabama since their 41-34 lost to LSU back in 2007. This is a team that has had some troubles so far this season. The South Carolina Gamecocks are 4-1 overall and 2-1 in conference play this season. And this is by far the best win they have had in a while. Now, they halted the Crimson Tide on their feet. You need to consider that Alabama, coming on as the defending champions had won 19 consecutive games, and to make it fair, they have won 19 consecutive games playing in the South Eastern Conference, which is one of the most competitive in the nation.

They played well. Nick Saban came out and recognized that his team had not performed as it is expected to. But he also accepted that South Carolina had outplayed them in basically each positive statistical value. For instance, Stephen Garcia went 17 of 20 for 201 yards and three touchdown-passes. Had it not been for that sole interception, it would have been quite a perfect game. Freshman Marcus Lattimore of South Carolina outplayed Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram. Lattimore completed 23 carriages and for 93 yards and 2 touchdowns. Ingram on the other hand went for 11 and 41 yards and no touchdowns.

Last year, it was the Mark Ingram show at the Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. This time, the young freshman Marcus Lattimore put on own little show at the Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia, South Carolina. Bottom Line: It is going to be one heck of a season for NCAA football betting fans.