Where'd You Go, I Miss You So

'Their monuments were not pyramids, which is why they were so hard to find; they were horizontal features. But they're no less extraordinary.'

'In a cave...Roosevelt made another astonishing discovery: seventy-five-hundred-year-old pottery, which predates by more than two thousand years the earliest pottery found in the Andes or Mesoamerica. This means that...as Fawcett radically argued, the region was possibly even a wellspring of civilization throughout South America-that an advanced culture had spread outward, rather than vice-versa.'

In the words of Bill Simmons, "I thought that was interesting."

Z is a fascinating book that spreads light on the golden era of South American exploration. It was a little tough to get through at times, but it brought to light-for me, anyways-the fascination with a continent that had unexplored areas the size of the continental US as recently as the 1920's, as well as the obsession with discovering what happened to the heroic explorer, Percy Harrison "Don't call me Girod" Fawcett. I'll leave it at that and let the book explain the rest of the mystery and attraction that so many had with the Amazon and Fawcett.

Now that I'm finished with Z, I'm getting into the season and have just started Seth Davis' When March Went Mad. So far so good.

A few days ago, the staff over at Running Down a Dream put together a list of all the blogs he keeps up with. Cool idea, Scott, but it's not like you don't have every one's blogs and websites already linked on the side of the blog. I'm not sayin, I'm just sayin.

Regardless, I do think it's a good idea, especially for a blog such as this. Some of you may remember the mythical creature, Jig, who co-founded JAT with me in December of 2007. While it was fun at the time, Jig lost interest and hasn't gotten around to give me his password or make me a blog administrator, so that I can update the site, and make it a little less bland and more reader-friendly. In an email to friends, I vowed not to bother him about the password thingy for the rest of Lent, so I'm not saying anything to him until Good Friday. Or Easter. When does Lent end? I'm afraid I skipped 'Catholic Holidays 101' too much at ACU.

All that to say, I'm gonna link to the blogs and websites I make sure to hit up as often as possible, so hold on to your seats. If your a fledgling blog like this one, expect a jump in page views by 3. It may be time to purchase more bandwidth.

Justin Scott

Joey Halbert

Luke Reeves

Dan Carlson

Kayla Agan

ESPN

Bill Simmons

Deadspin

Burnt Orange Nation

SI

That's it folks. In a few weeks, I may be able to finagle a way to get these links up permanently, but honestly, don't hold your breath.

And yes, that was a Dido reference in the title.

I'm Coming To Your City

I'm sure you've been waiting with baited breath since yesterday, when it was announced that 'a lot is going on here,' so without further adeiu, my big news of the week: As you know, ESPN's College Gameday Presented by the Home Depot, is covering this weekend's matchup between Texas and Texas Tech, and yours truly (Twig, not Jig) will be on hand helping Chris, Kirk, and Lee with the presentation of Gameday, Live from Lubbock, TX.

Don't DVR the show in hopes of seeing me, I'll be the guy behind the scenes doing the junk work no one else wants to do, but still...getting the chance to see Kirk Herbstriet in person? Wow, he's sooo dreamy. And I really can't wait to see Corso's head get literally knocked off if he puts a Bevo head on at the end of the show. Good times in West Texas.

Hate Me For All The Things I Didn't Do For You

This post goes out to Joseph Halbert, Bill Simmons, ESPN, and everyone else who's hated on Rick Barnes...
WTF? Seriously, where's all the hate coming from? With the exception of a few bloggers on Burnt Orange Nation, I haven't heard anyone write anything positive about what Barnes has done for the University of Texas basketball program. I'll be the first to admit that he's not the greatest coach of all time, or that he's even that great of a gameplanner (not sure if 'gameplanner' is a word, but if you watched yesterday's no-show by UT, you know what I mean) but really, what else does the guy have to do to get some love in this world? Texas has been to the Big Dance each of the last 10 years, a school record, and in the past seven years, Barnes has led Texas to five Sweet Sixteens (UT is one of only three schools to accomplish this feat. Kansas and Duke are the others-you may have heard of them), two Elight Eights and one Final Four. Also, everyone forgets this, but one of those Elight Eights should have been another Final Four. In 2006, Texas lost in OT to LSU, after the Horns converted only half of their free-throws down the stretch. They make those freebies, they win in regulation and advance. (And yes, maybe I'm still bitter becuase I picked Ty Thomas in the first and last annual Strip Final Four, and ended up sitting on the couch naked and mad at life, but that's another story for another blog.) Also, this year he led his team to victories at UCLA, against Tennessee at a neutral site, and Kansas at home (That's two number one seeds and one number two, for those keeping score at home) On top of that, he won the Big XII regular season title only one season removed from losing the best player to ever wear the burnt orange. Anywho, that list in itself is a pretty good indicator of what Barnes has done for the program in his decade at the 40 Acres. Take into account that the last two overall #2 picks in the NBA draft were former Horns, and that the amount of Horns in the League has grown dramatically since Barnes has been at the helm and will continue to do so, it's pretty obvious that Barnes and his staff are fairly good at player development. Add into all of this the fantastic quotes he gives to the media ("Pooooooooorr Aggie"-Directed at Acie Law losing to KD for all of the POY awards last year, "If y'all don't treat us right, we'll just buy you out and go back to Texas. We're rich, you know."-Spoken, tounge-in-cheek, to the Arkansas media two weeks ago at the beginning of Madness, and "I told John that we were just giving them free-throw practice, since that's what they need to work on."-Said after yesterday's game, when Texas went into foul mode with five minutes left in the game, in hopes of closing the gap. Memphis, of course, went something like 30-34 from the line, rendering the strategy moot.) and Barnes becomes not only the most successful coach in UT history, but is also the most entertaining.
A few weeks ago on Burnt Orange Nation-a blog I highly suggest for Longhorn fans-there was a debate on who you'd rather have, Mack Brown, or Rick Barnes. Now I understand the hate that each of these two get from both Longhorn fans as well as the rest of the country, and in all honesty, I think that most of it, especially the hate directed toward Mack, is deserved. However, just the fact that a UT-athletics website would even consider preffering the basketball coach over the football coach is, until Barnes came to town, unthinkable. Again, I'm not saying that he's the best coach ever, just the best coach ever at UT. Just a quick look at where the program was ten years ago to where it is now, and I don't see how anyone can claim that Barnes sucks or isn't a good basketball coach.

-Twig