We had to fly halfway around the world, but my good friend, Mark Sanders and I were able to go to the A&M – Missouri football game together this past Saturday. We regularly watch college football together in Budapest and I think we have watched the last few A&M – Missouri games together on TV. It was fun to meet and actually go to the game together. The Aggies didn’t win, but they did much better than I expected and didn’t get totally blown out so it wasn’t a total downer.

Mark got us 50 yard line seats from one of his good friends. Thanks Mark for bringing me along for the ride!!  We remained friends throughout the game and there wasn’t any major taunting.

I was working in Kansas City so it was an easy drive over to the game with my long time friend, Rick Pierce. Rick & I went to high school and A&M together and it was awesome to go together to another Aggie game. I’ve had a great time hanging out with his family.

PS Despite the fact that is all I have blogged about, I have done a ton of work while in the US.  Football has been my entertainment of choice and I’ve been loving it!

I watched the opening Monday Football Games this week and I can’t believe how far MNF has fallen.  I didn’t watch hardly any of the games last year because of the time difference, but due to being sick, I watched them on tape the next morning. 

First of all, Jaworski is a disaster as a live color commentator.  I lost count, but I think he pointed out that Carson Palmer likes to throw to the outside about 4,382 times.  I’m not sure he made another point during the game.  It was absolutely laughable.  I like him in the studio shows when he has had time to prepare.  He is great at pointing out nuances of pass coverage and quarterback decisions, but he could do none of that during a live game. 

Also, I’m not sure Tony Kornheiser made an interesting comment the entire night.  He threw a couple of insults at Jaws, but other than that was totally worthless.  Again, I love him on PTI, but this just isn’t his gig.  How did they not figure that out last year?

On the other hand, I watched the first quarter of the Arizona-SF game and Mike n Mike n Mike were pretty good.  Greenberg and Golic have incredible chemistry and Golic does a great job of making insights on the fly.  Ditka is good for the mix.  I say throw out the A team and bring in the Mikes full time. 

I knew that MNF was at the end when it switched to ESPN, but they seemed determined to kill it off altogether.  For now, it is clear that Sunday night has become the new Monday.  Long live Sunday Night Football.

Valerie & I watched the #6 ranked Aggies play the #1 UCLA Bruins yesterday.  First of all, I can believe that the Aggies are ranked so high.  Two years ago we went 0-16 in the Big XII so it is hard to believe we have come so far.  We already lost to #9 LSU this week so my fear was that we would get blown off the court and it would be obvious that we didn’t belong in the Top 10.   Even though we didn’t win, the opposite happened.  We showed that we can play with the #1 and take it down to the wire.  If we didn’t make so many mistakes, we should have won the game. 

I was a bit disoriented the whole game.  I couldn’t believe I was watching the Aggies on national television with Jim Nantz and Billy Packer commentating.  Actually, it was the first time that A&M has ever played on network tv in the regular season.  What surprised me most was several comments by Billy Packer.  He said, “These are two strongs teams that will definately make a run in the NCAA tournament!”  He also said, “I could see both of these teams in the Final Four this year.”   

What?!$%^&*  Are you kidding me?  It’s December and the Aggies are already in the tournament and expected to make a big run!   The best the Aggies have done in the past is to sit and watch the tournament seedings and pray for an 11th seed.  Now, Billy Packer has them already in and making run.  He might be right, but I still can’t believe he’s talking about the Aggies. 

It’s going to be a fun year to follow them!

[thumb:358:l]We talk a lot in Budapest about adapting to our foreign culture. Some areas are easy and some areas are much more difficult. The biggest challenge in Hungary is the language. It is one of the most difficult in the world and after 3 years, I know a lot of words, but I can hardly carry on a conversation.

This morning, I’m realizing that I’ve adapted in one area. Trent & I woke up early this morning to watch England play in the World Cup! I wasn’t much of a soccer fan before I moved overseas, but as a sports fan living in Europe I basically have two choices: Give up sports or Watch soccer. I guess I chose watch soccer.

We are watching the England – Paraguay match this morning and England had a great goal in the 3rd minute. David Beckham, one of the most famous athletes in the world, is overrated in a lot of ways, but he is amazing on free kicks.

In a lot of ways, I wish I was in Budapest to watch these matches because people care about it over there.

[image:357:l]In 1980 the Dallas Mavericks played their inaugural season. In 1980 I moved to Dallas. Also, Dick Motta moved from Washington DC where he coached the Bullets to Dallas to be the Mavs first coach. I also moved from the DC area to Dallas just a few months later. I’ve been a Mavericks fan since Day 1 and through the awful years of the 80s.

After an incredible comeback tonight against the Suns, they are going to the Finals for the first time and I think they have a great shot at winning.

It is fun to be here in Texas to watch the game. It is great medicine for Trent as well as it takes his mind off his stomach for a couple of hours. I’m so glad to get to hang out with him.

We’ll be watching on Thursday night when it all gets started.

When I lived in the US, I would have never consider staying up for a Fantasy Baseball draft, but here I am again (This is my 3rd year to do it from here). It’s 3am and I’m in Round 12 of my draft. I did get a little sleep before and hopefully I’ll get some after. It always seems like a better idea when I agree to it than when the alarm goes off.

Key Stats
1st Round Pick – Miguel Cabrera
Latest Pick (12th Round) – Austin Kearns

Better get ready for Round 13. Maybe Luis Gonzales (hope none of the other coaches are reading this)

So Far so Good.

It was soooo close.

All evening, I wondered if I would be able to stay awake long enough to watch the game. It started at midnight here and at 10 I was yawning like crazy. When the game finally started, I didn’t think I would have to stay up much longer as LSU took a 9-1 lead. I thought maybe the Aggies didn’t have anything left for another game.

Then, they started coming back and before I knew it they went on a 17-0 run. They were back even with the Tigers and we had a game on our hands. They never let the Tigers get out of reach and it was an incredible game.

When Acie Law hit the 12 foot jumper with 20 seconds or so to go to put us up by 2, I thought we had them. Our defense had stopped them all night. Nothing had come easy for LSU so all we had to do was make one more stop. Also, they had scored almost all of their points from inside the paint, so the worst case scenario was a tie and overtime. They had only made one 3 pointer all game, so we were safe.

Boy was I wrong. LSU put up a 3 pointer from 5 feet behind the arc. It was a prayer. My first thought was that they put it up a little early on purpose so that they could get a rebound and score off that. They hadn’t shot anything from that far out all game.

It went in with 3.5 seconds left. Everything ended. All hope was gone.

It was an incredible run! This is definately an Aggie team that should show great things in the next few years. We will be back! I guess it means I’ll be able to get some sleep through the rest of the tourney. This one kept me up until 2:25am. I wasn’t hard because it was such an great game. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time.

Gig’Em!

I set the alarm for 4am not knowing if I’d really get up, but here I am just before 5am watching the Aggies doing the job against Syracuse. It was a great first half and the Aggies are really on their game and totally out hustling the Orangemen. I hope they can keep up the intensity in the second half. I think Syracuse might have gave all they had emotionally in their run to the Big East Championship.

I guess this will go until around 6 and I get up at 6:15. There were be time for sleeping some other times.

The Aggies haven’t played in the NCAA Tourney since 1987 so I didn’t want to miss it. So far I’m glad I’m up.

[image:323:c]WHOOOOOOP!!! Last night the Aggie Basketball Team beat the #6 ranked Longhorns on a buzzer beater by Acie Law. I thought that we would be competitive in the game, but I really didn’t think we could win it. It has been an amazing year for the team as they have won 6 in a row and sit in 4th place in the Big XII. Even the most optimistic projections for the season weren’t this good. Billy Gillespie is my hero. Just think, if we had won the 4 or 5 last second losses early in the conference season, we would be ranked. What would that be like?

As far as the NCAA Tourney, we should be in now. If they leave us out, then it is just ridiculous. The #4 team in the Big XII gets in, period. If those all those insignificant schools get in, then you have to let the Aggies in. We’ll see. Maybe we have to win a couple of games in the Big XII Tourney.

I’ve always said that we needed a breakthru season in order to turn our program around and be competitive year after year. This could be that year.