Former Eddie Sutton disciple and Texas Tech Head Coach James Dickey has been named the Head Coach at Houston. 

Ironically, a few years ago, Dickey, a Valley Springs, AR native, University of Central Arkansas grad and UA Assistant under Sutton, put the final nail in the coffin of the UA program he helped build by signing James Anderson when Dickey was an assistant at Oklahoma State under Eddie Sutton’s son, Sean.

Anderson, a Junction City, AR native who was heavily recruited by former UA Coach Stan Heath, closed out a stellar 3-year career at OSU as a 2nd Team Associated Press All-American, and  the the 2010 Big XII Conference Player of the Year.

Adding insult to injury, the hiring of Dickey by Houston is more bad news for downtrodden Hog Hoops fans, as Dickey had been rumored as a potential addition to John Pelphrey’s staff at Arkansas. 

I am not a fan of Arkansas Democrat Gazette Sports Editor Wally Hall, but he nailed the situation the other day on the radio when he essentially said Dickey to UA was a longshot, as Pelphrey must be looking for a recruiter rather than an Xs and Os coach. Otherwise, Hall opined, Pelphrey would listen to Rob Evans (the former Ole Miss and Arizona State Coach and longtime friend of Nolan Richardson, who is on Pelphrey’s staff, but I think it is safe to say, has been underutilized) more often.

The folks at Google have renamed themselves at least for one day to Topeka.  Check here to see but hurry.  I’m guessing tomorrow it will be back to normal.

Adam and I thought about changing our website to GoochHawgs.com but unlike Google, Kansas, Jim couldn’t come up with a good trade.

the dateline isn’t April 1, so I don’t think this is a prank. From the article:

Now, combine that frustration with cash-strapped college athletics departments, struggling to upgrade aging stadiums, and you’ve got the latest innovation in marketing for big-time athletics – the sports mortgage.

At Kansas, Jayhawk fans who sign up to pay as much as $105,000 over 10 years will earn the right to buy guaranteed top seats for football over the next three decades. In return, the seats themselves will stay locked in at 2010 prices.

California fans have even more latitude – 30 years to pay for a half-century’s worth of season football tickets. Like a home mortgage, the long-term deal requires the equivalent of annual interest payments.

The new pricing plans are known as “equity seat rights,” and are being pitched as a win-win for fans and teams. Die-hard fans can be certain of what they’ll pay to see their favorite team well into the future – and can always sell tickets in the secondary market while taking a tax write-off for donating to a school. Teams can bank on extra revenue and avoid borrowing.

 Someone please explain to University of Arkansas Athletic Director Jeff Long that this is NOT what the big boosters meant when they said he was was mortgaging the future of the basketball program by retaining Head Coach John Pelphrey.

This will be a feature here at BlogHawgs.com until the Hoop Hogs are relevant again, or John Pelphrey goes a week without using the word “overachieve”.

Here’s nice little anecdote from Coach K about Nolan Richardson.  It must be fairly recent, as he references the Olympic Team.