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Commodore Notebook 11/28/05 11/28/2005 Big Game Wednesday! Are you ready to go Duck hunting Wednesday? Let’s hope our men’s basketball team is with the Oregon Ducks migrating to Memorial Gymnasium for an interesting match-up. Both teams enter with 4-0 records, our win Saturday at Georgetown perhaps the most impressive victory between the two schools. Oregon has become a significant west coast basketball force and represents yet another example of our beefed up non-conference schedule. The Ducks beat us by 10 points at their place last year. Tip-off time is 8 p.m. as the game is televised by Comcast and also is being sent by to Oregon. Don’t watch from home; we need you — those of you within driving distance — to be in the gym for this one. Luke’s El Paso Victory With the Thanksgiving holiday you might have missed an impressive individual victory by Luke List. The Commodore junior topped a field of 31 invited college golfers at the Western Refining College All-America Golf Classic in El Paso, Texas. Luke was 13-under par for 54-holes, the third best total in the tournament’s history. The event is sponsored by the Sun Bowl. Idle Thought — UT or Bowl Game? Us sports fans are greedy. We want to win everything all the time. So while we were pleased to end the football season on a high note with a victory at Tennessee, we also thought about games that got away during the course of the season. Tight games with Kentucky, Middle Tennessee State, South Carolina and even the Florida overtime come to mind. Just like a golfer can’t expect to sink every 10-foot putt, we can’t expect to win every close game. But it wouldn’t take too much imagination to see how close we were to winning one or two more games, which would have made us bowl eligible for the first time in 22 years. So what would be better if given the choice — beat two others on the above list and make a bowl game or topple our in-state rivals? Let’s think about this a second. As much as it would boost our program to make it into a bowl game — any bowl game — I am not sure many would trade our Tennessee win for two other victories. For starters, even after 22 years on this staff, I did not fully comprehend how important this game was to our fans. No other win would have meant as much to so many. Secondly, when football programs are in the building process as we are, getting a signature victory means at least as much as making an appearance in a post-season game. Our win in Knoxville gained national media attention and it was certainly noted by the high school recruits we are now visiting. The fan who only wants to beat Tennessee is misguided (I don’t want to go the hypothetical 1-10 and doubt you do either), nor should we think that beating Tennessee cancels out all wrongs. But anytime we win a road game against a program typically in the Top 20 it ought to be a red letter day.
Boys and Girls Clubs Winners at Women’s Tourney Our annual Thanksgiving women’s basketball tournament is now in the record books and the winner was?the local Boys and Girls Clubs. There was no admission charged for either the Friday or Saturday games but contributions to the Boys and Girls Clubs were encouraged. These gifts totaled about $500, which will be put to good use. Attendance for the tourney was up from past years. As expected, our Commodores topped the field with relative ease for the championship.
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