Stadium plan has UT set to rejoin top tier
Project in DKR’s south end zone part of $140 million in improvements.
Even Godzillatron has a shelf life. The reality hit home last week with the revelation that Texas is planning to expand the south end zone of Royal-Memorial Stadium as part of a $140 million project that’s reportedly projected for completion by the summer of 2021.
The massive scoreboard cost the university $8 million when it was constructed in 2006. There will be another Godzillatron but the question is where? The guess here is it will likely be built somewhere where it won’t block the view of Tom Herman and his staffff from their brand new offiffices, which will also be part of the project. According to the report, the long-range goal is to make DKR a massive bowl, presumably similar in scope to Michigan’s Big House, which holds over 107,000.
It’s just the latest example of the massive amount of revenue created by these major college programs and their willingness to spend those high revenue dollars as fast as they come in. Nothing wrong with that because it’s what’s needed to win major recruiting battles on a national level. Herman has already proven himself to be a capable recruiter and with athletic director Chris Del Conte following the DeLoss
Dodds playbook to a T — spend, spend, spend, then spend some more — the Horns will re-enter toptier status when it comes to the area of athletic facilities.
Herman and Del Conte understand the recruiting mantra: 17-year-old boys love shiny new things and fans like state-of-the-art stadiums.
And a few more wins won’t hurt.
After taking two of three games at Okla
homa, Texas baseball is in the middle of its nicest stretch in years and coach David Pierce has a real find in redshirt freshman designated hitter Zach Zubia, who just earned consecutive Big 12 newcomer of the week honors.
Zubia is swinging some heavy lumber with eight homers, including a Saturday blast to help spur a late Texas comeback in the series clincher in Norman.
Don’t look now, but the Horns are 11-4 just past the midway point of conference play. Texas has already equalled its league win total from last season and it took only 14 games to do it. The Horns didn’t win their 11th Big 12 game until the very last day of the 2017 regular season.
Texas is 4-1 in conference series, including a sweep of Kansas. Last season, the Horns started league play with three straight home losses to Texas Tech and never found any real momentum.
It’s a different groove in 2018. Augie would be proud.
I don’t mind looking ahead to the second round of the NBA play
offs and if things go as expected, we could have a real barnburner between Houston and Oklahoma City in the Western Conference semifinals.
Yes, I picked the Rockets to win it all but some- thing didn’t feel right about Sunday night’s 104101 Game 1 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves. James Harden was unstoppable with 44 points, but the Rockets never really put the offensively challenged Wolves away. In a potential matchup against OKC and the human perpetual motion machine Russell Westbrook and the rejuvenated Paul George, it could just come down to a 3-point shooting contest, though I’ll have an eye on the Steven Adams-Clint Capela matchup underneath.
I’m rolling with Houston either way, but this won’t be a cakewalk. It’s the playoffs, after all.
Did Kirk Bohls and yours truly really pick the Cleveland Cavaliers to make it to the Finals in our playoff predictions?
We should have checked with Victor Oladipo first.
LeBron James and Co. looked overwhelmed in their first-round opening loss to the Indiana Pacers and Oladipo, the star guard who said his team felt slighted by Cavs owner Dan Gilbert, who indicated the Pacers got the short end of the stick when they traded disgruntled all-star Paul George to Oklahoma City and brought in Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis.
“You could say it added fuel to the fire, I guess you could say,” Oladipo told reporters after the game. “But that was so long ago..”
Oladipo has provided all the answers in his first season in Indy. The obvious choice for the league’s Most Improved Player, he ripped Cleveland in the opener with 32 points, six rebounds and four assists. The former Indiana Hoosier was nails during the regular season with career-high averages in points (23.1), assists (4.2), and rebounds (5.2). He also led the league in steals.