Looking Forward

If there was any question to why, last weekend provided an answer to the question about the nickname March Madness. Madness took place all across the NCAA Tournament bracket in a variety of ways, including: -Two 12 seeds advanced to the Sweet 16, the same number of two seeds that are still alive. -All four three seeds are still around but only [read more...]

Peaking At The Right Time

The calendar says that February is the shortest month of the year, as it ends two or three days before each of the other 11 months. But in college basketball, February is a long and winding road beating up teams on their march to March. Conference play is in full swing, injuries and suspensions are common and the unexpected upset [read more...]

Hart Surgery: Vince & The Draft

Saturday will mark the 70th edition of the NFL Draft, and a more highly anticipated version of it I cannot recall. Maybe it's because media coverage surrounding every sporting event grows in intensity with every passing year, or maybe its because this particular draft class provides as tantalizing a group of top prospects as there has ever been.The hyperbole meter [read more...]

Hart Surgery: In-Vince-able

I am drained. Ever since Matt Leinart's last-second pass brushed off the fingertips of Dwayne Jarrett, allowing the clock to run out and secure Texas' first national title since 1970, I have been putting this column together in the back of my mind without really knowing how I was going to do it. There is so much to say: about the [read more...]

Hart Surgery: Rose Bowl Bound

This is it. In my entire life as a sports fan, I have never made it this far. I have been to a Final Four, seen the last game of a World Series, and seen Tiger Woods fist-pump his way around the U.S Open, but today is a new experience.I am on my way to Pasadena to see my beloved [read more...]

Hart Surgery: Big 12? More Like Big Two

There is a lot to be happy about these days if you are a Texas fan. The baseball team won a national title in June. The basketball team is ranked #2 to start the season and is a popular Final Four pick. Heck, even the softball team can claim to start perhaps the world's best hurler in Cat Osterman. You're [read more...]

Hart Surgery: Insomnia

My room is freezing. I moved into a new house over the summer, and the room I chose to live in is apparently an antisocial son of a gun. It just haaaaaas to be different. So if it's hot in the rest of the house, rest assured it will be cold in my room. And if the house is cold, [read more...]

Hart Surgery: Long(Horn) Suffering

Five years ago, as I left what to that point was the most miserable sporting event I'd ever been to (Texas-OU), I made a statement to my friends: "As long as Mack Brown is on one sideline and Bob Stoops is patrolling the other," I began, "We will never beat Oklahoma." That day we had come into the game undefeated like OU, [read more...]

Willie Parker Underscores NCAA Survival Issue

Let's hop in our Delorean's, go back three years, and ask this question: Who will have the better pro career, Willie Parker or Cedric Benson? This is a no-brainer, right? Benson is busy running all over the Big 12, behind (ahem) the best offensive line in college football, and pondering an early leap to the NFL. Willie Parker is deep on the [read more...]

Hart Surgery: Pour Some Out

For those who are regular readers of my column (Hi Nana!), you probably know I have a slight attachment to the University of Texas at Austin. I own several items that illustrate that fact, including shirts, shorts, hats, and a bumper sticker. Until recently, I also owned a small charm that I wore on my necklace, a miniature hand flashing the [read more...]

Hart Surgery: Texas Smelling Like Roses

When I look back on my columns from the year 2004, I think I was pretty successful in accomplishing a goal I had set - to not talk about Texas sports too much. I am not saying I never referenced them, but if you go back and read them all, I think you will be pleasantly surprised (unless you only [read more...]

Hart Surgery: Insomnia

For those that didn't see it when it first ran on HBO, the mini-series Band of Brothers is about the finest piece of filmmaking these eyes have ever seen. It is an eye-opening and incredibly realistic (I imagine) account of what it was like training for and participating in WWII, and every time I see it I appreciate my grandparents' generation more and more. Why [read more...]

Hart Surgery: Pour Me Another

Oooooooooh boy. You know, I used to think my premature baldness was caused by genetics or perhaps sticking my tongue in an electric socket repeatedly as a boy. Now I am convinced it is because of college football. Being a college football fan these days is like going out for a night of binge drinking. Every time you do it you [read more...]

Hart Surgery: Master Debaters With A Vengeance

(Note: As before, Tom's remarks are in italics) You know how Republicans (or I guess, more fairly, conservatives) always complain about a liberal bias in the media? Well, I want to complain about the bias towards coaches in the sports media. Think about it. How often do you ever hear coaches criticized in the mainstream? Now, I am not advocating the [read more...]

Hart Surgery: Master Debaters, Part Deux

Following the rousing success of the first debate between me and Tom (and by rousing, I mean my mother liked it), we came back this week for round two. Just like the presidential debate Friday night, this will be in a town hall forum, with each of us responding to questions asked by a panel of sports fans. In this case, [read more...]

Blame it on the Rain (or, the Curious Case of Ricky Williams)

As the resident sports nerd of my group of friends, whenever something major goes down (particularly when it relates to the University of Texas) inexorably I will be pressed for an opinion. It's almost as if I am a White House spokesperson. So Saturday night, when my cell began blowing up like the Godfather around 1:00 am, I knew something was up. And that [read more...]

Hart Surgery: Making a College Decision

As the leaves begin to blossom on the trees, and spring peeks out from under winter (except in Syracuse, where winter annexed spring in a hostile takeover), it is time for a certain portion of America's youth to Grow Up and go to college. Make no mistake, choosing a four year institution is a difficult decision. Many factors will play [read more...]

Hart Surgery: A Lesson in Etiquette

As the calendar turns to March and college basketball heads towards its finest hour (month?), you will notice a craze sweep the nation. At any big game (and particularly in the conference tournaments) a victory by the home team will elicit a mass exodus of hoops fans onto the floor to celebrate in the time-honored tradition of "rushing the court". A [read more...]

Hart Surgery: Three things that make me mad in 2004…

It's been a few weeks since I last did one of these, and with the bounty of stories early on in this New Year, I figured it would be a good time to bring it back. Therefore, I'd like to tell you about… Three things that make me mad in 2004… 1. No, no, no - well, ok, yes. I will never understand this [read more...]

Hart Surgery: We Can Do Better

My aversion to the BCS has been well documented in this space over the years (ok, year). The system has failed again, but I feel no satisfaction. All you need to know about the BCS can be summed up in this sentence: If Texas had beaten Arkansas and lost only to Oklahoma, they would most likely have finished as the #2 BCS team - [read more...]

Hart Surgery: On a Red River Classic

Watching this baseball postseason unfold, I started to realize a trend that has been going on during this sports calendar year. Tampa Bay won the Super Bowl for the first time. Syracuse won a national title in basketball, also a first. Rice won the College World Series, and they'd never won a championship in anything! Now the Red Sox and Cubs are each three [read more...]

Hart Surgery: Insomnia

It's not fair. I cannot sleep. All day long I yawn, stretch, and grumble to myself about how exhausted I am. Then, like clockwork, eleven o'clock rolls around and wouldn't you know I'm wide awake. I can't explain why it happens, I just know it does. But, while I'm laying in bed, tossing and turning, a lot does seem to go through [read more...]

Hart Surgery: Deep in the Heart of Texas

I enjoy many different sporting events, from bowling to table-tennis, but without question nothing makes me happier than watching my beloved Texas Longhorns play football. Sunday night, the Horns’ played their first game of the season against the New Mexico School For the Mentally Unstable. Ok, it was against New Mexico State, but I imagine their football teams are of [read more...]

Hart Surgery: Chasing Dreams and Hangtime

In many ways, Abram Orlansky is the closest thing I have to a little brother. Growing up with two sisters, I never really had anyone to play sports with on a daily basis. Fortunately the family next door had three boys, the eldest of which is Abram. When we were little, we used to play all the time. He had a [read more...]

Hart Surgery: Talking Sports

It is a well-known fact that 99% of the time, athletes are the worst interviews in the world. The same useless, tired crap comes out of their mouths after every game, every time. They just want to help the team, all they care about is winning not their stats, and man, the other team sure did put up a fight. [read more...]

Hart Surgery: At Long Last…

Every year growing up, I went to New Orleans to celebrate the New Year. Frolicking on Bourbon Street, seeing my friends, vomiting - all became annual staples. Another staple was walking through the French Quarter and watching all the fans there for the Sugar Bowl moseying around, intermittently screaming cheers, slapping fives, and of course - vomiting.I was always jealous [read more...]

Hart Surgery: It’s About Sports

This is a sports column. In this space each week, I talk about something from the sports world. There is much to talk about this week, but first I have to get this off my chest - has anyone been watching the new Jimmy Kimmel Live show? (Obviously since this is a column and you cannot answer the question, I [read more...]

Hart Surgery: Ready, Aim…Fire?

R.C. Slocum's firing could not have come at a better time. I think there is something that needs to be talked about in sports. You will never hear announcers talk about it on TV. It is taboo - spoken about all the time amongst fans, but rarely brought up on the airwaves. The subject of course is coaches - when do they deserve to [read more...]

Hart Surgery: A Eulogy For Chris Simms

I want to hate him. Every inch of my bones as a Texas fan tells me to hate him, to curse the day he signed with Texas. He has come to the plate so many times, men in scoring position, so many times, and so many times he has struck out. I hated him for Oklahoma last year. I hated [read more...]

Hart Surgery: A Saints Fan Makes A Retraction

Let me take you back to the NFL Draft, version 1999. I was a sophomore at the University of Texas, and was lucky enough to have a front-row seat for Ricky William's Heisman campaign. That season almost defies description. Aside from Barry Sanders a decade earlier, I dare say no running back ever has as good a year as Ricky did in 1998. We [read more...]

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