Friday Quick Hits

518

Don’t Do it, Jerry

Adrian-PetersonThe rumor of Adrian Peterson becoming a Dallas Cowboy continues to linger. The good news: the restructure of Tony Romo’s contract was needed anyway to clear out room to sign Rolando McClain, Greg Hardy, possibly maintain Brandon Carr’s current salary, pay Dez Bryant his franchise tag salary (and possible extension), and for Dallas to sign all of its draft picks. The bad news: the smoke won’t go away.

The longer this lingers, the higher the possibility of Peterson landing in Dallas. Clearly if the move is made, Jerry has decided to pull out all the stops and go for broke in 2015. If that is what he had in mind, why not franchise DeMarco Murray, sign Dez to a long-term deal and build on what you did last year? There’s this thing called chemistry, see, that seemed to work well in Dallas for the 2014 season. Plus Peterson is 30, has considerable mileage on his body as a running back, and then there’s the unknown question – what will it take to trade for him?

- Advertisement -

Here’s keeping fingers crossed that Jerry decides to draft a solid runner instead in about a month. This would be a bad move.

Flashback Hoops

6. Mark Aguirre
Mark Aguirre

Anyone else watch the Mavericks-Thunder game the other night? I did and it reminded me of an old-school game between the 1985 Mavs and Nuggets. I was looking for Alex English and Fat Lever out there with Mark Aguirre and Rolando Blackman. Dallas scored 30-or-more points in each quarter, shooting 61.5 percent for the game.

This was sports entertainment at its finest, and reminded me of a time when every team could light up the scoreboard. The Western Conference is full of quality talent again this year which is another reason to look forward to the playoffs. Unless you’re the eighth seed and have to face Golden State in the first round. The good thing for Dallas is that it is firmly seated in the seven-spot. And after watching another highly entertaining game vs. Houston last night, I’m hoping that a delicious match-up with the Rockets is coming soon.

Smart Move

Texas AD Steve Patterson got his man in Shaka Smart as the new basketball coach in Austin. A hot name who has done quite well at Virginia Commonwealth, Smart finally leaves Richmond for a bigger-name program after turning down the likes of UCLA, Maryland, Illinois, Marquette and North Carolina State over the years.

061009steve_patterson
Steve Patterson

Smart brings an intense style to Austin, especially on defense. His defense at VCU has been nicknamed “Havoc” because of its relentless nature, getting teams out of their comfort zone and forcing them to hurry.

Texas is looking to improve off a 20-14 season that lost to Butler in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The 37-year-old Smart has taken VCU to five tournament appearances and the 2011 Final Four. Patterson is hoping he can do the same with the Longhorns.

Patterson has now made two significant coaching changes in the Texas athletic department, and both men departing were very successful during their tenures in Mack Brown and Rick Barnes. It was time for both to go, respectively. Let’s hope their replacements live up to their last names (Strong and Smart). As for this hire in basketball, I think Patterson made a great move.

SHARE
Previous articleWhy We Love March Madness
Next articleAmerican League Preview
Rob Scichili (shick-lee) has worked in professional sports for over 31 years in PR and communications, including time with the Dallas Stars, Anaheim Ducks, MLB.com, Minnesota Timberwolves and Dallas Mavericks. A journalism graduate of Texas A&M, he is co-owner and editor at ScoreboardTx and VP at Tony Fay Public Relations. Scichili is a consultant to New York Islanders ownership and was recently named to the Dallas Stars Hall of Fame Selection Committee.