Football: Ohio scores late for thrilling Potato Bowl win. 8C
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S U N D A Y , D E C E M B E R 18 , 2011
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SHELTON STATE
CECIL HURT
No. 17 Bucs take care of L.B. Wallace
One plus about Missouri, A&M is they are big sports towns
K ANSAS CITY, Mo. s the interminable wait for the BCS championship game nears a more-manageable three-week countdown, there has been a window of opportunity to do a few different things — including the new territory that has been annexed into the Southeastern Conference. Fortuitously, the University of Alabama basketball team was in Kansas City on Saturday (although not playing one of their future SEC brethren), which created a golden opportunity to look at the new western border of the league. Technically, one could argue SEC territory stretches all the west to El Paso now (although I am not sure how strong the Aggie sentiment is in that community.) It’s more instructive to consider the league’s new territory as extending to a line down from Kansas City, through Fayetteville and into the Dallas and Houston megalopolises (or is it megalopoli?). Those (and St. Louis) are the vaunted “new television” markets. Whether Kansas City is Missouri Tiger territory is another question — Kansas is far closer and there is a pervasive Jayhawk feel, or it seemed so to me. Without belaboring points that have already been made about the cultural ties between this area and the South — yes, there are a lot of good barbecue places here — it is clear Kansas City is a sports town. The Chiefs are the clear heroes here, even in a dismal coach-fi red year. The most recognizable Alabama football names, perhaps even ahead of Nick Saban, are Javy Arenas and Wallace Gilberry. There’s another Alabama link. The big mural downtown at the Sprint Center is sports-related and features the legendary pitcher of the Kansas City Monarchs, Satchel Paige (from, you guessed it, Mobile, Alabama.) The point isn’t to find every minuscule thread that leads back to Alabama. It’s just to note Kansas City — and perhaps most of Missouri, outside of St. Louis — has proven college sports interest and should be fertile ground for the SEC. Alabama football fans may get a chance to test that, more quickly than expected. Nothing official has been released concerning the expansion-altered SEC football schedule for 2012, but it would not surprise me if Alabama’s fi rst visit to Missouri comes sooner rather than later. It could come much sooner. Much, much sooner. Take that in the spirit of a Christmas hint. There is also a solid chance the SEC basketball tournament will be coming to Kansas City in a few years — Missouri certainly wants it to be played in the Sprint Center — and that wouldn’t be terrible. The arena is the hub of the Power & Light district downtown and it would be roughly similar to having the tournament in Nashville. The difference, of course, is it wouldn’t be centrally located, and the crowd would be primarily Kentucky fans, sprinkled with Arkansas and Missouri. Face it, if the SEC Tournament were held in Anchorage, it would be “primarily Kentucky fans.” Certainly, expansion has its pros and cons, and it will be hotly debated again as soon as the new 2012 football schedule comes out. After all, you can’t please everyone. But Texas A&M and Missouri are fine schools, and if growth was inevitable — and perhaps it was — there are certainly worse places to grow.
By Andrew Carroll Sports Writer
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Cecil Hurt is sports editor of The Tuscaloosa News. Reach Cecil Hurt at cecil.hurt@tuscaloosanews.com or 205-722-0225.
PHOTO | LANCASTER NEW ERA
Nick Nobile plays football for Columbia High School in Columbia, Pa. The school’s nickname is the Crimson Tide. There are nine high schools in the United States with the nickname Crimson Tide.
THE TIDE THAT BINDS
TUSCALOOSA | The Shelton State Community College men’s basketball team built a comfortable lead in the fi rst half on Saturday and improved on it in the second half. Four players scored in double fi gures as the No. 17-ranked Buccaneers romped to an 89 -63 victory over Lurleen INSIDE B. Wallace of Andalusia. LADY BUCS: Shelton State coach Shelton State Barry Mohun watched women roll his team take a 41-27 past L.B. Walhalftime lead. lace | 3C “I thought at times in the first half we may have been a little sluggish,” Mohun said. “I don’t know if that was due to the layoff or whatever, but you’ve got to give them credit too. They’re a scrappy team. “We really tried to focus on improvement in the second half and sort of wanted to make a statement in the first five minutes. I thought our guys did that.” LBW’s John Groover made a basket to cut the deficit to 44-31, but the Buccaneers answered with an 8-0 run. Antjuan Ball got two baskets from the lane. Ladarius Tabb went inside for a basket, and Kwame Beard scored on a layup for a 52-31 advantage. Mychael Bester scored on a tip-in for the Saints, but Shelton State reeled off seven straight points. Sean Hiller drove for a reverse layup, and Jeremy Watson made a hook shot. Watson converted a SEE BUCS | 3C
The nickname Crimson Tide is synonymous with Alabama, but there are nine high schools across the country that share the moniker; and some of those teams cheer for Bama By John Davidson Special to The Tuscaloosa News
INSIDE THE CRIMSON TIDES:
The University of Alabama has a nickname unique in all of college athletics, but it’s not the only Crimson Tide. In fact, nine high schools — ranging from Massachusetts to Louisiana to Oregon — field teams called the Crimson Tide. One school, Pottsville Area High School in Pennsylvania, derived its nickname in a similar fashion to Alabama. Until the early 1960s, Pottsville’s teams were called the Bulldogs and wore the colors crimson and white. Athletic Director Eric Rismiller
A look at all nine high schools with the Crimson Tide nickname | 4C
said that during a game against Mount Carmel, the all-time winningest team in the state, a sportswriter said the Pottsville defense looked like a sea of crimson running all over Mount Carmel, and the nickname stuck. According to legend, Alabama was nicknamed by Hugh Roberts, sports editor of the Birmingham Age-Herald, after witnessing UA
overcome a favored Auburn team on a muddy field in Birmingham in 1907. Rismiller said Pottsville students are mostly Penn State supporters, but the school has one big Alabama fan in Dean of Students John Powers. Powers, 62, said he grew up watching only a select few teams on TV, such as Oklahoma, Tennessee and Alabama. He said he fell in love with watching the late Paul W. “Bear” Bryant coach Alabama and has been a fan ever since. His daughter was recently accepted to enroll at UA. “I plan on retiring after this year, SEE T IDE | 4C
STAFF PHOTO | MICHELLE LEPIANKA CARTER
Shelton State’s Jeremy Watson (31) attempts a shot around Jordan Wimberly (54) of L.B. Wallace.
KANSAS STATE 71, NO. 23 ALABAMA 58
Crimson Tide drops third game in last four outings By Cecil Hurt Sports Editor
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Alabama forward JaMychal Green (1) looks to pass around Kansas State forward Jamar Samuels in the first half of Saturday’s game in Kansas City, Mo.
KANSAS CITY, MO. | The University of Alabama basketball team didn’t make a weekend trip to the big city without leaving something behind: its national ranking. The Crimson Tide dropped its third game in its last four outings before a large crowd at the Sprint Center, taking a second-half pasting from a decent but unranked Kansas State team in a 71-58 defeat. The loss was the most one-sided for Alabama since a 27-point pasting at Florida last season. Alabama (8-3) actually had a lead in the second half, going up 35-34 on a JaMychal Green layup with 15:08 to play. But the Wildcats (7-1) answered with a 13-2 run over the next five minutes, essentially burying Alabama in that stretch. Jordan Henriquez, a 6-foot-11 reserve, came off the bench to score a career high 17 points to lead the Wildcats.
Green led Alabama with 20 points. Sophomore Trevor Releford, playing in his hometown of Kansas City, added 14 for UA. Neither offense sparkled in the first half. Kansas State shot just 33.3 percent, but still managed to hold a two-point lead, 26-24, at intermission. Alabama turned the ball over 10 times in the half, in part because UA’s stagnant perimeter offense forced the Crimson Tide to attack in the crowded middle of the floor. As a result, UA was outscored 18-9 over the last nine minutes of the half. When the Wildcats went on a second run in the second half, UA lacked the firepower to answer. The game was the fourth straight in which Alabama has scored less than 63 points. Freshman Nick Jacobs was back in the Alabama starting lineup for a second straight game but was limited by foul problems and scored just four points. Alabama will face a second straight Big 12 opponent Wednesday when it plays Oklahoma State in the Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center.