Kye's Not Playing This NCAA Basketball Season

The 2011-12 NCAA collegiate basketball season is getting underway at collegiate arenas and gyms near you.

But if you surfed by the George Washington University athletic website and perused the 2011-12 lineups for the GWU women's or men's basketball teams, you will not see Kye Allums' name listed on either roster or in the team photos.

GWU announced that Kye Allums "has decided that it is in his best interest to no longer participate in intercollegiate athletics."

Allums had last year's historic season cut short by two early concussions he suffered early in the season that limited his playing time to a mere eight games and announced in May he wasn't going to play his senior season.

"I alone came to this conclusion," Allums said in a statement released by GWU, "and I thank the athletic department for respecting my wishes."

He's enrolled in classes at GWU for the fall semester, and was asked in an interview back in March what he would do if he couldn't play ball again.

"I'll just be trying to make some kind of difference in the world," he said at the time."Try to get into grad school and look forward to my life."

You're off to a great start in terms of making a difference in the world already, Kye. Your visibility as a trans athlete opened the door to have those serious discussions that needed to happen on the issue of trans participation in sports and led to NCAA rules that will make it easier or future trans student athletes to compete at the collegiate level.

Best of luck this semester, in the future and much success in whatever you choose to do with the rest of your life.

2011 Carrier Classic

Caught the inaugural Carrier Classic Game in San Diego between Michigan State and number one ranked North Carolina that was played on the deck of the USS Carl Vinson and witnessed by President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama.  

Both teams wore camouflage patterned uniforms and the jerseys all had USA on the back instead of the players names on them.  It was paused for a moment for the lowering of the flag.   Honorary captains Magic Johnson for Michigan state and James Worthy for North Carolina were there along with several iconic Tar Heel players who were able to attend due to the NBA lockout.     

It was a nice way to spend Veterans Day and the Carrier Classic will happen again.  Arizona and UConn have already agreed to play in the 2012 game with a tentative date set of November 9.   

I also like the idea Dick Vitale suggested during the game of making it a doubleheader and having the service academy teams involved.




The USS Carl Vinson was the carrier from which the SEAL Team 6 mission to take out Osama bin Laden was launched back in May and they conducted his burial at sea from its flight deck.  It was interesting seeing a 7000 seat basketball court set up on the flight deck of this ship and the game that was played on it.

North Carolina justified that preseason number one ranking and won the game 67-55 to claim the trophy, but the real winners were all the personnel on the USS Carl Vinson who got to witness this.

It's also a nice way to kick off the college basketball season.   

Historic SEC Football Game Tomorrow

It would be more fun if they were playing for the SEC East Division lead, but tomorrow's 12 noon EST game in Nashville between the Kentucky Wildcats and the Vanderbilt Commodores will be an historic event just the same.

In 2004 the SEC head coaching color line was broken when Sylvester Crooms became the head coach at Mississippi State.  He resigned in 2008 before the second and third African-American head coaches were hired in the persons of Kentucky second year coach Joker Phillips and Vandy's James Franklin who is in his rookie season.  .

Interestingly enough, the three Kentucky schools that play FBS level football all have African-American head coaches.   Floyd Keith, the executive director of the Black Coaches and Administrators noted that around 11 percent of FBS and Football Championship Subdivision football coaches are African-American   While two black college football coaches facing off is still a rarity, times have changed. "It's not as unique as it used to be and I think that's a sign of progress," said Keith. "That's a good thing." 

But it is in the SEC since they only just broke the college football head coaching color line in the 21st century and it will be more noteworthy when an elite SEC program like an LSU, Auburn or Alabama hires an African American to run that team. 

But back to the historic match up that is happening in Nashville.  Both teams are coming in with 4-5 records and the winner will not only even their records at 5-5 but keep their bowl hopes alive.

Best of luck to both of you in this historic game.
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2011 UH Cougar Watch-Number 11 Ranked Coogs Facing Tulane

After beating down UAB 56-13 in another record setting performance to go 9-0 (5-0 in C-USA West) on the season, the University of Houston Cougars climbed to number 11 in the BCS, AP and USA Today Coaches college football polls.

It's the highest ranking they have achieved since September 1991 when they were number 10 in the polls but UH won't have much time to celebrate it

They'll have shake it off and deal with a short preparation week as they head to New Orleans to play Tulane (2-8, 1-5) in a Thursday night 7 PM CST C-USA tilt in the Superdome. 

The Coogs will be trying to stretch this best ever start in UH pigskin history to 10-0.  They have already eclipsed the 8-0 starts by the 1979 and 1990 UH squads and are off to their best C-USA start since becoming a charter member of the conference in 1996. 

Eat em up!

2011 UH Cougar Watch-Coogs 9-0!

Ho hum..another weekend, another NCAA record shattered.by Case Keenum.

Keenum was 39 of 44 for 407 yards and two touchdowns as the number 14 ranked (number 13 BCS) Cougars shook off another slow road game start but got it together to roll over the UAB Blazers at historic Legion Field in Birmingham 56-13.   UAB capitalized on a fumble by UH running back Michael Hayes on their initial drive to execute a 12 play 72 yard drive that erased 4:49 off the clock to take an early 7-0 lead.

UH responded with an 8 play 47 yard drive of their own capped off by a 2 yard Tyron carrier TD catch to knot the score at 7-7 and scored on their next two drives to take control of the game and head into the locker room at the half with a 21-10 lead.

Case passed Hawaii's Timmy Chang to become the all time NCAA FBS Division passing yardage leader in the third quarter.    Keenun now leads with 17,212 yards and has three more games plus a potential C-USA title game and a bowl game to add to that yardage total.  He also owns the NCAA records for total offense, passing touchdowns and touchdowns responsible for.



After UAB got a field goal on the opening drive of the third quarter to narrow the Blazer deficit to 21-13, the Cougars responded  with a four play 56 yard lightning quick drive that only took 1:15 off the clock, pushed the lead back up to 28-13 and began a run of 35 unanswered points that sealed the UH win. 

The defense added one of those TD's in the fourth quarter with a 56 yard pick six interception return by cornerback DJ Hayden that pushed the lead to 49-13.      

More importantly, the Cougars moved to 9-0 (5-0 in C-USA West) on the season, which is the best start ever for a UH football squad

Next up is another road trip to New Orleans to face Tulane in the Superdome. 

2011 UH Cougar Watch-Headed To Birmingham

The number 14 ranked University of Houston Cougars in this so far special season have a chance to go where no UH football team has ever gone before when they take on the University of Alabama- Birmingham Blazers on Saturday in a 6 PM EDT kickoff at Legion Field.

It's their first road game in a month.   They will not only be trying to continue their rise in the BCS rankings from their all time program high number 13 spot and stay unbeaten in C-USA West play,  they'll be attempting to become the first Cougar football squad in school history to go 9-0. 

They are also aware of the excitement they are generating among Cougar fans and the national attention and buzz they are getting with the media outside the Houston area.  

According to UH Head Coach Kevin Sumlin, he has addressed it as they prepare for each week's opponent.

We talked about it (Monday),” Sumlin said in a Houston Chronicle interview with Sam Khan Jr. “With winning, that comes along with it. We’re the same team Thursday night after we won the game (versus Rice) that we were on Sunday night at 7:15 (p.m., when the BCS rankings were released). That’s a number to put on it. We’re happy about it. As I’ve said many times, it’s great for our university, great for our city, great for our fans. As a team, we’ve got our own goals. To achieve those goals, we’re going to have to keep winning. If you keep winning, those things will take care of themselves.”

Cougar quarterback Case Keenum says the team is aware they have a chance to achieve something special for the school and themselves, but are taking it one game at a time.

“We try not to look at the big picture too much,” Keenum said. “We obviously know that there is something special out there in front of us, but a lot of these guys were around in 2009 when we got up pretty high in the rankings and fell off towards the end of the year. We know that was fun, but we also know that there is a lot more out there. We’ve been to this point and fell off and that’s not somebody anyone wants to do. So we know the importance of taking it one week at a time and we know the importance of winning above anything else. That’s what’s most important to us and we’re going to go around and give it our absolute best every time we go out on the field.”

And we Cougar fans are aware that early in the year the road games presented some stiff challenges.  

There was the Louisiana Tech one in which the Coogs were down 34-7 midway through the third quarter but roared back to win it and the one against UTEP in El Paso where our 2009 attempt to BCS bust died    They were two TD's down to UTEP early but got the offense and defense cranked up to outlast the Miners 49-42

The Coogs know they will get A games from every team they play for the rest of the season.   After another road trip next Thursday to the Superdome to play Tulane there are still dangerous games ahead against SMU and Tulsa.

As 'easy' as certain burnt orange Hateraid drinking detractors claim UH's schedule is, the reality is no one has gone unbeaten in C-USA football play since Louisville did it in their 2004 championship season.  Since divisional play and the championship game was started in 2005 there has never been a C-USA team that has gone unbeaten while winning the title including UH's 2006 C-USA championship squad.  They had a 31-27 loss pinned on them by Southern Miss in Hattiesburg on October 14, 2006 but beat them 34-20 in the December 1 title game rematch at Robertson Stadium.    

But before they can even think about getting to that point, they have to handle their football business against  the 1-7 (1-4) Blazers first..

Eat 'em up!