300: Rise of an Empire

No, I’m not talking about another film about the Roman Empire; I’m talking about the legacy of TCU’s most successful Head Coach. Nope, it’s not Gary Patterson either; I’m talking about TCU Women’s Basketball Head Coach Jeff Mittie. With his win against Kansas State on February 19^th, Coach Mittie reached 300 wins as Head Coach at TCU. Mittie joins fellow Big 12 coaches Kim Mulkey (Baylor), Bill Fennelly (Iowa State), Sherri Coale (Oklahoma) and Deb Patterson (K-State) with 300 wins at their current institution. 

Appointed to the TCU post Aug. 19, 1999, Mittie is the sixth head coach to guide the Frog women's basketball program since the 1977-78 season. Prior to Mittie's arrival, TCU owned a 208-402 (.340) mark. He is also the all-time winningest coach in program history, a distinction he claimed with a 74-49 victory over UAB on Feb. 28, 2003. Remarkably, it took Mittie less than four seasons to better Hall of Famer Fran Garmon, who spent 10 years at the helm.

How did he feel about getting his 300^th victory?

"I'll be honest, 300 is a big milestone to TCU, but 15 wins is bigger for us. That's the way it is. A lot of people contributed to the 300."

Coach Mittie has never been one to want to bask in the spotlight, this is exactly why he has flown under the radar for so long at TCU. It’s about time the students and fans of TCU understood how lucky they have been for the last 15 years. Here are some Coach Mittie’s accomplishments since being hired back in ’99:

• Guided TCU to 11 postseason appearances in 14 years
• Nine NCAA Tournament berths
• TCU's leader in career wins
• Five-time Conference Coach of the Year

Boasting one of the youngest and most talented rosters he has ever had at TCU, look for Coach Mittie to continue to add to these accolades in the near future. Congrats on win #300 Coach! Go Frogs!

TCU Walkup Songs

TCU Baseball is considered one of the best programs in the nation at the collegiate level. Despite having a subpar year in 2013, the Frogs are ranked in the top 25 for the 2014 campaign, and are 3-1 in their first 4 games. They head to Corpus Christi this weekend to play BYU, Texas A&M Corpus Christi, and UTSA.

But while the Frogs are a great baseball program, one of my favorite pastimes with some fellow friends was to discuss the concept that many people don't care about, but we as former baseball players used to spend hours on: Walkup songs.

Yeah it's a little silly to spend a bunch of time talking about this, but when you have nothing else to do for hours on a bus ride some interesting conversations jump up (I'll refrain from bringing up all of said talks...high schools boys, need I say more?). Baseball players get maybe 10-20 seconds of a song as they come up to the plate (pitchers might get half a song as they warm up) and that's all the time they have in order to express themselves. A guy's walkup song can tell you wonders about what he listens to, how he gets pumped, and even his style of play. For example...

Evan Longoria: Tantric- Down and Out

Evan Longoria, the stud 3rd baseman from Tampa Bay, chose this metal song (We're digging the electric violin at the beginning) as a suicide awareness message. That and a catchy beat. Anyways, Longoria's choice is not too shabby.

Mariano Rivera: Metallica-Enter Sandman

EVERYBODY knew this one. You hear those 6 strings at the beginning of this Metallica hit and everyone at Yankee Stadium knew it was lights out for the visiting team.


Ian Kinsler: Ram Jam- Black Betty

 

Now those of you that know me know that I am a DIEHARD Angels fan. It's hard for me to find nice things to say about the Rangers, or their former players. That being said, this isn't a bad choice for a walkup song. Doesn't really fit Kinsler's personality but hey, whatever works to get you focused at the plate.

 

So you get the idea. The TCU guys picked some of theirs with the same ideas in mind. I even had mine from high school which we may throw up at the end of the list. But here's my top 10 from my 3 years of watching/working TCU baseball games.

 

 

#10 Jerrick Suiter 2012

DJ Kool- Let Me Clear My Throat

 

 

 

 

#9 Josh Elander 2012

Kid Cudi- Alive

 



 

 

 

#8 Keaton Jones 2012-present

2Pac- California Love

 



 

 

#7 Alex Young 2013

Flux Pavilion- Gold Dust

 

 

#6 Kyle Von Tungeln 2012

Roy Jones Jr-  Can't be touched

 

 

#5 Dylan Fitzgerald 2014

Bee Gees- Stayin' Alive

 

 

#4 Janzen Wittie 2012

Flux Pavilion- I Can't Stop

 

#3 Jordan Kipper 2014

Drake- Thank Me Now

 

And the Big guy gets the last 2....

 

#2 Kevin Cron 2013

Dr. Dre- Still Dre Instrumental

 



 

#1 Kevin Cron 2012

Tech N9ne- B. Boy

 







 

 

Cause if you listen to it, it sounds like he's saying Big Boy, and Cron's 6'4, 235lbs...get it? Get it? No? Anyways...

 

 

That's the top 10. I'm sure I've missed a few (Couldn't find that Zeppelin song Odel uses) But let me know what you think. If you find a TCU baseball player with a walkup song that deserves to be on the list, let me know!

Snarknado: Ice Dancing Poses

I wasn't planning on poking fun at Ice Dancing this week. Figure Skating is a really difficult thing to do. Growing up in Texas I've never been on ice skates. I've been on rollerblades before which looked a lot like Bambi walking on the ice for the first time, so I imagine I would fare even worse on the ice.  These pairs are jumping, lifting, and flying across the ice at high speeds, it's really a miracle there aren't a lot of significant injuries. Plus, they are trying to sell whatever story the dance is supposed to tell so it's both a very physically and emotionally demanding sport. For all these reasons I was going to leave Ice Dancing alone this week, but then this happened:

 

Just look at this picture of an amazing athletic achievement. It looks like she is trying to do the heimlich maneuver. If the story they are trying to capture is the walking dead then they were very successful. He's staring deep into your soul it looks like a cry for help. He's crying out to us saying "If I don't win gold I may never walk again". 

 Let's refocus there are plenty of weird photos across all sports. I'm sure if you look through a normal NFL or NBA game and snap a picture at the right time you can make those athletes look pretty silly too. These people are jumping around the ice all the time. They're doing triple axels, and other moves but the only one I know of is a triple axel.  I was back to enjoying these brave ice dancers and admiring their athletic ability, but then this happened:

 

 This is getting ridiculous. I'm trying to help these people out, but what is this? Is she the zombie now? Maybe she was infecting him in the first picture, and that's why his body looked so lifeless. He's just standing behind her like what's up? It's like he's daring me to say something about this pose. It looks like one of those weird paintings that you wouldn't understand because you haven't been through that type of pain before.  If you showed this to someone, and said it was a sport they would laugh because it just looks like a bad photo shoot on ice.

Meryl Davis and Charlie White won the gold in Ice Dancing for the United States. Canada won silver, and was unhappy with the score the judges gave the Americans. I won't remember any of that though the two images that stick in my mind is the Ice Dancing duo in the pictures above. They left the biggest impression on me. Congrats you have left your mark on the ice dancing competition forever.

 

 

 

 

2014 TCU Baseball is Underway!

TCU Baseball is back and it didn't take long for fans to see what all of the excitement is about. The #14 Frogs are coming off of a disappointing (29-28, 13-12 Big 12) season which saw Sophomore Slumps from the heart of its order, Kevin Cron (.208 2 HR 20 RBI) and Jerrick Suiter (.186 0 HR 10 RBI).

TCU wasted no time reversing those fortunes behind Cody Jones, who set the tone going 3-3 with three singles and 2 stolen bases. The resurgence of Kevin Cron (1-2 2 RBI 2 HBP) and Jerrick Suiter (1-4 2 RBI) in the middle of the line-up gave All-American and Team USA pitcher Brandon Finnegan all the help he needed. Coming off of a season where he didn't win a game (0-8), but was still named Big 12 Honorable Mention, Finnegan showed why he the Pre-Season Big 12 Pitcher of the Year by striking out 13 and allowing just 3 hits in 7 strong innings.

Things are looking up for The Frogs this year and they just showed the nation they are a team to reckon with.