Kent State Massacre: UT Politburo's Chickens Coming Home to Roost....

Look over our right shoulder.

"For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself."
Galatians 6:3

We attended last night's painfully pathetic UT Men's basketball game.  During the second half, we sat almost directly in front of Chancellor McRaven.  It was unplanned, but considering our (unintentional) choice of attire for the evening, it was amusing.

But that doesn't excuse what happened in the game, and what happened in the game illustrates how the corrupt institutional mismanagement that has plagued the past decade has finally bled into the athletic department.

LOSS.  TO KENT STATE.  AT HOME.

The Statesman attempts to spin it positively:

The excitement of Christmas has given way to the drudgery of exchanges.

Texas followed one of its best all-around games with one of its worst in a 63-58 clunker against Kent State on Tuesday at the Erwin Center.

Texas set all kinds of offensive season highs in a 36-point blowout over Alabama-Birmingham last Wednesday. Players and coaches then went their separate ways for the holiday break. They returned looking worse for wear.

The Horns had 18 turnovers and shot 36.2 percent and fell to 6-6 heading into Friday’s Big 12 opener at Kansas State. Jarrett Allen was the leading scorer with 17 points and had 10 rebounds. But Kent State’s Jaylin Walker poured in 24 points and the Flashes got 15 more from Deon Edwin.

Texas’ final possession summed up the whole night. Trailing by three, Eric Davis Jr. tried to get loose on the baseline but got stuffed by Jimmy Hall. Kent State (8-5) got the loose ball, went the other way and just ran out the clock.

Tevin Mack, the Longhorns’ leading scorer, was shutout of the scoring column until a layup with 2:29 left made it a one-point game. He followed that with another score as the two teams traded buckets down the stretch, bringing a decent-sized crowd to its feet.

With Texas down by three, Kerwin Roach Jr. went in for an off-balance layup attempt and missed. The Flashes went the other way, and Jaylin Walker threw down a vicious dunk with 33 seconds left for a five-point lead.

But there's no way to spin this positively; forget elite, even a modestly competent program should be able to beat Kent State at home.

Let's face some facts about the UT Athletic department:

• The Football program is coming off back-to-back 5-7 seasons...and hasn't done anything interesting in seven years.

• The Men's Basketball program is in last place in the Big-12 and had a .500 run through non-conference play...and conference play is going to be very ugly.

• Let's not forget the Steve Patterson fiasco.

THAT'S what the good-ol'-boy network that runs the institution has produced.

First it was the "forgivable loan" slush fund at the law school.  Then it was the $215 million accounting scandal.  Then it was the tax hike for their Med School.  Then it was the secret admissions program.  Then it was the land grab in Houston.  Then it was the tuition hike.  Just last month, they spent $17 million to purchase a toxic waste dump in El Paso.

Throughout all of the misdeeds listed above (Author's Note: And that's only a partial list of the nonsense they've pulled over the past 5 years) we've been predicting that eventually their arrogant corruption would bleed into the athletic department.  Guess what gang...that day is here.  In case you forgot: Back-to-back 5-7 football seasons and a basketball team that just lost to Kent State at home.

Bottom Line: The University of Texas brand name retains tremendous value, which wouldn't be difficult to restore under genuinely new management genuinely committed to change.  That day will eventually come.  The only question is how much pain they want to put themselves (and the rest of us) through in the interim.