ODDS AND ENDS | I had a couple of questions about the change of the website name from Double-T Nation to Viva The Matadors. SB Nation will still own the name doubletnation and it will re-direct you to VTM. You will not need to re-register or anything like that. One of the other purposes of the re-design is to help better load times for the website.
VOLLEYBALL | I think that the volleyball team won two of three games over the weekend in their tournament in Montana and are 10-1 on the year. There's a lot to prove in conference play.
SOCCER | The soccer team lost 2-1 to Auburn on Saturday and I think this is the second loss of the year for the ladies. This week they will travel to California to take on Long Beach State and Cal State Fullerton.
MEN'S BASKETBALL | We are getting into a lot of he-said he-said. Here's what we know. The initial allegations by former players about long practice times ended up being true and head coach Billy Gillispie has already been given a letter of reprimand by Athletic Director Kirby Hocutt and the team has been punished. What we don't know is whether or not the allegations about forcing injured players practice. Over the weekend, Deadspin reported that Gillispie would be terminated once he was no longer on medical leave. Now, former players (via LAJ's Nick Kosmider) and former coaches (via ESPN's Jason King) are supporting Gillispie, which is natural because right now, this has the feel that this is a public relations war. With Self, it really doesn't matter what he says because he wasn't at those practices where the alleged abuse happened and Self has never been accused of player abuse. There is a reason he's winning national championships and it's because he's good at what he does and he's a heck of a lot more personable than Gillispie. And then you get a former player (via Kentucky.com), that was kicked off the team, but still has a lot of respect for Gillispie, confirm that this type of harsh treatment of injured happened at Kentucky. Like I said, this feels like a P.R. war at this point.
I still think Gillispie is terminated, in part because when Hocutt gave Gillispie the letter of reprimand there was a zero-tolerance provision. It just takes one violation or one thing that steps over the edge for the zero-tolerance provision to take effect. I'd also add that in listening to Ryan Hyatt during my drive, he said that the players were all interviewed individually. When players or witnesses are interviewed individually then that means that there is at attempt to find out whether or not the players' stories match-up with one another. I think that's a good thought to consider that no matter what, Hocutt is attempting to get to the bottom of this.
FOOTBALL | LAJ's Don Williams has five key developments from Saturday while LAJ's Nick Kosmider writes about the running game and the 8.1 yards per carry.
Via the ABQJournal, New Mexico QB B.R. Holbrook suffered a bruised rib while playing against Texas this weekend. It will be good to have a comparison game to see how and where Texas Tech stands against a similar opponent.
Miscellaneous: Turfburner's Jay Beck wraps up week two of the Big 12 . . . SAEN's Tim Griffin ranks the Texas teams . . .