Rich's sometimes disjointed rambling

It's a step-by-step process to challenge for a conference championship. The Wyoming Cowboys are doing their part with their first step -- winning at home. It's "to be announced" for the rest of the journey. After Tuesday‘s 72-59 win over Air Force, the Cowboys are now 3-0 in Mountain West Conference home games. For the season, Wyoming is 10-0 in the A-A and has won 11 straight home games going back to the last game of the 2007-2008 season. Those 11 wins are tied for the 19 th best home win streak in the country. While that statistic isn ’t overwhelming, it's a start and compared to where the program was in the last few years, it is certainly a step in the right direction. “That’s what we have to do to win a championship in our league, win the home court," Wyoming senior guard Sean Ogirri said. “We have to pick up some games on the road, but we have to defend our home court and not lose at home.” Heath Schroyer took over a program that was floundering in th...

The Mountain West Conference has made its feelings known about being excluded from the BCS (Bowl Championship Series) automatic bid process. Will the BCS do anything or will they continue their best, “I know nothing, I hear nothing, I see nothing” impersonation of Sgt. Schultz (Hogan’s Heroes). That remains to be seen, but my guess for now is " nein ." Let’s take a look back at last season. Utah, TCU and BYU all finish in the Top 16 in the BCS standings, yet the Utes are the only BCS team invited, as they were allowed in from an at-large standpoint. What the BCS is basically saying, “You can come up and play with the big boys -- just this once -- but don’t let the door hit you in the butt on the way out.” Well, as we all know, the Utes thumped big by Alabama and broke actually down the door. According to an article by Steve Wieberg in USA Today, MWC Craig Thompson is pleading the league’s case with the BCS and will try to sit down with ACC commissioner and current ...

Credit should be given to former longtime Wyoming wrestling coach Steven Suder for recruiting and credit is also in line for new head coach Mark Branch for bringing the young Cowboys along into a much-improved team this season. Individually and as a team, the Cowboys are showing up in the national rankings. According to the InterMatWrestle .com’s individual and team statistical lists, the Cowboy team is ranked first among Division I programs in the country in overall wins with 389 and is tied for second in overall pins with 91 this season. The UW squad is also third in decisions with 207 and fourth in major decision victories with 65. Not only is UW redshirt freshman Shane Onufer (174 pounds) ranked No. 19 in his weight class by Intermat , but he also is tied for the most wins among Division I wrestlers with his record of 31-8. Fellow second year Cowboy Joe LeBlanc (184 pounds) is listed this week in the InterMat individual rankings at No. 8, in addition to being tied for the mo...

I like Kurt Warner better because he is closer to my age and Ben Rothlisberger is hard to spell if you look at the screen cross-eyed. Something to think about.

This just in, Barack Obama has just been declared through a poll conducted by the combined efforts of CNN, MSNBC , CBS, ABC and NBC, to be the greatest president ever. In a statement released through the Associated Press, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann said: "Although people don't actually watch me, I've taken it upon myself to act as this poll's spokesman because I used to be on ESPN." FOXNews declined comment, but did point out that nearly 2,000 more votes were tabulated in the poll from Minnesota than the state has residents, and that Al Franken voted 13 times. Olbermann also said that he believes legislation should be in the works soon, whereas it will be required to just call President Obama by his first name, "Barack," just like Cher. "After all, they both are pop stars and that is all that really matters these days," Olbermann said. In his first official act of duty, President Obama announced that $190 million dollars fr om the cost...

New Wyoming head football coach Dave Christensen got a late start recruiting, but he and his staff’s efforts are not going unnoticed. With the signing date just a little over two weeks away, the Cowboys are beginning to see some real progress with verbal commitments. The latest verbal might also be the best as far as recruiting ratings are concerned, as Bellarmine Prep (San Jose, Calif.) standout quarterback Austyn Carta - Samuels has apparently given Christensen the word that he is coming to Wyoming. Carta - Samuels is a three-star recruit, according to Scout.com, and he is rated the 22 nd best dual threat high school quarterback in the country by Rivals.com and 37 th by Scout.com. He verbally committed to San Jose State during the summer and also received scholarship offers from Utah, Air Force, San Diego State, Purdue, and UNLV. At 6-foot-1, 210 pounds, Carta - Samuels led Bellarmine Prep to the WCAL Championship and the CIF - CCS Open Division Title. The Bells finished th...

Wyoming coach Joe Legerski can only look down at the end of his bench for help, see it and not do anything about it. Legerski would like nothing more than to insert Cowgirl junior point guard Aubrey Vandiver into the lineup when the Cowgirls struggle, but he can’t. Vandiver is on a medical redshirt this season because of mononucleosis. It’s been a tough and unexpected tribulation for Vandiver , a third-team all Mountain West Conference selection last year, as she was diagnosed with the illness in August. It was hoped that she would just miss a few games and then be back as the team’s leader on and off the court. All Vandiver can do now is lead from the bench during game time. Vandiver is actually back on the court for practice -- she is building strength just about every time she works out. But with the conference season now two weeks in, it would be a waste for her to play now. She’ll have two full years remaining next season. Maybe the hardest part for Legerski is knowing tha...

Don’t look now, but there was a Wyoming student section sighting Wednesday night in the Arena-Auditorium. With school now back in session, there were actually some cheeks in the seats in the student section in the Cowboys 83-79 win over San Diego State. It’s been a while and not just because school had been on a holiday break. The Sixth Man Club was effective with their support for the first time in a while. In fact, their support actually got second-year head coach Heath Schroyer a little choked up. “With about a minute and half left, I glanced over to the student section and you could see the passion on the kids faces,” Schroyer said. “Right there I said, ‘Wow, I’m coaching at Wyoming again.’” For those who were fortunate to experience the noise level in the A-A during the Dembo - Leckner heyday, when Marcus Bailey and Josh Davis helped the Cowboys beat Utah for the 2002 MWC title, even when the Cowgirls won the WNIT a couple years ago: you know what it can be like. Now don’t ge...

I'm going to do my best Larry King impersonation here: "If I could listen to Dennis Miller eight hours a day, I would." The other day I was driving back from Cheyenne and listening to him on KFBC radio. During a commercial on some sort of tax relief business, he came up with the line: "I'd rather listen to Amy Winehouse sing Barry White's greatest hits than deal with the IRS." Granted, it was very windy that day, but the old Cougar just about hit the ditch because I laughed so hard it almost made me lose control of the steering wheel. I've got to use that line. Somewhere, somehow, it is going to happen. The problem is using the line at the right time. I would say preferably during Sportsline Live. Of course, I can't say "deal with the IRS" because that likely won't ever come up on a sports talk show. And besides, I don't want to tick them off, anyway. It would have been perfect a couple of weeks ago if one of my co-hosts wo...

Saturday will now be remembered as the "great baby powder incident." If you were not in attendance of the Laramie High School boys' basketball game with Alliance, Neb., you missed quite the beginning. No, we're not talking about non-stop, fastbreak action on the basketball court. We're talking about custodians cleaning the floor. It all began in good fun for the Plainsmen and their adoring student section. Evidently, one player was to go over to the section just before tip-off and chalk his hands do his best LeBron James impersonation ... you know, where he throws the chalk in the air. Well, that was the plan, anyway. Instead of chalk, it was baby powder. Instead of one Plainsman just putting a tad of powder on his hand and poof, it was several hands in the stands squeezing the bottle at once. Have you ever witnessed a building that was imploded? Think about the dust that rises. Suddenly, there was a large cloud of baby powder in the air and it didn't just ...

NOTE: I found this on several sports blogs. I'm not sure who the original author is, but this might say it all when trying to come up with some sense of the BCS . Just remember, I did not write this and if anyone knows who did, let me know and I'll attribute it to them. AP - After determining the Big-12 championship game participants, the BCS computers were put to work on other major contests and today the BCS declared Germany to be the winner of World War II. “Germany put together an incredible number of victories beginning with the annexation of Austria and the Sudetenland and continuing on into conference play with defeats of Poland, France, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium and the Netherlands. Their only losses came against the US and Russia; however considering their entire body of work–including an incredibly tough Strength of Schedule–our computers deemed them worthy of the #1 ranking.” Questioned about the #4 ranking of the United States the BCS commissioner state...

This has nothing to do with sports, but it was too darn funny for me to let go. Evidently, the national organization PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) sent a letter to Spearfish (S.D.) High School, suggesting it change the school's name to Sea Kitten High. I saw a great t-shirt last spring in Las Vegas while competing in the Team Dart International Championships. On the front of the t-shirt was PETA. On the back, it said People Eating Tasty Animals. It absolutely cracks me up that people, especially celebrities, wrap themselves around this organization. While PETA says the suggestion is "tongue in cheek, which beats a hook in the mouth any day," yet it is the wacko style of logic that the organization lives by. Looney Tunes is more like it. Check out this article in the Rapid City Journal

On Sportsline Live last week, I predicted that all four road teams would win in the NFL Wildcard playoffs. I was wrong twice. I thought Atlanta and Indianapolis would also win on the road. As it turned out, Arizona beat the Falcons 30-24 and the Chargers edged the Colts 23-17 in overtime. In a side note , evidently my mother-in-law in California has met Chargers' quarterback Phillip Rivers and his wife a couple of times with her job. Small world, even in California. I got to thinking (I know, a rarity) while watching the Vikings and Eagles on Sunday that the NFL is much different than college football in a fan sense. For the most part, I think most Wyoming fans were rooting for Utah to beat Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. After all, it is a Mountain West Conference team against a SEC power. You want your conference to do well and pick up some national respect. As it turned out, the Utes beat the Tide and now people are actually talking about Utah as the No. 1 team in the country. It w...

There's only one time a year when any self-respective Wyoming football fan can root for another team from the Mountain West Conference. During the bowl season. It's all about respect for the conference. Friday night was a time to root for Utah when it took on No. 4 Utah in the Sugar Bowl. Sorry, the Allstate Sugar Bowl. Wait, another correction. It was the 75 th Allstate Sugar Bowl. The MWC has yearly fought for recognition among the top conferences in the nation. The league took a giant leap in the right direction on Friday when the Utes shocked Alabama 31-17. For that, all MWC football fans are indebted to the Utes -- for this game only, of course. It was not only a great win for Utah, but a great game. The Utes opened with a mad rush, jumping out to a 21-0 lead in the first quarter. The mighty Tide, led by the great Nick Saban , did bounce back to make a game of it, cutting the lead to 21-17. But the Utes answered with a dominating defense and the outstanding play of q...