TCU to hire Kent State coach

TCU is expected to hire Kent State's Jim Christian as basketball coach this afternoon. AD Danny Morrison should be commended for bringing in a proven head coach. Christian has won at least 20 games in each of his six seasons at Kent State. And while he will face many challenges at TCU, there is no reason the basketball program cannot be consistently competitive in the Mountain West. The program will not be rebuilt overnight. But with a winning program, the Frogs will be able to recruit at least a few top players from the Metroplex. Together with an experienced coach who has tasted success and can show the players what it looks like, that will win games.

We will never out-recruit Texas and A&M while they are competing for Big 12 -- even national -- championships. But right now, that should not be the standard because we're not competing against those schools. We need to pay attention to the schools in the MWC.

Dougherty era ends

Gil LeBreton said it pretty well in his column this morning. There were a lot of reasons to end the Neil Dougherty era at TCU. In the end, Dougherty's optimism wasn't enough to keep him around. Even his optimism -- this is a man who somehow found optimistic words to describe his team during its six-win season three years ago -- had begun to be overshadowed by frustration. It was evident in his voice after every head-scratching loss. He couldn't figure out why the Frogs were so inconsistent. They had some good moments during Dougherty's tenure. But there simply wasn't enough improvement. Although the team is clearly better than it was in 2005-06, there were too many games this season that left fans wondering if the improvement has really been measurable.

One piece of advice for athletic director Danny Morrison: Bring to Fort Worth someone with head coaching experience. The TCU basketball program has sunk too low to allow another career assistant an opportunity.

The new home office

My wife let me have a wall in the office painted purple (authentic TCU purple). It hasn't helped the men's basketball team turn their season around, but it will increase my productivity. The office is taking shape now that we've officially moved in. (This photo was taken shortly after the room was painted.)

Snow in North Texas

The new house (long before the yard was blanketed with snow).




I'm sitting here in the comfort of my new home office, listening as the frozen precipitation hits the window. The grass is nearly covered with a mixture of wet snow and frozen rain. To those used to the snow, it's not much, but this type of weather tends to shut things down in North Texas. Businesses close early, schools cancel classes, and the traffic becomes even more horrific than normal. Thankfully, I worked from home all day.

After a fairly mild winter, we've had snow twice this month. Earlier this week, we got a slight dusting here is Carrollton, but today, it's been more pronounced. And the snow will probably stick around for a while -- at least through the night. Days like this are fun when winter weather doesn't strike too often.