The Texas Tech Lady Raiders have now missed all 20 of their three-point attempts in their last two games. Tech went 0-of-8 last Saturday at Texas A&M and 0-of-12 last night at home against Nebraska.

Going into the Texas A&M game, Texas Tech was hitting three-pointers at a .338 clip. Subtracting that from 1 yields a .662 miss rate. We then raise .662 to the 20th power, giving us an estimate of .0003 (or 3-in-10,000) as the probability of the Lady Raiders missing all 20 trey attempts in their next two games. (This procedure is akin to raising one-sixth to the second power to determine the probability of a rolling double-sixes on two dice, which is 1/36.)

Tech has not always shot so poorly from behind the arc. In a December win at UCLA, for example, the Lady Raiders made nearly half of their long-distance shots (9-of-19; .474). Further, on two occasions, at home vs. Arkansas-Pine Bluff (13-23; .565) and in a neutral-site tournament game vs. North Dakota (10-of-18; .556), Tech exceeded 50% on trey attempts.

Here are a few factors to consider in looking at a cold streak like Texas Tech's. First, the rarity of the streak may be exaggerated, given that its dramatic nature drew me into doing a statistical analysis of it, rather than looking at a random cross-section of all teams. Second, one might wonder if a team's poorest outside shooters took a disproportionate number of shots during the drought; that does not seem to be the case as the Lady Raiders' two main outside scoring threats, Jordan Murphree and Ashlee Roberson, took a sizable share of the threes. Third, a scenario that can lead to a lot of missed threes is when a team falls way behind and puts up a lot of desperation shots in an attempt to make up the deficit as quickly as possible. I watched some of the Nebraska game on television and, as the Cornhuskers were opening up a big lead in the first half, I would say the Lady Raiders were putting up some ill-advised treys in an attempt to close the gap.

The University of Memphis had its winning streak in Conference USA games snapped at 64 last night by the University of Texas El Paso (UTEP). Memphis's 64 victories had tied the previous record for consecutive wins in conference play, set by Kentucky in the Southeastern Conference (SEC) from 1945-1950.

Texas Tech nearly pulled out a miracle win against Missouri tonight in Big 12 men's hoops action, thanks to some amazing late three-point shooting. However, Mizzou held on for a 94-89 overtime win.

The Tigers led 74-66 with a little over a minute remaining in regulation. At that point, the Red Raiders' Brad Reese hit a three. Then, quickly finding himself with the ball again after a teammate's steal of Mizzou's inbounds pass, Reese hit another three, just four seconds after his last (play-by-play sheet). Reese was 5-of-6 from behind the arc on the evening.

Mizzou held Tech at bay a bit and hit some free throws to expand its lead to 77-72 with 45 seconds remaining. The Raiders' Nick Okorie then hit a trey with 0:43 left, bringing Tech again within two. Thanks to a late Tiger turnover, the Red Raiders were able to send the game into overtime, tied at 79-all.

In the overtime, Tech's John Roberson made a pair of threes at the 4:09 and 3:30 marks, keeping alive the Raiders' streak from behind the arc, before missing from long-distance at the 2:58 mark. Tech made no more three-pointers, however, and missed a couple of key free throws, thus allowing the Tigers to escape Lubbock with a victory.

In men's college basketball, Oklahoma State went on a 29-1 run to overcome an early deficit and pull away from Texas Tech.

Pete Carroll Is A Smart Hire For Seattle

There are rumors out there that USC's head coach, Pete Carroll, is rumored to be the #1 guy on the list for the Seattle Seahawks head coaching job. It would be a smart move by Seattle and for Carroll, in fact, it could be the perfect situation for both sides. If he takes the job, would it be a sign that USC will be hammered by the NCAA for their multiple infractions?

Pete Carroll isn't new to the NFL, he used to coach the New England Patriots and New York Jets, so you couldn't compare his hire with Nick Saban, Steve Spurrier, or Bobby Petrino. Carroll is a known commodity, even though he didn't have a lot of success in the NFL. If Carroll is the next head coach of the Seahawks, I believe that they will be the favorite in the NFC West for years to come. He will probably have general manager duties along with being the head coach, thus he will get to pick his guys. If you ask any player who played for Carroll at USC, they will say that they loved playing for him. He will give the best players a shot to start and will give rookies more of an instant start, if he proves himself in the preseason. Think about all of the great USC players that went to the NFL over the last decade. Don't you think that they might want to play for him again, so Seattle would have an edge in the free agent period. Who knows, maybe they would take less money to play for their former coach.

If Carroll takes the Seattle job, what does that say about the NCAA investigation results for USC? I think it would mean that the NCAA will be laying the hammer down on them. It won't be as bad as the SMU action many years ago, but I would assume that they will vacate wins and more. Also, Joe McKnight declared for the NFL draft today, so bad news keep coming for USC fans.

Seattle Fires Jim Mora

This past Monday was traditionally called "Black Monday," but last Monday was more like a shade of gray. There weren't many firings and many coaches that were in trouble of losing their jobs, held onto them. A coach that flew under the radar this season was Seattle's Jim Mora. He didn't have a good season and today Seattle fired Mora. Did Seattle fire Mora to try and go after Bill Cowher or another big name or was it time for a change?

Seattle Seahawks CEO, Tod Leiweke, announced today that they will fire Jim Mora, even though Leiweke openly endorsed him six weeks ago. The team's general manager, Tim Ruskell, stepped down mid-season so they will be looking to fill both positions. Mora took over the head coach duties once Mike Holmgren stepped down, but he was the "head coach in waiting" for two seasons before taking over as head coach. Seattle has went 9-23 over the last two seasons and it was time for an overhal in Seattle. Although the timing is quite coincidental since Bill Cowher is rumored to be looking to coach in 2010, but with Buffalo being his only option, it was unlikely that he would take the Bills job. The Seattle job seems more likely, since he would have total control. The one reason why it would be unlikely is because of the geographical location of Seattle. Cowher stepped down as the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers because he wanted to be closer to his family, who reside in the Carolina region.

It's is unknown who Seattle will target since they could be looking to upgrade every position on the field. They had a long stretch of success with Matt Hasselbeck as the quarterback, but with two injury-plagued seasons, a change at head coach could mean the end of his reign as the starting quarterback. A youth movement needs to happen on offense since the wide receiving corps is getting "long in the tooth" and the offensive line has holes. They do have Justin Forsett and Deon Butler on offense, but they still need grooming. The defense had issues in 2009 stopping the run and doing the little things on the football field. Seattle's offense didn't give their defense very good field position, so the blame falls on both sides of the ball for Seattle.

Jim Mora is a solid secondary coach and he should latch onto a coaching staff very soon. He had a rough go in Seattle with the Michael Vick saga taking place on his watch. Mora didn't inherit a very good team when he took over in Seattle, I don't blame Mora, I blame the former GM Tim Ruskell and Mike Holmgren for leaving him with a bad team.

Bert Blyleven Deserves To Be Hall Of Famer

Blyleven deserves to be in the Hall of Fame, if not only because of that awesome shirt, but he was a very good pitcher. Let's face it, baseball's Hall of Fame has turned into "the hall of very good," and Blyleven deserves in. He fell 5 votes shy today for being an inductee, but he is a sure money bet of making it next year. Andre Dawson is the lone candidate and the entire ceremony will be dedicated to the former great of the Montreal Expos and Chicago Cubs. In the following article, I try to make my case for Bert Blyleven to be inducted in baseball's Hall of Fame.

Blyleven played during a time, when multi-channel ESPNs and regional Fox Sports Net channels did not exist and MLB Extra Innings packages on DirecTV wasn't even invented, you may not have caught Bert Blyleven's best work. Unless you caught the highlights on Sportscenter where Chris Berman used a nickname of Burt "Be Home" Blyleven, you would just think that he was an average pitcher. His career ERA was 3.90, but his early career was his peak, but he kept a roster spot on small-market teams. His record was 287-250, just 37 games over .500, but from 1982 until the end of his career in '92, his ERA was over 4.00. If a pitcher wins nearly 300 games, it nearly negates this feat once a pitcher reaches his 250th loss, like Blyleven.

An argument that Blyleven has for his induction is that his numbers are measurable to Nolan Ryan's. Blyleven does not have Ryan's no-hitters or his dominance of one-hit games either. Blyleven's win-loss record has a lot to do with Blyleven's teams not scoring many runs, thus having him lose many one-run games. He pitched in a different era than what today's pitchers will be held up to. Middle-relief pitching was approached as need-based, rather than a necessity, Blyleven pitched in almost 300 career complete games.

Let's crunch some numbers, in his 22-year career, Blyleven pitched a complete game in over 40% of the games in which he has started. He has never ranked higher than third in the Cy Young voting and has only played in two All-Star games in his 22-year career.

Bert Blyleven will be immortalized into the Hall of Fame. Sometimes players start racking up statistics just cause longevity and not exactly superb play. Blyleven's 3701 strikeouts are amazing, but his K/9 statistic of 7.4 per 9 innings isn't super spectacular, but nothing about Blyleven really is. It's a solid number and Blyleven was a solid pitcher and long-term performance needs to be rewarded with an induction in Cooperstown.

It's Official: Dawson Is in Hall Of Fame

The verdict is in and Andre Dawson will be the lone inductee into baseball's Hall of Fame. It was his 9th year on the ballot and the publicity campaign worked for "The Hawk." Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven were close, but weren't able to get 75% of the votes to join Dawson.

I have been a huge fan of Andre Dawson since I was about seven years of age. When he appeared on the Cubs, I was unaware where he came from. I was very young and I only kept tabs on the Cubs since I watched them every day on WGN. It wasn't until later that I found out that he was a star in Montreal for many years. When he arrived in Chicago, he was a home run machine and the clean-up hitter that Chicago needed to finally win a pennant in 1989. He was a nice player to lineup near Ryne Sandberg, but he turned out to be much more for Chicago, since he won the NL MVP in 1987 and lead the league in home runs.

Dawson was clearly a shell of himself later in his career because he played on the very bad turf in Montreal that messed up his knees. He used to have a lot of speed and stole a lot of bases with teammate Tim Raines leading the league many seasons. The Expos were a very fast team, but after playing so many years there, players were plagued with various knee problems. The turf was basically carpet on top of cement.

I will surely be watching the induction of "The Hawk" as I did when Ryne Sandberg was inducted. When you think about the 1987 season for the Cubs, they had Dawson, Sandberg, Rafael Palmeiro, Greg Maddux, Jamie Moyer, and Lee Smith. They had six players that will either be in the Hall of Fame or will be very close. It's hard to believe that the team finished last place in the NL East that year with a record of 76-85.

It was a shame that Bert Blyleven fell 5 votes of getting into the Hall of Fame. Every pitcher who gets near 300 wins, even if he had nearly as many losses, deserves to get in. He has two more years of eligibility and he should get in next season. Roberto Alomar also fell short in his first year of eligibility. He is another player that should get in and they both faired well in a year with not many stars becoming eligible. Jack Morris also saw an increase in votes, but he still has a long way to go, his name was on about 50% of the ballots.