Longhorns

Texas guard Varez Ward will miss the rest of the season with a ruptured quadriceps tendon in his right leg. Team trainer Eric Fry says Ward will have surgery next week. Ward started the first three games for No. 3 Texas (4-0) before injuring himself in warm-ups before Tuesday night's win over Pittsburgh. He averaged 6.7 points and three rebounds and led the team with seven steals. •UCLA reinstated Nikola Dragovic after the Serbian forward's two-game suspension for his arrest in an assault case.

Women's college volleyball Webster MVP as Texas wins national crown Junior two-time All-America outside hitter Bailey Webster (St. Paul's School for Girls) was named Most Valuable Player as third-seeded Texas (29-4) won the NCAA championship with a 25-11, 26-24, 25-19 victory over Oregon (30-5) on Saturday night in Louisville, Ky. Playing before the second-largest NCAA-final crowd, 16,448, the Longhorns won their second national title in eight Final Four trips. Webster led Texas in kills (14)

PASADENA, Calif. - For a guy who grew up in the shadow of the Matterhorn (and we're talking about the fake one in Southern California, of course), the Rose Bowl has always been a repository of tradition in a land of constant change. The Tournament of Roses spawned the first bowl game more than a century ago and tried hard to resist the siren call of the Bowl Championship Series, but you can only stand in the way of progress for so long if you want the biggest share of all that TV money.

The more you can do. It has become an unofficial motto of Ravens training camp this year. The simple five-word phrase is meant to foster a sense of unity, to remind players that great team members are willing to go beyond their defined roles for the sake of the group. For Ravens kicker Justin Tucker, though, five words don't exactly suffice. "It's not just about the more you can do," the rookie kicker said last week. "It's the more you can do well. " He should know. After all, Tucker is no typical undrafted signee.

AUSTIN, Texas -- These days, Mark McBath can come home at night, eat dinner with his wife and sometimes even get a chance to watch television. Unless of course the phone starts ringing, and he's called to the hospital.McBath is relishing this new normalcy -- that is, normal if you're a new doctor. He has been able to enjoy such a lifestyle for about the past 100 days, since he completed the last phase of his lengthy medical education.For the past 10 years, McBath has spent more hours working -- and more hours on call -- than his body cares to remember.

The Texas football team rode its resounding Red River Rivalry upset right to No. 1. The Longhorns leapfrogged No. 2 Alabama yesterday and sit atop the Associated Press Top 25 in the regular season for the first time in 24 years after beating Oklahoma, 45-35. Texas' jump to No. 1 is the largest since Miami went from No. 6 to No. 1 on Aug. 29, 1988, after beating preseason top-ranked Florida State, 31-0, to start the season. Texas received 39 first-place votes and 1,599 points from the media panel.

LOS ANGELES - Nebraska is still on the minds of Texas' offensive linemen. Facing a fierce Alabama defense in the Bowl Championship Series title game Thursday, the question is whether the Longhorns have enough up front. The Nebraska game was the topic of conversation during Sunday's media rounds and certainly will be touched on during the Longhorns' practices this week at UC Irvine. There are plenty of connect-the-dot comparisons between Alabama and Nebraska on defense, but Texas' Colt McCoy will be happy to know that the way they rush the quarterback isn't one of them.

PASADENA, Calif. -- Hours after leading second-ranked Texas to a stunning 41-38 victory over top-ranked Southern California in the Bowl Championship Series national title game at the Rose Bowl, Longhorns quarterback Vince Young was alone on the balcony of his hotel room, crying. "I just sat out there and had my little words with the man upstairs," Young said yesterday. "I'm just a real blessed guy to be in the position I am right now. This is a big flashback of me growing up, me making that big transition to work hard in football and get away from the negative things going on in my life."

No team has been able to cling to No. 1 very long this season. But no team has fallen harder since being ranked at the top than Texas. The No. 9 Longhorns entered Monday's game against Oklahoma State having dropped three of their last four after starting the season 17-0. Thud. Or maybe it's more of a whiff. The Longhorns might be modeling themselves after the NCAA runner-up Memphis team from two seasons ago that never could make a free throw. Texas owns the top scoring offense in the Big 12, averaging 85.3 points, is the top rebounding team with 44.3 per game and has the third-best shooting defense, holding opponents to 38.5 percent shooting.

Still struggling to shake some rust from the winter break, No. 7 Texas used another strong defensive effort to pull away from Mount St. Mary's for an 80-64 victory yesterday in Austin, Texas. Playing just their third game in the two weeks around the holidays, the Longhorns struggled through another cold-shooting performance but clamped down on defense in time for their fourth straight win. Texas (9-2) forced Mount St. Mary's into 24 turnovers and turned them into 22 points. The Longhorns also dominated the rebounding 52-35 to make up for 37 percent shooting.

Could cripple conference Matt Murschel Orlando Sentinel The once powerful football conference is beginning to show the wear and tear of the changing face of college football. Conference expansion has taken its toll on the league, taking Colorado and Nebraska along with the Big 12 championship game and millions of dollars. Only Texas' choice to stay in the Big 12 saved it from extinction. However, the school's new 20-year, $300 million deal with ESPN to create its own 24-hour cable network could destroy it. With expanded control over their marketing rights and their own television deal, Texas is set to make more than $30 million a year.

Maryland has agreed to a home-and-home football series with Texas, the school announced today. The Terps will travel to Austin on Sept. 2, 2017, while the Longhorns will head to College Park for a Sept. 1, 2018 date. Both games will be season openers. Texas holds a 3-0 series advantage over the Terps. The last meeting between the programs was in the 1978 Sun Bowl.

The Ravens used their first pick to end Sergio Kindle's free fall — the longest of any defensive player in this year's NFL draft — when they selected the talented but complicated Texas linebacker in the second round. Some teams were scared off by Kindle's often-injured knee. Others were worried about his brushes with the law. As far as him fitting in with the Ravens' defense, there are no questions. It takes only a few minutes of talking with Kindle to realize he already has the Ravens' swagger.

His father was an Orioles standout; his mother, a world-class swimmer. With that pedigree, was it any surprise that Austin Surhoff led Texas to the NCAA Division I men's swimming and diving team championship in Columbus, Ohio, last weekend? Surhoff, 19, a freshman from St. Paul's, was Texas' only individual winner, taking the 200-yard individual medley by a scant .004 of a second. His victory early in the meet buoyed the Longhorns' hopes and powered them to their 10th NCAA title. With his parents, B.J. Surhoff and the former Polly Winde, in the stands, Surhoff touched the wall a whisker in front.

No team has been able to cling to No. 1 very long this season. But no team has fallen harder since being ranked at the top than Texas. The No. 9 Longhorns entered Monday's game against Oklahoma State having dropped three of their last four after starting the season 17-0. Thud. Or maybe it's more of a whiff. The Longhorns might be modeling themselves after the NCAA runner-up Memphis team from two seasons ago that never could make a free throw. Texas owns the top scoring offense in the Big 12, averaging 85.3 points, is the top rebounding team with 44.3 per game and has the third-best shooting defense, holding opponents to 38.5 percent shooting.

LOS ANGELES - Nebraska is still on the minds of Texas' offensive linemen. Facing a fierce Alabama defense in the Bowl Championship Series title game Thursday, the question is whether the Longhorns have enough up front. The Nebraska game was the topic of conversation during Sunday's media rounds and certainly will be touched on during the Longhorns' practices this week at UC Irvine. There are plenty of connect-the-dot comparisons between Alabama and Nebraska on defense, but Texas' Colt McCoy will be happy to know that the way they rush the quarterback isn't one of them.

A week before the final standings are released and the Bowl Championship Series is already ticking people off. Oklahoma - not Texas - is headed to the Big 12 championship game with an inside track to the national title game by finishing ahead of the Longhorns in the BCS standings. Texas' victory against the Sooners in October wasn't enough to give the Longhorns the advantage in a three-way tie between Oklahoma, Texas and Texas Tech atop the Big 12 South. And that's sure to leave many in Austin feeling slighted.

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Last season, there were numerous questions about Texas quarterback Vince Young going into the second game of the season - a showdown at Ohio State. While everyone knew Young was a great athlete who could hurt you with his scrambling ability, there were questions about how well he could pass against a legitimate defense. To be fair, there were questions about Texas as a team, too, most notably whether it could win in a hostile environment despite the opponent not having an established quarterback.

AUSTIN, Texas - Dexter Pittman admits he needed to get mad. And Texas coach Rick Barnes knew how to push the proper buttons to accomplish that. Before the Longhorns faced North Carolina on Saturday, Barnes led Pittman into the gym for an early season message. Running and conducting drills for an hour and a half was a way to jolt Pittman out of his "mentally relaxed" mode, Pittman said. "Like an NBA predraft camp but harder," he said. Pittman grasped the message and delivered with 23 points and 15 rebounds in a 103-90 victory against the Tar Heels.

Texas guard Varez Ward will miss the rest of the season with a ruptured quadriceps tendon in his right leg. Team trainer Eric Fry says Ward will have surgery next week. Ward started the first three games for No. 3 Texas (4-0) before injuring himself in warm-ups before Tuesday night's win over Pittsburgh. He averaged 6.7 points and three rebounds and led the team with seven steals. •UCLA reinstated Nikola Dragovic after the Serbian forward's two-game suspension for his arrest in an assault case.