Deposed coach Michael Center "ecstatic" for Texas' tennis title

While I got ya, here are nine things and one crazy prediction:

1. Of all those watching the Texas men’s tennis team dominate play and win the school’s first national championship on Sunday, none was as emotionally involved as Michael Center. And few if any were rooting harder for the Longhorns than their former head tennis coach, who was fired by the university in mid-season. He later pled guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and is awaiting sentencing that could be as long as 21 months in prison. In his first public comments since pleading guilty, Center told me Tuesday, "I'm ecstatic for the team. I'm so happy for those guys and the coaches. It was just an incredible achievement and I'm so happy for the alumni and the University of Texas. It was an historic day and a really special moment." Center said he was "really happy" for interim coach Bruce Berque, who guided the team to a 29-3 season record and a 4-1 NCAA championship match win over Wake Forest. "Bruce does a great job," Center said. "He's a tremendous person and coach. He was a great asset to the program and did a fantastic job. I'm really proud of him, too." Center got choked up emotionally, his voice breaking, when he mentioned that he and former UT assistant Ricardo Rubio, currently the head coach at the University of Denver, “helped me recruit those guys. Special credit to him. He played a big role.” Center, who declined to discuss his personal troubles and uncertain future, said, “I’d love to comment on me, and I will when it’s all said and done. I don’t want to get into it now. I just want to talk about the achievement of the program.”

2. If it’s late May, that means we’ve seen our first fall football magazine on sale. Athlon released its top 25 projections that includes Texas on the fringe of the top 10 at No. 11, right after Texas A&M. Eleven sounds about right with all the losses on defense and offensive line. Athlon’s top five in order are Alabama, Clemson, Georgia, Michigan and Ohio State. Two UT opponents — Oklahoma and LSU — came in at No 6 and 7.

3. Have the NBA playoffs finished yet? Save for the Warriors-Rockets series and Kawhi Leonard’s game-winning shot and the arrival of the Denver Nuggets, this post-season has been a colossal bore. For one, there’s not really a villain to root against. Where are you, Kyrie Irving? ... I did appreciate Joel Embiid’s cryfest after his 76ers were eliminated. I love honest emotion. Did you see James Harden and Chris Paul just somberly walk off the court? To each his own, but didn’t they have to be devastated after choking this chance away? Guess they have time to shoot more insurance commercials now. ... Come on, Magic Johnson. Don’t be so petty. You’re an all-time great and everybody loves you, but I don’t think you came off very well in scorching the Lakers and Rob Pelinka. So sick of ESPN discussing the Lakers spit storm like it’s Armageddon ... Kevin Durant has to be praying that his Warriors don’t sweep the Eastern Conference finalist and make it seem like Golden State doesn’t even need him. Oh, wait. Guess it already has. Since his calf injury, his teammates have closed out the Rockets and Blazers and won all six games without him, three of them on the road.

4. With the tennis title in hand and golf flourishing, could Texas eventually become the king of non-revenue sports? OK, baseball, pick it up. Texas has 55 national championships in all sports, eight from 2010 on (thank you, Eddie Reese). It has a ways to catch Stanford, which has a record-122 NCAA championships although to be fair, the Cardinal have 36 sports, claims 37 men’s and women’s tennis titles and also field teams in men’s soccer, beach volleyball, field hockey, men’s and women’s gymnastics, lacrosse, squash and, of course, water polo. Texas has just 18 sports. Come on, Chris Del Conte, we’ve got plenty of water here in the 512.

5. The Texas women’s golf team has shown up big in the NCAA championships, leading all teams by at least seven strokes entering Tuesday’s match play format. That after trailing by 12 shots in round two. Four of Ryan Murphy’s ladies were top 10 finishers, a first in school history, and freshman Hailee Cooper was fourth, rallying from an opening-round 80 for back-to-back scores of 69. Cooper is a budding star.

6. Was so impressed with the tenacity of Texas softball pitcher Miranda Elish, who threw 429 pitches in four games over a span of just 31 hours in the regional. Her heroics rank up there with Longhorns baseball pitcher Austin Wood, whose 13-inning, 169-pitch effort helped win a 2009 regional game that went 25 innings, and Rice’s Alan Ramirez, who threw 232 pitches in one game to snap Texas’ NCAA-record 34-game win streak in 1977. Did you know Elish’s younger sister, Madi, is a 2021 commit to Arizona? Come on, Miranda. Make another pitch, this one in recruiting.

7. Hats off to both the Texas State and Concordia baseball teams. Ty Harrington’s Bobcats won their first Sun Belt regular-season title. Concordia (37-11) won the Division III regional tournament hosted by Texas Lutheran, beating Franklin College to advance to its first super regional appearance against No. 6 Chapman for a best-of-three series in Orange, Calif., this week in a matchup of probably the two best pitching staffs in the country. The Tornados will ride Matthew Williams (12-1), who has thrown a no-hitter, and Calvin Bush, whose 106 strikeouts are the third most in school history and rank eighth nationally. Chapman's Tyler Peck leads the nation with 142 strikeouts.

8. Scattershooting while wondering whatever happened to Wayne Johnson, a track and football star for Richardson who played wide receiver for Texas in 1978 and 1979 and was part of the Longhorns' 1979 Southwest Conference track champions.

9. My wife and I watched “Wine Country,” but it might as well have been called “Whine Country.” We really wanted to like it, but it never clicked with us. Two wasted hours. Can’t ever remember laughing. Gave it one duck.

10. Crazy prediction: Ja Morant will have a better NBA career than Zion Williamson.