University of Texas fans are going to love the mindset for the 50th edition of Dave Campbell’s Texas Football Magazine. The state’s football bible, due out this week, picks Colt McCoy to lead the Longhorns to their fifth national championship. “We went out on a limb picking Texas when most national media are focusing on Florida,” said the magazine’s managing editor Adam Hochfelder. “But we think with Colt’s leadership and the other experience coming back, that will be enough to put Texas over the top. As usual, Texas Football is packed with schoolboy and college previews and rankings, recruiting lists and features. Price of the 2009 issue is $9.95 . . . Six Texas High school teams will be among the first to enjoy the eye-opening experience of playing a game at JerryWorld/aka Cowboys Stadium, as part of the second Kirk Herbstreit High School Football Showcase. Games scheduled for a Labor Day quadrupleheader are Euless Trinity vs. South Jordan (Utah) Bingham, Klein Oaks vs. Sherman Oaks (Calif.) Notre Dame Prep, Colleyville Heritage vs. Irving and Mansfied Summit vs. Mansfield Timberview. Wonder who will wind up being the first team from Southeast Texas to play a game in Jerry Jones’ billion dollar facility?

Nederland’s Taylor Trahan has earned himself a trip to Whitewater, Wis., with impressive field goal and punting performances at a couple of kicking combines in the Houston area. Trahan was the top kicker in accuracy and had the longest field goal of 55 yards at the Old Coach Combine at the University of Houston on June 7. A day later at the Jamie Kohl competition in Pearland, he was second in field goals, first in punting and second in kickoffs. That earned him an invitation to the Scholarship Showcase in Whitewater, which will have onlookers from ESPN, Rivals.com and Scout.com. Todd Dodge and North Texas are among Trahan’s early pursuers . . . Folks who have been around awhile will remember a bright, young basketball coach named Ken DeWeese who coached TJ for three years in the mid 1970s. With retired Marine Col. Johnny Collins doing the organizing, a handful of players from those three Yellow Jacket teams enjoyed a reunion with DeWeese and his wife, Ann, recently in Belton. Collins wants to get the word out to other players from the DeWeese teams that another gathering will be held later in the year in hopes of attracting a larger turnout. Anyone who is interested can contact Collins at john.t.collins1@gmail.com or by going to tjyellowjackets.ning.com . . . Belated congratulations to Nederland ex Adam Broussard. Broussard, after hitting a team best .381 and getting seven assists from centerfield for Baltimore City Community College, was selected to play in the Maryland Junior College Conference Freshman All-Star game.

It was deja vu all over again for Orlando Magic fans, watching their team choke away a critical home game in the NBA Finals Thursday night. Fourteen years ago a player who came to be known as Nick “The Brick” Anderson missed four free throws in the final 11 seconds, giving the Rockets Kenny Smith a chance to send the game into overtime with a three-point shot. That Orlando team, which had a rising star named Shaquille O’Neal, lost that game, never recovered and Houston swept the series. How ironic that Dwight Howard’s two killer misses came with 11 seconds left in Game 4 against the Lakers. Howard, however, wasn’t the only culprit, as the Magic gave the game away by missing 15 free throws . . . I never cease to be amazed that so many highly paid, highly skilled athletes can’t make an unguarded 15-foot shot — a free throw — under pressure. For all the other factors that go into NBA games — matchups, coaching, turnovers, three-point shooting and incredibly bad and inconsistent officiating, an amazing number of games are decided when players choke at the free throw line . . . The Lakers are going to be NBA champions, but nobody can convince me they are a great team. Orlando has handed them two wins by missing a layup at the buzzer and the aforementioned free throws. Before that they had to go seven games to close out a Houston team missing Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady. On occasion, the Lakers can be great. But these playoffs hardly stamp them as a dominant team. They’re fortunate Boston didn’t have Kevin Garnett. And that Orlando gagged.

Former Green Bay Packer safety Mark Murphy has played against and seen some great receivers, so it’s pretty eye-opening when he says his top four receivers would be James Lofton, Jerry Rice, Steve Largent and LeBron James. LeBron James? Murphy, it seems, was an assistant coach when the NBA’s best or second best player, depending on your viewpoint, was an all-state receiver at Akron’s St. Vincent-St. Mary High. “People laugh at me when I put LeBron in there with the top NFL receivers,” says Murphy, “but he’s the one kid who could’ve gone straight from high school to the NFL and played.” . . . James, by the way, just got hit with a $25,000 fine from NBA commissioner David Stern for his glaring lack of sportsmanship in refusing to shake hands or do mandatory TV interviews after his Cleveland Cavaliers were eliminated by Orlando. Among other things, it’s proof once again that a Sports Illustrated cover jinx really does exist. LeBron was on the cover of SI prior to the Cavs-Magic series . . . Chris Stroud’s had a great week of golf in Memphis, tying for 5th in a 36-hole Monday U.S. Open qualifier, then stringing together three consecutive solid rounds in the St. Jude’s Classic. After missing five of the last six cuts, he’ll pick up a hefty and much-needed paycheck if he can just finish strong. That’s the one thing he’s had trouble doing much of the year.

Interleague play ramps up in earnest this week, which isn’t necessarily good news for the Astros or the National League. The Astros, of course, were swept by the Texas Rangers in May and are now looking at consecutive three-game series against the Rangers, Minnesota, Kansas City and Detroit. Only Kansas City looks appetizing, although not when one of baseball’s best, Zack Greinke, is pitching. For the record, Houston is exactly .500 (94-94) in 12 plus years of interleague competition . . . American League teams, by the way, have come out on top of the NL five consecutive years, eight of 12 and were leading 31-25 this season after coming out on top in 9 of 14 games Friday night. The three best teams in interleague games have been the Yankees (.586 winning percentage), the Oakland A’s (.580) and the Twins (.571). Boston and the Chicago White Sox round at the top five at .550. Most successful NL team, believe it or not, has been the Florida Marlins at .547 . . . Best barometer yet that Astros owner Drayton McLane is looking at a drastic attendance dropoff — barring a strong charge into contention — is last week’s three-game series with the Cubs. Whereas crowds in the 40,000 range have pretty much been the norm when the Cubbies are in town, the games drew only 29,666, 29,840 and 34,250. With the Astros showing signs of life recently, it has to be a little scary for McLane that the numbers weren’t better for a foe who generally inflates attendance with fans wearing its colors.

Bob West is the Port Arthur News Sports Editor.