The Morning Fade – 2.17.11

1. Trotter and McShay break down Hunter vs. Murray – And the story is every bit as exhilarating as the title indicates. They dually conclude that Hunter is probably better better (and more underrated) running back and his draft position will indicate just that. (News OK)

2. Oklahoma State sues insurance company for $33M – Um…how is this not a bigger story, especially with Boone involved? I’m basing all of my assumptions on this one article but it seems like there’s a bit of he-said she-said going on between two people: Mike Holder and the Lincoln Financial Life representative to OSU. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out… (News OK)

3. Ubben talks to Gundy about the new Big 12 – Lots of good stuff in here on how coaches view the old Big 12 and a conference title game. Ubben points out, “without Nebraska, the league as a whole is weaker, but the lack of a title game could mean an easier road to the national championship, where Big 12 teams (Texas and Oklahoma, who both remain in the league) have appeared in five of the past eight games.” (ESPN)

4. Peter Bean on Texas’ big W – “To put in context how strong a team is this Longhorns squad: I thought the Cowboys played improved basketball from the last time we saw them and that Texas was merely okay, and yet the game was never in doubt and the final spread was 18 points.” (Burnt Orange Nation)

5. Solid baseball preview from the O’Colly – “From the coaching staff down to the players, there is a consensus that last season was a disappointment. However, there is plenty of optimism about the potential of this year’s club, which is hard to argue with. They return virtually every impact player and bring in the No. 27 recruiting class in the nation. A tough schedule, which includes nine tournament teams from last year, will test that depth early and often. All things considered, this team should return to the Big 12 tournament and an NCAA tournament bid is not out of the question.” ( O’Colly)

“[You] just can’t compete against the third-ranked team in America when you have 17 turnovers.” – Travis Ford

An Alabama fan poisoned Toomer’s Oaks in Auburn in the opening act of what’s sure to be a year-long prank-infested feud. Also, K-State is selling the DVD of its shocker over KU from Monday, my only question: why don’t more teams do this?