Anyone that has been to a Baylor Lady Bears basketball game has seen the video that plays before player introductions. Head coach Kim Mulkey stands before her players and talks about the expectation that this team will repeat as National Champions.

Having a defense is important to win games. One may think that it’s common sense. There are many examples even throughout Baylor Athletics that support this notion.

Last season, Baylor football played West Virginia early in the season. ESPN was basically giving Gino Smith the Heisman after torching Baylor’s defense for 656 yards and eight touchdowns. However, ESPN didn’t notice the fact that Baylor scored 63 points. Senior quarterback Nick Florence had 581 yards for five touchdowns.

Those who choose to see Joe Paterno as a blameless scapegoat now have their own thick report to wave in the air and cite as proof.

Those who believe Paterno and other Penn State officials failed to act properly in 2001, allowing Jerry Sandusky to continue to prey on children, have the Freeh report and the grand jury presentment. As of Sunday, when the results of an investigation commissioned by the Paterno family were released, Paterno loyalists have their own gospel from which to preach.

Baylor’s recruiting class has drawn some national attention. ESPN ranked Baylor’s recruiting class at No. 28 in the country, just behind Oklahoma State and Oregon. There are only three Big 12 schools ahead of Baylor on the list: No. 15 Texas, No. 16 Oklahoma, and No. 27 Oklahoma State.

The Bears’ most highly touted recruit this year is wide receiver Robbie Rhodes. As a senior at Southwest High School in Fort Worth, Rhodes racked up 20 touchdowns, including 15 through the air. During his three years on varsity, Rhodes tallied 2,500 receiving yards and 751 rushing yards.

Nowadays, no matter what the sport is, you almost have to assume that most athletes are taking some form of performance-enhancing drugs.

It seems as if every other week a different athlete’s name is scrolling across the bottom of ESPN for having been caught using PEDs. Over the past few years, many iconic names have been linked to steroids, most notably Lance Armstrong and Barry Bonds.

President Barack Obama has two daughters, but if he had a son, he said that he is not sure if he’d let him play football.

Although Obama is a football fan, he worries about the general safety of the sport.

Obama told The New Republic that he “would have to think long and hard” before letting his son play football.

If a player is found to have used performance-enhancing drugs, then that player should not be voted into the Hall of Fame.

About 21 years ago, the Baseball Writers Association of America voted to permanently ban Pete Rose from the Hall of Fame.

His crime? Betting on baseball games.

The NBA season starts tonight, and fans in two cities can hardly control their excitement. I’m talking, of course, about Los Angeles and Miami.

If you look back just a year to when the league suffered a lockout, it seemed like the league was going to be shaken up. When the new NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement was ratified on Dec. 8, 2011, it put in place a framework that would prevent “super teams” from forming.

Isaiah Austin played his high school ball at Grace Preparatory Academy in Arlington. He played in McDonald’s and Jordan Brand All-American games and Adidas Nations and was widely regarded as one of the best recruits in the country.

Let me throw some numbers at you: 9.2 yards allowed per play, 14.6 yards allowed per completion , eight passing touchdowns allowed and zero forced turnovers.

If these stats are the result of your defense’s play, do you really trust them to make a stop late in the fourth quarter? No.

I didn’t know what to expect when I arrived in Monroe, La.

The ULM Warhawks have never really accomplished anything at the FBS level.

By Daniel Hill Sports Writer Why is Lache Seastrunk stuck on the bench? Coming out of Temple High School, Lache…

Now, more than ever, we follow the saying, “You’ve got to see it to believe it.”

Remember that one time when Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III led the Washington Redskins to a 40-32 victory over the New Orleans Saints on the road?

Plus, his stat line was out of control, completing 19-of-26 passes for 320 yards with a pair of touchdowns and no interceptions.

When the Freeh Report was released, Judge Louis Freeh blamed Penn State’s cover-up partly on the fact that the school had valued winning football games over the safety of innocent children.

Last season was arguably the greatest football season Baylor has ever known.

As far as individual awards go, Robert Griffin III claimed the most prestigious award in all of college football, the Heisman Trophy.

The million-dollar question, though, is whether or not Baylor can build on last season’s momentum with the loss of RG3.

Baylor’s men’s rugby club is in the Allied Rugby Conference, but it belonged to a different conference in 2011.

Last year, the Baylor rugby club was in the Southwest Rugby Conference.

However, Baylor remains on the Southwest schedule, and the league still considers Baylor a member.

Baylor, along with Texas and Sam Houston State, left the Southwest this offseason for the Allied Rugby Conference.

Texas’ and Sam Houston’s resignations from the Southwest were approved by the league, while Baylor’s was not.

With March Madness over, the intensity of postseason play seems to have extinguished until the NBA lights it up with playoffs in little more than a week.

As Baylor Nation bid adieu to sophomore forward Perry Jones III Monday, it applauded the return of freshman forward Quincy Miller.

Perry Jones III gets enough criticism to make Tim Tebow feel bad for him. I can’t remember a sophomore getting this level of vilification, especially one that averages 14 points and eight rebounds per game.

The last time the Lady Bears made it to the title game, I was in eighth grade, sitting on the couch with my dad, cheering them on.

Hate and ignorance have no place anywhere, and they should definitely not be welcome in sports arenas.

I thought the initial tweet about quarterback Tim Tebow’s trade to the New York Jets was a joke.

I know it hurts now Baylor fans. The men’s basketball team created some attention and momentum with its play in the first two games of the tournament, and it seems like Missouri took it away in one fell swoop.

I am absolutely thrilled with your decisions this year. Although the vast majority of America wants to see a playoff system and there are probably ways to have that make more money anyways, you guys have really stuck to your corrupt principles and kept the BCS Championship series.

The Lariat’s sports desk reveal their picks for the league’s games this week.

The 2011 Texas Rangers are in the World Series. Again. Just think about that.

After the Bears’ 55-28 loss at Texas A&M, the numbers are in, and some of them aren’t pretty.

In the words of Texas Ranger manager Ron Washington, “That’s the way baseball go.”

It is absolutely amazing what difference a month can make. One day you can be on cloud nine without a worry in the world. A month later, everything has fallen apart and your world in shambles.

Postseason baseball is here, as well as college football and cooler weather. What most people may not care about, but I am here to advocate, is the arrival of the 2011-2012 hockey season.