Texas picked up its 19th commitment Thursday afternoon  when South Grand Prairie OL Tray Allen (6-4, 305) made his announcement on rivals.com radio. Allen has been reluctant to commit early but Texas has been squeezing recruits as it gets close to filling its class. Allen also considered USC, Oklahoma, Texas A&M and Notre Dame.

Texas is far outdistancing others in early commitments. The Longhorns technically have only 18 scholarships but may have as many as 23 or 24 open with typical attrition over the course of the next year.

Oral commitments are non-binding. The first day to sign a national letter-of-intent is Feb. 7. Texas coach Mack Brown has an outstanding track record in keeping oral commitments.

Texas has made scholarship offers to several other players and which ones commit first could determine whether other offers are retracted _ usually according to position. Also weighing offers from the Longhorns:

RB/WR Joseph Reese, Pflugerville Hendrickson

DE Brandon Joiner Killeen Shoemaker

RB Lennon Creer, Tatum (next expected UT commit)

DB Eric Cherry, Creekside (Ga.) (longshot to sign)

DB Dionte Allen, Orchard Lake St. Mary's (MI)

DB Antwoine Baker, LA (Calif.) Jordan

DE/LB Richetti Jones, Lincoln (likes UT but wants some visits)

WR Ahmad Paige Sterlington (La.) (longshot)

QB Ryan Mallett, Texarkana (can't believe UT wouldn't take anytime)

ATH Ronald Johnson, Muskegon ( Mich.) (longshot)

CB Phelon Jones McGill (Ala.)

TE Blaine Irby Ventura (Calif.) St. Bonaventure (USC hot after him)

DE Joseph Barksdale Detroit (MI) Cass (longshot)

DE Marvin Austin Washington DC Coolidge (last UT D.C. guy of not was Lovell Pinkey. never mindl)

COMMITTED TO TEXAS

Tray Allen South Grand Prairie OL 6-4, 305

John Brantley Ocala (Fla.) Trinity Catholic QB 6-3 190

Malcolm Williams Garland WR 6-3, 205
Cody Johnson  Waller FB 5-10, 225
John Chiles Mansfield Summit QB/DB/WR 6-1 195
Zack Pianalto, Springdale (Ark.) WR 6-4, 210

Ahmard Howard Brenham TE-DE 6-4, 240

Keenan Robinson Plano East LB 6-3, 215
Kyle Hix Aledo OL 6-7, 305

Matt Nader Austin Westlake OL 6-6, 295

Jerrod Gooch Vidor OL 6-5, 290

Aundre McGaskey LaMarque OL 6-4, 290

Michael Huey Kilgore OL 6-4, 290

Ben Wells Bmt. Ozen DB 6-1, 175

Earl Thomas WO Stark RB/DB 5-10, 180

Curtis Brown Gilmer DB 5-11, 180

Andre Jones EP Andress DT 6-4, 305

Foswhitt Whitaker Pearland RB 5-9,170

Russell Carter Westbury DE 6-3,230

      "Dirk should win the MVP,'' Mark Cuban tells DallasBasketball.com in what is the Mavs owner's first-ever such declaration.
      For most of the season, Cuban has stayed out of the campaigning business. But apparently nudged by my column/conversation with ESPN's Ric Bucher (see 'My Dinner With Bucher') he is now moved to offer his definition of what the MVP is -- and how well Dirk fits it.
      "The best reflection of a player making his team mates better is not his teammates' stats, but the record of his team,'' says Cuban, checking in from the Mavs West Coast roadie. "If one guy could carry a team, Kobe would have 60 wins. Nash -- who has a sidekick MVP candidate in Shawn Marion -- would have 60 wins.''
      The Mavs, at 59-19 as of Wednesday, are zeroing in on 60, and will join San Antonio as the only team in the West at that plateau. Detroit, with 62 wins, is the only East team in that range. A quick scan, by the way, suggests that MVPs usually come from teams with top-three regular-season finishes.
      Continues Cuban: "Dirk makes his team better. His team wins games. That's making your teammmates better. No one has helped make his team as successful as Dirk has. ... Dirk should win the MVP.''
      Conventional wisdom has the field now narrowed to six candidates: (in alphabetical order) Pistons guard Chauncey Billups, Lakers guard Kobe Bryant, Cavaliers forward LeBron James, Suns guard Steve Nash, Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki and Heat guard Dwyane Wade.
      A glance at the six:
      Chauncey Billups -- Team record: 62-15. Stats: 19.0 ppg, 3.2 rpg, 8.7 apg, 0.88 spg Comments: Billups has been terrific. Why he might not win: The Pistons are a total team effort with several players just as important as Billups is.
      Kobe Bryant -- Team record: 42-37. Stats: 35.2 PPG, 5.5 RPG, 4.4 APG, 1.58 SPG, 44.4% FG
      LeBron James -- Team record: 47-30. Stats: 31.7 ppg, 7.1 rpg, 6.7 apg, 1.58 spg
      Steve Nash -- Team record: Stats: 19.2 ppg, 4.2 rpg, 10.4 apg, 51.3% FG
      Dirk Nowitzki -- Team record: 59-19. Stats: 26.5 ppg, 9.0 rpg, 2.8 apg, 1.05 bpg
      Dwyane Wade -- Team record: 51-27. Stats: 27.5 ppg, 5.8 rpg, 6.8 apg, 1.92 spg
      Do you buy Bucher's "makes-his-team-better'' argument? To me, all six of the above seem to qualify. Does "makes-his-team-better'' include making it better than the "experts'' thought it would be last fall? Because there is an interesting angle here.
      Guess where Ric Bucher of ESPN predicted the Mavs would finish this season back before it started? Ric said "third'' in the Southwest Division and sixth in the West overall. And he added, "I see them living and dying in the middle of the playoff pack.''
      So Dirk let a team that ESPN thought would win 50 to somewhere in excess of 60 wins? Isn't that the epitome of "making them better''?
      There, we can add Cuban's sharper definition: "The best reflection of a player making his teammates better is not his teammates stats, but the record of his team.''
      Dirk finished third in the MVP voting last year. He's been better this season, and so has his team -- 10 or 15 games better than most people thought it would be. How is he anything but a finalist in everybody's eyes?
      An unfortunate twist on the fact that this may be the widest MVP race ever: Despite the fact that there seem to six guys who will garner votes, my understanding is that the ballot only leaves spaces for five names. So someone worthy of mention. ... in the end, won't even get mentioned.
      Now that Cuban is doing some "mentioning'' himself, hopefully -- logically -- that person won't be Nowitzki.

There has been another announcement of Minor League Baseball players testing positive for performance enhancing drugs. Four Minor Leaguers have been suspended 50 games. Three of the four tested positive for performance enhancers.

A 50 game suspension in the Minors is huge. I think it may be near impossible for a minor leaguer to overcome. You wouldn’t know any of these players. And, now you may not ever see these guys in the big leagues.

3 of the 4 players suspended are pitchers. And this underscores something that Friedo’s been saying for years. Pitchers use steroids…Yes, that’s right, just like the batters, pitchers use steroids. We just don’t hear about it. We don’t hear about it because pitchers don’t hit home runs.

Now, why would a pitcher use steroids? Well, recovery time is one reason. But the other thing may be that they are launching a preventative strike? Are they saying, ‘…if the batters are using, why shouldn’t I?’

There are certain freaks of nature. Nolan Ryan was a freak of nature. Jerry Rice was a freak of nature. God gave these guys magnificent genes. The pill bottle has given many more athletes incredible “genes”.

There is no question that pitchers have been using. It is not a hitters only situation. It is a game situation. The face of the steroid situation right now is Bonds and Palmiero. But how many pitchers did they face in their career that have also been using.

Prosper has hired Kent Scott as head football coach. The fast-growing Collin County school named Mike Coker as AD two weeks ago.

A growing community in northern Collin County , Prosper will move to Class 3A from 2A in the UIL realignment for 2006-07. Prosper is expected to eventually be Class 4A, perhaps as soon as 2008.

Former Prosper AD/FB coach John Pease resigned in February when Prosper officials decided to split the job into two positions. In his fourth season in '05, Prosper finished 10-3 and made longest playoff run in school history when it advanced to the Class 2A Division II regional semifinals

Scott had an 8-13 record during his two seasons at East Bernard in South Texas . But he led the Brahmas to consecutive playoff appearances. East Bernard was the runner-up in District 26-2A last season and lost to Lexington 40-14 in the Division II bi-district playoffs and finished the season at 5-5. Scott was considered successful and the school board extended his contract to keep him but Scott wanted to move to Dallas after getting married in December.

Scott came to East Bernard from Class 1A Ralls, where he was the head coach for three seasons.

He has also coached at A&M Consolidated and Rogers.

Coker is a former head football coach at Galena Park in Houston .