DULY NOTED

Monday, April 23, 2007 | 7:38 a.m.

TEXAS TOAST

I received an e-mail from a Texas A&M football fan this week that was slugged "OH NO."

"I was just reading a chat with Coach Fran (A&M football coach Dennis Franchione) on TexAgs.com and saw this Q&A," his e-mail read.

"Coach, over the past few years, you've met with different coaching staffs such as Urban Meyer's, West Virginia, etc. Are there any schools in particular you plan to meet with this offseason?"

To which Franchione responded:

"We have spent time with several schools this offseason from Georgia Tech to UNLV (and several others)."

TASHA, TASHA, TASHA

If you're wondering what two-time Olympian Tasha Schwikert of Las Vegas is planning for an encore, how does winning a couple of - better make that a few - NCAA gymnastics championships sound?

The Centennial High grad, a junior at UCLA, finished the regular season as the only gymnast in the nation ranked in the Top 15 in the all-around and all four events that compose it.

Schwikert, the 2005 NCAA all-around champion as a freshman who was injured for most of her sophomore year, won all-around, vault, balance beam and floor exercise titles at the Pac-10 championships and the all-around, beam and floor titles at the NCAA Regionals. She is favored to win her second all-around national title at the NCAA championships this week in Salt Lake City.

The two-time U.S. national all-around champion will be joined by her sister and UCLA teammate Jordan Schwikert, whose strong performances in the vault and on the beam helped the Bruins to the Southeast Regional title.

35

Number of individual event gymnastics titles earned this year by Centennial High grad Tasha Schwikert, a junior at UCLA.

7.7

The local TV rating of the inaugural Vegas Grand Prix.

2.8

The local TV rating for that day's NBA game featuring the Phoenix Suns and Los Angeles Lakers.

DUKES PUT UP RATNER

There was never a doubt that Heiden Ratner had the skills and statistics to play Division I college basketball. Size was another matter.

But in the end, it wasn't that big of an issue for James Madison of the Colonial Athletic Association, which signed the 5-foot-11 Silverado High scoring machine to a letter-of-intent.

That made Ratner's father , Marc, the former executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission and a current Ultimate Fighting Championship vice president, a happy man.

Ratner was growing weary of this school and that one showing interest in his son, then keeping the tuition and room and board money in their pockets. That's why he checked the fine printing in his son's letter.

"It's in there," he said.

AROUND THE HORN

Virginia Tech football coach Frank Beamer:

"There's things more important than football right now."

- on cance ling Tech's spring football game after the shooting massacre on campus.

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