Double-T Nation Daily Diatribe :: 02.09.10

Game Tonight
Texas Tech Red Raiders vs. Oklahoma Sooners
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Location: Norman, OK
Television: Big 12 Network : ESPN 360 :
DTN Preview: 8:00 a.m. :: Open Game Day Thread: 6:00 p.m.
Sooners Arrested: It's being reported everywhere, but I'll use a Oklahoma link as NewsOK reports that freshmen Steven Pledger and Andrew Fitzgerald were arrested in connection with a shoplifting incident in Norman, just hours after OU's win over Texas over the weekend. Pledger and Fitzgerald were bench players for the Sooners, not starters. The Norman Transcript is reporting that head coach Jeff Capel has declined to comment on their status. I'm guessing that Capel would hold them out tonight at the very least, but I could be wrong.
Putting Up Numbers: LAJ's Courtney Linehan writes that despite SF Mike Singletary's injury, he still put up numbers against Oklahoma St. and Singletary talks about getting to the bucket (something I mentioned after the game on Sunday):
"That’s why I was attacking the hole, because with a bum shoulder you can’t really stand out there and shoot jump shots," Singletary said. "I’m probably going to change my game a little bit."
Consecutive Wins: DT's Mike Graham writes the Red Raiders are looking for their second consecutive win against the Sooners head coach Pat Knight knows that it starts with defense:
"I thought we did a lot better," Knight said about the defense during Monday’s coaches teleconference. "To be able to hold Oklahoma State to 26 points in the first half and to keep Anderson at 10 points, I thought it was big for us. We’ve just got to be able to do it on the road."
Roberson Growing Into Role: FWST's Dwain Price writes that PG John Roberson is growing into his role as a team leader for Texas Tech:
"He kind of had bad body language when he first got here, kind of a pouter type if things weren't going his way in a game or if you got on him from a coaching aspect,'' Pat Knight said.
What a difference two years and some talented teammates make. Roberson is now one of the toasts of a Raider team that is 15-7 overall and 3-5 in Big 12 Conference play.
"He's really matured at the point now where I really don't have to get on him or motivate him,'' said Pat Knight, who is his second full season as the Raiders' head coach. "He talks up in the huddle, he's an extension of the coaches now, and that's what we're hoping for.
"We knew his first two years it takes time for a kid to learn that, especially playing at this level. But I can't be more happier having a kid like that, and knowing what I got. Not just for the rest of this year, I've got him for next year.''
Winning on the Road: LAJ's Courtney Linehan writes that the Red Raiders need to start winning on the road and OU head coach Jeff Capel also agrees that teams are holding serve at home:
"We’re just beating up on each other, with the exception of Kansas," Capel said. "You’d like to think if you can get there maybe it could happen, but I don’t know. We’ll see at the end what happens and what the selection committee does."
Miscellaneous Links: SB Nation's Chris Dobertean writes this week's bracketology, and Texas Tech could be in the NIT with North Carolina and UConn . . . Rush the Court checks in on the Big 12 . . .

Pre-Season Tidbits: LAJ's George Watson goes to his blog to give a couple bits of news, including the news that Texas Tech's strength of schedule is ranked #11 in the country and that 3B Justin Berry had a slight fracture in his left hand that will keep him out for two weeks. Watson seems to think that there's enough talent on the team to make-up for Berry's loss.
Alumni Game: The official site released information about how the baseball season will start on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. with the current group set to face off against a group of Alumni. This weekend's weather should start off a bit cold, but will warm up to 53 on Saturday.
0 comments | 0 recs |
STICKS SHEFFIELD: "WAS NOT GIVEN A SHOT AT STARTER PRE-2009"
According to RRS, and reiterated for free by Aaron Dickens on 104.3, Stick Sheffield felt Mike Leach did not offer an "open competition" for QB prior to 2009. He went on to say he is excited about a "true" open competition for the job.
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TTUMAR
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Double-T Nation Post Season Awards :: Need Defensive MVP Nominees

I wanted to open up the comments to you guys and gals before putting out the poll as to who you want to see as candidates for the DTN PSA Defensive MVP.
On my short list is LB Brian Duncan, CB Jamar Wall, DE Brandon Sharpe, DT Colby Whitlock, S Cody Davis and LB Marlon Williams. If I've forgotten someone, please let me know and add their name to the comment list (DE Daniel Howard, S Franklin Mitchem, etc.).
What I'd like to see everyone do nominate a player, and if people agree with that nomination, then "rec" that comment. The player comment with the most "rec'd"comments will be added to the poll tomorrow for the official voting.
35 comments | 0 recs
Double-T Nation Daily Diatribe :: 02.08.10

This Week: Now that National Signing Day is done, we get to focus on things at our leisure. We'll be continuing the Post Season Awards, finishing up with the defensive and offensive MVP, a preview of the men's basketball team traveling to Norman for a game against the Sooners, and some more detail analysis on the most recent commits.
DTN T-Shirts: Probably by the middle of the week, we'll start the t-shirt contest where you guys and gals will design, nominate and vote on the t-shirts that DTN will make widely available to the public. We'll start with reader submissions, and to clarify, you do not have to be an artist to contribute, those of you who are famous for their witty repertoire will have a say in this as well. If this contest falls flat on it's face, I'll still have a couple of t-shirts designed on my own and will still make them widely available to the public.

Baseball Previews: Believe it or not, the baseball season is a week or so away from starting as the Red Raider Classic starts up on February 19th. For those of you who love following college baseball, I cannot recommend enough The College Baseball Blog. Last week, TCBB previewed the Big 12 and you can find all of their stories tagged with Texas Tech here. I also stumbled across Easton's College Baseball Today and their Big 12 preview.
Ready to Play: LAJ's George Watson writes that with the team just one week away from starting, the team is ready. Head coach Dan Spencer said that the team is competing:
"I think we’re going to be very good defensively, we’re pitching well, and we’re just grinding it out right now," Spencer said after Saturday’s practice. "I think we’ll be ready to play in a week and be ready next week when we play with the alumni, barring any unforeseen injuries to guys we have battling now.
And Watson reports on how the pitching staff is currently shaking out:
One guy who apparently showed up for the first week is junior transfer Brett Bruening, a right-handed pitcher out of Seward County (Kan.) Community College. With returning junior right-hander Chad Bettis penciled in as the Friday starter and junior right-handed transfer Bobby Doran the leading candidate for Saturday, Bruening might have taken a big step toward securing the Sunday role.
And with junior left-handed transfer Jay Johnson set to go as the closer, the rest of the staff is battling to be a midweek starter or key relief pitcher out of the bullpen, which was a sore spot in 2009.
Despite finishing seventh in the conference at 12-15 in Big 12 play, Tech was just 13-17 in non-conference action, a big reason why it missed out on the playoffs while eighth-place Baylor and ninth-place Oklahoma State made the NCAA playoffs.

Roberson passes Bonewitz: DT's Mike Graham writes that on Saturday's win against Oklahoma St., PG John Roberson passed Stan Bonewitz for Texas Tech's all-time leader in assists:
"It feels good going into history," Roberson said. "I didn’t even know, I think someone gave me a hint that I might break it this game. But it feels good just to know your going to be in the books going down in history."
And head coach Pat Knight said that Roberson's achievement is close to being out of reach:
"That’s a heck of a record to get so soon," Tech coach Pat Knight said. "Usually you hear about guys in their senior year with maybe two or three games to go who get that. I just feel bad for him because if we could have had some better teams his first two years he might have gotten it last year."
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Post Game Thoughts :: Oklahoma St. Cowboys 74, Texas Tech Red Raiders 81
Result :: Win : 74-81 : SB Nation Box Score
Record :: 15-7, 3-5
Big 12 Standings :: 9th
Up Next :: 02/09/2010 : @ Oklahoma Sooners : 13-9, 4-4
The Result :: Defense Oriented. Amazingly, Oklahoma St. shot better than Texas Tech for the game, and the difference in the game was that Oklahoma St. committed a ton of silly fouls and Texas Tech defended the perimeter. You hear folks talk all of the time about if the defense is a constant, then there's a high chance that this team will be in most games. Despite Bob Knight being known for his motion offense, it was his defense that kept teams in games while at his tenure in Lubbock. A few stories were written last week regarding the lack of defense over the course of a 4 or 5 game stretch and for whatever reason Pat Knight's team just stopped playing defense on some level. Some of that was due to the fact that Darko Cohadarevic was suspended a game and D`walyn Roberts was out with an injury for a couple of games, but the other part is that this team has SF Mike Singletary, who can be a lazy defender and sometimes this teams worst defender (yes, I know he had 5 steals yesterday, but I still think he can be a lazy defender at times), on the floor 90% of the time and without two of this team's best defenders, Darko and Roberts, I think this team struggled.
The Storylines ::
Reese vs. Jenkins: SF Theron Jenkins didn't score a point yesterday, while fellow SF Brad Reese scored 4 points on 4 shots. In fact, Jenkins missed his only two shots of the game, but after seeing Jenkins get some extneded minutes in the first half, especially when this team somewhat extended it's lead and played with a relatively small lineup while Reese was on the bench with early fouls, I'm convinced that Jenkins is a better basketball player. That's not to say that I think that Reese is a bad basketball player, but that Jenkins is a better all-around player and although Reese is matched up with the opposing team's best player to start the game, Jenkins contributes in ways other than in the points column. In fact, in only 11 minutes, Jenkins finished with 4 rebounds, 2 steals, and 1 block. Reese finished with those 4 points, 1 rebound, 1 assist and 1 turnover in his 16 minutes. Again, I'm not trying to suggest that Reese shouldn't play, but Jenkins is the better ball-handler, doesn't try to be a jump-shooter, and will mix it up inside and contribute in ways other than just scoring.
Free Throw Disparity: I'd love to see the free throw numbers for teams that play at home and on the road in any given night in the Big 12. Perhaps this is something I shouldn't be complaining about after a win, but it just seems like that the home teams, no matter the circumstances, typically shoot a much higher number of free throws than the road game. It's completely unfair, and I think this is a fairly big reason why road teams are struggling to have much of a shot in any contest. But yesterday, the Cowboys were just silly with some of their fouls, the entire game. A majority of those foul calls were the result of OSU simply reaching rather than moving their feet, and it made this game that much tougher to watch as it just seemed as if OSU was fouling every other possession. LAJ's Courtney Linehan talked with PK after the game and he says that the foul disparity isn't by accident:
"It’s not by accident," Knight said. "That’s why we drive the ball, that’s why we cut and move, so they hold us. If they’re going to foul you, they’re going to foul you."
Making it Happen for Singletary: Singletary was injured, had a sore shoulder and that obviously affected his play somewhat. Singletary only made 5 buckets and 15 free throws for the game. I started to keep a mental note, but a majority of Singletary's points and/or free throws seemed to be as a result of Singletary running the floor, but also his teammates finding him on the break. It seemsed as if there were more than a handful of times where Jenkins, SG Nick Okorie or SG David Tauri would find Singletary in the break and I think those players deserve credit for getting Singletary to the line. I still dislike Singletary feeling like he deserves certain calls, it's not as if the refs had their whistles in their pockets, but he did a good job of getting up and down the floor and getting to the bucket.
The MVP :: PG John Roberson: Roberson wasn't necessarily sterling yesterday, was almost completely absent for the first 15 minutes of the game but by the time the game was over, he had 28 points on just 14 shots, 3 assists, 3 rebounds, 2 steals and just 1 turnover.
Four Factors, Player Impact, Stat Comparison and Game Flow: Terrific graphs from StatSheet after the jump:
15 comments | 0 recs |
Open Game Day Thread :: Oklahoma St. Cowboys vs. Texas Tech Red Raiders

| GAME | INFORMATION |
| OPPONENT: | Oklahoma St. Cowboys (16-6, 4-4) |
| LOCATION: | United Spirit Arena : Lubbock, TX |
| DATE: | February 6, 2010 |
| TIME: | 12:30 p.m. CST |
| TV: | Big 12 Network : ESPN 360 |
| RADIO: | Affiliates |
| GAME CAST: | Fox Sports |

GO RAIDERS . . .
209 comments | 0 recs
Game Preview :: Oklahoma St. Cowboys vs. Texas Tech Red Raiders

| GAME | INFORMATION |
| OPPONENT: | Oklahoma St. Cowboys (16-6, 4-4) |
| LOCATION: | United Spirit Arena : Lubbock, TX |
| DATE: | February 6, 2010 |
| TIME: | 12:30 p.m. CST |
| TV: | Big 12 Network : ESPN 360 |
| RADIO: | Affiliates |
| GAME CAST: | Fox Sports |
| Texas Tech | Ht. | Wt. | Pos. | Yr. | PPG | RPG | APG |
| John Roberson | 5-11 | 165 | G | Jr. | 14.2 | 2.2 | 5.7 |
| Nick Okorie | 6-1 | 195 | G | Sr. | 9.3 | 2.5 | 2.0 |
| Mike Singletary | 6-6 | 217 | F | Jr. | 15.4 | 6.7 | 2.1 |
| Brad Reese | 6-6 | 189 | F | Jr. | 7.4 | 2.7 | 1.0 |
| Robert Lewandowski | 6-10 | 240 | F | So. | 2.1 | 2.0 | 0.4 |
| Oklahoma St. | Ht. | Wt. | Pos. | Yr. | PPG | RPG | APG |
| Keiton Page | 5-9 | 170 | G | So. | 9.1 | 1.7 | 2.1 |
| Fred Gulley | 6-2 | 175 | G | Fr. | 1.5 | 2.2 | 1.0 |
| Obi Muonelo | 6-5 | 220 | G | Sr. | 12.7 | 5.3 | 2.0 |
| James Anderson | 6-6 | 210 | G | Jr. | 22.8 | 5.9 | 2.4 |
| Jarred Shaw | 6-10 | 230 | F | Fr. | 0.2 | 0.7 | 0.1 |

The Season Thus Far: OSU is .500 in the conference and they've stolen a game at Kansas St. and lost to Texas at home. Other than tose two, the Cowboys have held serve. Think back to the start of the Big 12 season in Texas Tech's first conference game and the Red Raiders were absolutely blown out. James Anderson had a field day against Texas Tech and if Texas Tech wants a different result, i.e. other than getting blown out, then someone is going to have to lock down Anderson and Muonelo.
7 comments | 0 recs |
Tech Self-Reported Recruiting Violations in 2009
LAJ article on violations of NCAA ban against texting recruits and self-imposed penalties. NCAA hasn't ruled yet.
3 days ago
jeffinhouston
26 comments
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