Texas Tech Saturday Morning Notes - The Same Without Him Edition

Griffin to Play Against Texas Tech

Texas Tech catches all the breaks. Blake Griffin has been cleared to play and per LAJ's Jeff Walker, the Red Raiders were expecting Griffin to suit up tonight. Here's assistant coach Bubba Jennings:

"You really don’t do anything different because we expect him to play," Tech assistant coach Bubba Jennings said. "The only difference in how we’ve prepared is you don’t have him to look at the last two games. They’ve done pretty much everything the same without him."

And assistant coach Chris Beard feels that Texas Tech is not your typical 2 win team:

"We’re not your typical two-win team in the Big 12," Tech assistant coach Chris Beard said after Wednesday’s game. "If you look at our scores, we’ve been in a lot of games and we’ve played some good basketball. We just haven’t been able to put in 40 minutes of play on a consistent basis. I think (Wednesday) was no different. I think we just ran out of steam."

Texas Tech Drops First Game of Series

*Click on the score for boxscore.

Texas Tech 4, Cal-State Northridge 8

Here's the official game story as I don't think the LAJ's George Watson made the trip. From checking out the boxscore, it appears that both starters did about the same damage, but Texas Tech's bullpen faltered, while CSN's bullpen was great in pitching its final 3 innings.

Texas Tech starter Chad Bettis (4.2 IP; 6 H; 3 ER; 3 BB; 5 SO) was okay, and threw 97 pitches in less than 5 innings. More than likely, he just didn't have "it" yesterday. Again, it was the Texas Tech bullpen that had trouble retiring the Matadors. Cory Large (1.2 IP; 2 H; 2 ER; 0 BB; 0 SO) and Jordan Stern (1.2 IP; 5 H; 3 ER; 2 BB; 2 SO) struggled mightily, Stern more than Large, but the offense didn't provide much pop.

Freshman third baseman Justin Berry (2-4; 1 RBI) is continuing to play well and junior left fielder Taylor Ashby (2-4; 1 RBI) had his first home run of the season. I think its days like yesterday where you really miss a guy like Willie Rueda, where he can get on base and make some things happen. Let's home the guys rebound today and take this series.