Odds and Ends

Upcoming

This weekend is a big weekend for me as I intend to start writing a number of articles. I did all of the yard work last weekend and this weekend is a time for writing, resting, cooking-out and drinking. The power foward review is scheduled for a noon posting.

Texas Tech Football

Big 12 AD Meetings

There are a couple of articles about yesterday's Big 12 meetings, the first from the Boulder Daily Camera's Kyle Ringo who writes that future bowl partnerships will be discussed today, and yesterday discussed cost containment for all teams, but some of the proposed ideas are being met with resistance from the bigger schools who have a much bigger budget, such as Nebraska, Texas and Oklahoma. DMN's Chuck Carlton echoes Ringo's thoughts about cost containment, and the Big 12 AD's are committed to the BCS, per Big 12 Commissioner Dan Beebe:

"We went through the exercise last year as part of the new contract," Commissioner Dan Beebe said after the first day of athletic directors meetings in Colorado Springs, Colo. "It is our feeling that we did this, and there should not be an adjustment to it in the four-cycle that was agreed upon."

Texas Tech Baseball

Outfield:
LF - Michael Reed (Jr.); CF - Taylor Ashby (Jr.); RF - Garrett Totten (Fr.)
Infield:
SS - Joey Kenworthy (Jr.)     2ND - Willie Rueda (Sr.);
3RD - Justin Berry (Fr.)                                  1ST - Chris Richburg (Sr.)
C - Jeremy Mayo (Fr.)
DH - Scott LeJeune (Fr.)

*Click on the score for boxscore. Texas Tech Big 12 Tournament preview (pdf).

All Big 12 Announced

The Big 12 Baseball Postseason Awards were announced yesterday and a hearty congratulations to 1B Chris Richburg (.350/.629/.464) for making the first team and 2B Willie Rueda (.333/.411/.379) for making the second team, All Big 12. CF Taylor Ashby, SP Chad Bettis, SS Joey Kenworthy and DH Scott LeJeune were named honorable mention.

Big 12 Tournament Starts Today

I'm sure you've already noticed, but the Big 12 Tournament starts today and LAJ's George Watson has a nice preview of the entire tournament, including some video (which I love). Head coach Dan Spencer sounds like he knows that he's happy to be here, but that's not where this stops:

"We talked today about being very proud of being here, and getting here is a great accomplishment," Spencer said. "But we have to make sure we don’t play like we’re just happy to be here. We have to get after it and compete. Our main goal has now been achieved and we’re here, so our goal is to win it."

And Spencer realizes that he's got to use all of his players in order to win:

"I think the thing about any tournament is you’ve got to play one at a time and use who you have to use to win," Spencer said. "It would be hard for us to win the tournament if we don’t win (tonight), so we’ll use every guy and every arm and then go from there. We feel good with Ramos being our first guy out."

I also want to point everyone to Big 12 Hardball to chat about the game. Also, the official Big 12 site has lots of good information and you might be able to watch the games live or at least get live stats.