DTN Daily Diatribe | Texas Tech News, Notes and Links | 2011-12-20

UPCOMING GAMES | Don't forget that the Lady Raiders play tomorrow night against Western Kentucky at 7:00 pm in Lubbock and the men play on Wednesday night against Oral Roberts at 7:00 pm in Tulsa.

TEXAS TECH ATHLETICS | So I sorta liked this:

FALL 11 GRADUATION (via techathletics)

There's also this video of the Fall graduates. Congrats to those that graduated!

RED RAIDER BASKETBALL | The LAJ's Nick Kosmider profiles PG Javarez Willis and the defensive pressure he's been bringing to opposing point guards. Here's head coach Billy Gillispie:

"If you keep the ball above the foul line extended — if Bean really pressures the ball — now the entry pass is going to be above the top of the circle extended," Gillispie said, "so when you are guarding the post, you don’t have to change sides. You don’t get in foul trouble, and it makes it much more difficult to include a post player into your offense.

"So just by one guy guarding the basketball like that, it makes them move their offense up, which really helps everyone, but especially post players, on defense."

I also wanted to add this bit, which is that apparently Willis and PF Robert Lewandowski are his hardest workers on the team:

"(Willis) and Lewandowski have been giving the best effort in practice, and that’s the reason that they played better than anyone on our team," Gillispie said following Sunday’s win. "You play like you practice."

I've been delaying writing about National Signing Day for Gillispie as I haven't been able to confirm that any players actually signed their Letters of Intent. However, I did find this article where Gillispie attended a game in Arkansas on Saturday night with SG Dusty Hannahs:

Hannahs hit 11 of 18 field goals and 21 of 24 field goals throws. Maybe the only disappointing aspect of the 6-5 guard's game was missing all four 3-point attempts — he's regarded as one of the best outside shooters in the state — but Hannahs dished out three assists, had four rebounds and a steal in playing all but one minute.

Snip.

"I hadn’t seen Dusty since we had signed him in November," Gillispie said. "I was eager to come out here and they said this was going to be the best game, so we wanted to be here for it."

This is the first confirmation that I have that there is at least one signed LOI.