Double-T Nation Daily Diatribe | 2011-03-17

Today is St. Patrick's Day and it's my dad's birthday.  Happy Birthday to my dad and now you can't pinch DTN as we're wearing green.  And don't forget to join DTN's 2011 March Madness challenge.  I can promise you that you'll be better than me.

Bloomberg's Michele Steele tweets the following:

No Nebraska? No problem. Person familiar tells me Big 12 set to get over $1.1b ($90.1m/yr) over 13 yrs from Fox for 2nd tier tv rights

This is a bit more than $60 million reported earlier this week . . . congrats to one of SB Nation's tech guys, Trei Bundett (he's also a vice president), who is credited with the idea of a story stream and is front and center on the subject with the Washington Post and the Economist . . . this has more to do with basketball, but who would like to see ESPN's Doug Gottlieb struggling (said in Joe Namath voice) . . . Totally Texas Tech's TTURed has some new campus pictures . . . a state representative says that the reason another representative introduced the legislation regarding Mike Leach was financial . . .

I may be completely wrong, but I think that Sports By Brooks was about 2 or three hours in front of the LAJ or ESPn in reporting that Billy Gillispie interviewed with new Texas Tech athletic director Kirby Hocutt in Boca Raton, Florida, and was on a private jet with President Guy Bailey and Chancellor Kent Hance back from the interview.   I've said this a handful of times, but Brooks has ties in Tulsa, Gillispie used to be an assistant coach in Tulsa (when I was in law school there) and Brooks must have someone on the inside with Gillispie in Tulsa.  That's why he's ahead of just about everyone else. 

Anyway, LAJ's Courtney Linehan, who by the way was ultimately right in that Gillispie will not be hired until Monday, at the earliest, has an update, but the information is in the SBB story.  I still think the disagreement between Linehan and RRS.com's Chris Level is funny as Linehan insisted earlier that the hire will not happen until Monday and Level had earlier said that the hire could have happened as early as yesterday.  This is all window-dressing to me as the meat of the story is that Gillispie is going to be Texas Tech's head coach (fingers crossed) while the timing of it is somewhat irrelevant as far as I'm concerned. 

Back to the story at hand, FWST's Mike Jones says that the meeting with Gillispie, "went good on both sides," and ESPN's Andy Katz writes (and the local writers have all been saying this as well) that barring some unforeseen event, Gillispie will be Texas Tech's next head coach:

Unless something happens this week to jeopardize a deal, Texas Tech and Billy Gillispie should reach an agreement soon. Gillispie would be the right fit for the Red Raiders and should be able to energize an apathetic fan base by putting out a hard-nosed product. Gillispie didn't stop being a quality coach at Kentucky after resurrecting programs at UTEP and Texas A&M.

I doubt that we get any news today, but if there is, feel free to post in the comments.  And I'm holding back on celebrating until there's a press conference introducing Gillispie.

LAJ's David Just writes about how PG Monique Smalls has been a big part of the Lady Raiders' success:

"Most teams don’t think I can shoot the ball," Smalls said. "But I can shoot it. And when I do, that opens it up for Kierra (Mallard) and Teena (Wickett)."

Not only is Smalls scoring more points, but she’s doing so efficiently. Smalls has made 27 of the 49 shots (55 percent) she’s taken since Tech’s upset victory Feb. 19 against No. 1 Baylor.

Smalls is penetrating, sinking pull-up jumpers and connecting from the perimeter. When defenses scramble to guard her, Smalls can kick the ball out to Casey Morris for a 3-point attempt or find an unguarded post player.

"She’s our heartbeat," Curry said. "She’s so much of the reason we’ve been playing our best basketball."

Don't forget that the Lady Raiders play St. John's Saturday at 3:00 p.m. and the game is on ESPN2.

Yesterday it was reported, per College Football Talk, that 2011 North Carolina commit DT Delvon Simmons (6-5/260) was granted his release from North Carolina.  This article says that Texas Tech has a scholarship available, as does USC, and since I really don't have a clue as to Texas Tech's scholarship numbers, this is the first time I've seen this definitive statement that Texas Tech has a scholarship available.  ###

New SB Nation blog, Football Study Hall's Bill Connelly has looks at offensive success rates and defensive success rates.  There's a ton of good information there and to get all nostalgic, the 2008 Texas Tech offense was the 2nd best offense in terms of offensive success rate between the years of 2005 and 2010 and the 2010 Texas Tech offense looked to be very much the middle of the road.  On the defensive side of the ball, the 2010 Texas Tech defense wasn't as bad as you might think, but the key concept here is that TCU is all over the top 10 list for the years between 2005 and 2010.  Tuberville wants to get a part of that TCU magic.

I also wanted to point out SB Nation blog Turf Show Times, who think that Danny Amendola is becomeing St. Louis' version of New England'sWes Welker.  There are stats and stuff, so go check it out.

I received an email from the proprietor of BobcatReport, a Texas State blog/forum, asking me if I've heard that the 2012 home opener will be Texas State.  Since I'm completely clueless, I informed him that I didn't have a clue, but they believe that this is going to happen . . . I think this has been reported in the comments on DTN, but former Texas Tech commit LB Derek David was arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a 16 year old girl.  There has been discussion as to whether or not Texas Tech or David de-committed, and it probably doesn't matter at this point, but this is a bad situation. 

LAJ's George Watson writes about all of the press that the P Hayden Holoub is receiving as a result of his behind-the-back tag at home plate:

Holub’s behind-the-back tag of Bobby Buckner after throwing a wild pitch to the screen was part of ESPN SportsCenter’s Top 10 plays Tuesday night. On Wednesday morning, it had been elevated to No. 1, making him eligible for the best of the best top 10 plays of the week.

"Everybody’s been giving me a hard time about it," Holub said after practice Wednesday morning. "I got a couple of calls last night and then I wake up and it’s on ESPN. I woke up and was told it was at No. 9 and then I saw it wasn’t there, so I walked away and then heard my name at No. 1. Being up for the nomination is pretty unreal."

College Baseball Daily's William Knox runs down the best freshmen in the Big 12 for this week and making the list are P Trey Masek and LF/P David Paiz:

OF/P David Paiz – Texas Tech
.324, 23 H, 7 2B, 1 HR, 14 RBI
3-0, 5.25 ERA, 12 IP, 11 K
Paiz has started in the outfield for Texas Tech since day one, and has picked up some of the production that was lost with Scott LeJeune. On the mound, Paiz has made three relief appearances, and started one contest. He is tied for the league lead in wins for freshmen, and holds the top spot for hits and doubles in the same category. Like many before him, Paiz is another player from Austin succeeding after being passed over by the Longhorns.

P Trey Masek – Texas Tech
1-1, 3.27 ERA, 19 IP, 15 K, .214 B/AVG.
Masek was a star in La Grange, Texas, outside of Austin, before heading north to Lubbock. His performance on the mound this year has given the fans of Texas Tech hope that he will continue to be a star on the South Plains. His one start against Iowa went 7.2 innings, the longest outing for any Red Raider pitcher this season. He has been the toughest of Dan Spencer’s pitchers to hit, and is fourth on the team in strikeouts.