Double-T Nation Daily Diatribe | 2011-03-04

There are so many links this morning, its really quite ridiculous.  Perhaps the best DTN DD in the history of ever.  I'm cautiously pleased, but I got up at 4:15 this morning, so mistakes are likely.  Be gentle.

First up, Totally Tech's TTU Red has posted new campus pictures, excellent as always, for those of you that do not live in Lubbock . . . For those of you keeping score, the University of Texas has named two ESPN bigwigs to be Vice Presidents as the fledgling UT Network . . . Former Texas Tech head coach Mike Leach is trying to change legislation, by hiring a lobbying firm, to permit an employee of the state to sue said state employer.   I think this is a longshot by Leach, but I guess we'll see.   There are a ton of comments on the link, which is from Texas Monthly . . .

Another practice yesterday and another post-practice press conference from head coach Tommy Tuberville.  Here's my non-transcript:

Tommy Tuberville | Thought it was a good practice defensively.  Offensively, didn't do a whole lot, protections not good, dropping the ball, running the ball better.  Made a lot of strides defensively, got to tackle better on Saturday, play with more sense of urgencey.  Will turn the defense loose a bit Saturday and allow blitzing a bit more.  It's been a good week, good to have a day off.  Big test on Saturay morning, go about 2 hours.  Go about 120 to 125 plays.  Be a bit cooler on Saturday, need to have a good idea where we're at.  QB Jacob Karam has done better, put him on a team atmosphere, needs to stay in the pocket more.  Saturay it was a toss-up for the best job.  WR Marcus Kennard is coming on a bit, WR Darrin Moore is getting better learning the offense.  Counting those guys.  IR Austin Zouzalik is beat up, looking more like himself.  IR Alexander Torres is going through most of practice, just not a lot of contact.  WR Derek Edwards is getting better, must have a better sense of urgency.  RB Ben McRoy got banged up a bit, not a concussion, more fuzziness, but wanted him all the way healthy.  Want more plays out of RB Eric Stephens, Torres will be in a blue jersey, S Cody Davis will be in a blue jersey.  RB Aaron Crawford, had deviated septum surgery over the holidays.  He's getting better, next 6 months will be big for him.  The big thing about Lubbock, there are a bunch of Boys and Girls Club events that he can go to and it's important that the coaches and players go out to these events.

LAJ's Don Williams writes about S Terrance Bullitt and his transition to strong safety:

In new defensive coordinator Chad Glasgow’s scheme, the strong safety usually lines up within 5 yards of the line of scrimmage, sometimes right on the line. Often, he chucks a slot receiver, then covers out into the short zones.

Those responsibilities are new to Bullitt.

"It’s completely different," he said. "Last year, it was more dropping back deep. This year, I’m more rolled down.

"I like it. It’s the same position my brother (NFL safety Melvin Bullitt) played at A&M, so he kind of helped me out a little bit."

And Williams provides a hint at the safety depth chart:

The Red Raiders need Bullitt to make a smooth transition to strong safety, because the guys behind him are less experienced than the personnel slotted at the other safety spots. Two experienced players — Cody Davis and Brett Dewhurst — are lining up at weak safety. Two of the team’s top six tacklers last season — D.J. Johnson and Tre Porter — are at free safety.

Behind Bullitt, senior transfer Giorgio Durham, junior Arlan Waller and redshirt freshmen Desmond Martin, Russell Polk and Don Hursey have all gotten looks at strong safety. Martin and Waller got the second-team snaps during Thursday’s 11-on-11 team period.

Good stuff, go read the whole thing.

This is a few days old, but wanted to link to it anyway.  SI.com had this huge expose about the how college football players had too many criminals on their football teams.  The problem with this, as EDSBS's Spencer Hall wrote and appropriately linked, is that SI.com's evidence and statistics aren't all that impressive, especially when you take into consideration the general public:

Of those seven percent, "nearly 60 percent…were guilty or paid some penalty". If we assume "nearly 60 percent" means 57% (shockingly, the actual numbers and survey methods aren’t given), then 4% of players on top 25 football teams have been actually convicted of, or plead guilty to, a crime.

The number of average college students with the same criminal record? According to this article from Corvallis, Oregon’s Daily Barometer, 3.45%. That’s right: Your typical college football player is one-half of one percent more likely to have a criminal conviction. To put that in perspective, a team of 85 players has half a person more convicted criminals on it than a sample of 85 students drawn randomly. Hide yo kids, hide yo wife.

So in retrospect, SI.com saying that they're going to blow the roof off of college football isn't all that great . . . then on Wednesday, there were tapes that were released that were allegedly Cecil Newton with Cam Newton in the background asking for the payment.  There are folks who believe that these tapes are fake, and as always, I encourage you to follow the SB Nation storystream as there are continuous updates . . . But to me, the biggest news was the news that broke last night, where Oregon paid a pair of men who had multiple contacts to a number of recruits over $28,000 (Yahoo! Sports Charles Robinson and ESPN's Joe Schad).  The two men's names are Baron Flenory and Will Lyles.  The funny thing about all of this is that Recruitcosm's Jesus Shuttleworth wrote about  Lyles being a street agent way back in December.  I suppose my point with all of this is that if SI.com really wanted to blow the lid off of college football, I think they'd be exposing this sort of stuff, not the fact that college football players are one-half of one percent more likely to have committed a crime than your average college student . . .

DT's Tommy Magelssen writes about the Red Raiders final conference game, which will be Texas A&M's senior night, and PG John Roberson is still confident that there is a lot of basketball yet to play:

With high expectations of the Red Raiders coming into the season, Tech has lost a handful of games in the final minute.

"We weren’t really consistent throughout the year with everybody playing each game, and we know that," guard John Roberson said after the win, "but we have a lot of basketball to be played.

"So, I mean, this is a good game for us to just look at how we did this and watch the film, see what we did right and see what we did wrong, and, you know, just let this game help us going into the A&M game and to the Big 12 (Conference) tournament."

I'll have my preview for the game up tomorrow as I'm running a bit late today. 

I wanted to give some credit to head coach Pat Knight, who I have criticized and am in favor of letting him go, but I try to be fair (I'm not always successful) and did want to point out that PK has a handful 2011 commitments who are leading their teams to a high school state title.  Up first is Estacado's PG Kevin Wagner, who has the #1 ranked 3A team in the state, and is leading his team in scoring 16.8 points and registers 3.6 assists per game.  Up next is SF Terran Petteway who leads a 32-4 Galveston Ball team in scoring at 19.1 points per game and is second on the team in rebounding.  Petteway's team will face Nederland on Friday night.  SG Toddrick Gotcher is leading his Lakeview Centennial (Garland) team (34-1) is in the third round of the state playoffs, beating Bryan and is second  on the team scoring  (football commit LB Sam Equavoen is also on the team scoring 5.1 PPG).  Last, but not least, I thought I'd throw in another football commit, DE Cooper Washington, who is scoring 12.7 points and 8.5 boards for Muleshoe.

Those who know of Gillispie's inner fire will find that statement interesting. And here's the background to his not-the-end-of-the-world conclusion.

He hates mention of it, but Gillispie has become immersed in helping people. In addition to things he's done privately, he's formed an active volunteer relationship with Big Brothers and Big Sisters. He said if he does re-enter coaching, that he will become even more involved with those organizations.

"I really do want to coach," he said. "But I do have some other things going for me for probably the first time in my life. For the first time, I can perceive myself doing something else that would really be a good fit.

"I don't know where it's all going to lead. But I know the future will be good either in basketball or something else, because I know I have something to give. And that my heart is in the right place."

If I'm the new AD at Tech, I read that and consider that Gillispie's teams win, his players graduate and he's never had an NCAA rules problem, and I think this is a guy I at least want to talk to.

You make the call.

I have no idea of Gillispie is a changed man, and only one school is going to get the opportunity to find out . . . Yahoo! Sports' Jason King has his All Big 12 team and not one mention of a Red Raider . . .

Texas Tech Red Raiders (8-2, 0-0)
Vs.
TCU Horned Frogs (4-4, 0-0)

OUTFIELD
LF | JaModrick McGruder (SO)    CF | Barrett Barnes (SO)    RF | DAvid Paiz (FR)
INFIELD
SS | Kelby Tomlinson (JR)     2ND | Nick Popescu (SR);
3RD | Reid Redman (JR)                                  1ST | Stephen Hagen (JR)
C | Kevin Whitehead (SO)
DH | Bo Altobelli (SR)

*Click on the score for boxscore. Texas Tech series preview (pdf).

I'm running a bit behind on the baseball team.  The Red Raiders now stand 8-2, after splitting the UNLV Rebels series, winning the first game, but losing the second game, 4-3 (official site boxscore, quotes, video and notes) and here's DT's Jose Rodriguez's game story. 

Now, Texas Tech will take on nationally ranked, #8 in the nation, TCU Horned Frogs.  LAJ's George Watson previews the series and writes that the UNLV loss is a bad sign going into this weekend series:

But by holding the Red Raiders (8-2) scoreless in the first inning for only the second time in 10 games this season, then jumping out with the big inning early in the game, it prevented the Red Raiders from playing their running, execution-style offense.

"We basically just ran out of chances," Spencer said. "The game got away from us and the next thing you know we’re in the sixth and it changes way we want to play, but we didn’t have a ton of opportunities.

The loss takes away the momentum from three straight wins, but apparently not the Red Raiders’ confidence.

"I think today maybe we pressed a little bit or weren’t too focused, or we rushed, I don’t know what happened," Barnes said. "We didn’t come out offensively as we usually do. We want to win every day we come out on the field, so losing is disappointing, but we’re looking forward to Friday coming out and playing nine innings and coming out with a victory."

And DT's Rodriguez writes about TCU's fantastic pitcher, Matt Purke.  And for those of you in Lubbock, if you want to see maybe the #1 draft pick in this year's MLB amatuer draft, go see Purke:

To make matters worse, the TCU pitching rotation is regarded as one of the best in the country, led by a former first-round pick of the Texas Rangers, sophomore Matt Purke.

Purke was drafted No. 14 overall by the Rangers coming out of high school and was honored as consensus National Freshman of the Year after earning a school-record 16 wins and recording 142 strikeouts.

Purke is scheduled to pitch Sunday.

The Red Raiders’ first obstacle is junior Kyle Winkler, who finished 2010 with a 12-3 record as a starter with a 3.39 ERA.

Saturday’s TCU starter, Steven Maxwell, may be overlooked considering the hype surrounding Purke. Maxwell led the staff with a 2.70 ERA in 2010 and was named the 2010 Mountain West Conference Pitcher of the Year.

Go watch some baseball this weekend.

I also wanted to link to a fantastic piece by Beyond the Box Score on how the new bats should affect how a baseball is hit.  Just terrific stuff with graphics and science.