DTN Daily Diatribe | Texas Tech News, Notes and Links | 2012-01-23

LADY RAIDER BASKETBALL | LAJ's David Just has a write-up on the blowout loss to Iowa St. and if you read the post game quotes from head coach Kristy Curry, she's not mincing words. Here's a few:

"If today is not embarrassing as a player as far as how much you got outworked, then something’s wrong with you," Tech coach Kristy Curry said.

"It was a lack of effort today," Curry said of Mallard. "She just got outworked. There’s no reason for me to tiptoe around it. It is what it is."

"Our posts flat-out got embarrassed," Curry said.

The ship needs to be fixed real soon as this isn't headed in the right direction.

RED RAIDER BASKETBALL | I was going to write some post game thoughts, but there are games where you don't know what to write as it appears to be the same thing, which is inconsistent play and poor shooting. Head coach Billy Gillispie played PG Luke Adams and F Clark Lammert quite a bit in the second half and I never know what to make of the thought that Jay Crockett gets 2 minutes for the game. I don't have any answers right now and the way that this is headed, it wouldn't surprise me if this team doesn't win a Big 12 game and that's not something I thought was going to happen earlier this year.

LAJ's Nick Kosmider writes that Gillispie said that the team will fight through it:

"I think it’s very natural for us to look at the final score and let that tell us how the game went," Gillispie said, "and that has no bearing on how the process went. I think we’re improving, but we have played against different people. Have we played well enough to beat people in conference? The answer is absolutely not. We have portions of games where we have.

"But I’m not going to let the end result bring me down, and I’m going to try to get that through to my players. We can’t focus on the end result. We have to worry about the process."

So I think I've been the only one to keep track of the players that have said that they signed letters of intent and earlier in January, there was this video where commit PG Daylen Robinson said that he did sign a letter of intent and will play for Texas Tech next year. If you don't know Robinson's story, then it's worth your time. That's three players, PF/C Rodrigo Silva and SG Dusty Hannahs, but I've been only able to figure out that there are two spots available, Lew's spot and Cameron Forte, who left before the semester started.

Football and football recruiting are after the jump.

TEXAS TECH FOOTBALL | Head coach Tommy Tuberville was on The Morning Drive (104.3) and if you don't want to listen to all of it, then here's my non-transcript:

Takes a while to learn new areas for coaches and get more comfortable, recruiting has been great, the JUCO guys are here and they were all working out, sight for sore eyes for depth on defense and can help right away. Only fighting over 3 or 4 players right now in trying to get them to come to TTU, had 11 commits and 2 preferred walk-ons this past weekend. Talking to coaches about 2013 commits and have Junior Day in about 3 weeks. Looking at cornerback, running back and defensive line. Looking at guys at each of those positions, hoping to get icing on the cake. Sometimes it is easier to sell a program that had a losing record, but right now selling West Texas and Texas Tech.

The new defensive coaches, tried to hire when he got here, but couldn't get them to come. Also likes the hire of Jim Turner and what he will bring to the offense. They all paid dividends and could have a chance to sign players they knew in previous stops.

The terminology on defense will be the same and not be very difficult, they have all worked together and good to get them all back together, but think will be impressed with these guys in coaching and teaching players. Have a lot of teaching to do, where we were just awful last year, had a lot of effort, but didn't make many plays. Spring practices start on February 17th. Gives some flexibility in the time-frame and can start any day after February 17th, and have 30 days from February 24th to complete. Need to have an 8 week period to get stronger.

RB Ronnie Daniels met with Tuberville on Frida, was a situation where he was on the cross-roads and is adjusting his life well in terms of his education, health and well-being and then football. No shortcuts.

RB Eric Stephens will not redshirt, is very much ahead, with terrible knee injury, re-hab before operation, and then the doctors can see what needs repair. Very good work-ethic and not 100% he will be there. There were 6 guys in the training room last week, but that is life and will be better from it, need to be better mentally and training in weight room.

To wrap up the situation with Ronnie Daniels, on Tech Talk Chris Level said last week (I couldn't find the audio link, otherwise I would post it) that Daniels could be back on the team but would only be back as a walk-on. So there's that.

Interesting that Tuberville said that he tried to hire some of the defensive coaches when he was first hired, which I'm not sure how you validate or don't validate. I suppose that they could have all had contracts, so I'm not sure how to discount that statement, but I don't know that it matters. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I think that Tuberville literally says what is on his mind and I tend to think that maybe he just wished he had hired them. You all have covered some of the stuff on Stephens and his surgery, but I think I saw where he Tweeted that he ran in the pool and was well on his way to recovery.

TEXAS TECH FOOTBALL RECRUITING | Scout.com's Greg Powers said that Texas Tech commit CB Ladarius Newbold visited Baylor this weekend, but re-affirmed his commitment to Texas Tech after his visit:

He reports that he had a great time in Waco and that the coaches and the programs gave him some things to think about, but upon his return he informed me that he had re-affirmed his commit to Texas Tech.

Tommy Tuberville and Robert Prunty from Tech will be doing an in-home visit with him on Wednesday and he is looking forward to spending some personal time with his future coaches.

The LAJ released their Fab 44 and Top 100 of the state and Texas Tech has three players from the list, OL/DL Michael Starts, WR Dominique Wheeler and WR Reginald Davis. QB Clayton Nicholas, ATH Kennon Ward, OL Trey Keenon, DL J.J. Bynum, LB Micah Awe, LB Ryan Flannigan and DB LaDarius Newbold all made the top 100 list. LAJ's Don Williams has a write up on the Fab 44 and there are comments from the aforementioned Powers on various Texas Tech commits.