DTN Daily Diatribe | Texas Tech News, Notes and Links | 2012-02-08

RED RAIDER BASKETBALL | Another game and another 19 point loss, although this game was relatively close, within 10 points, with a shade over 2 minutes left to play, but lost to Kansas State, 65 - 46 (box score). Overall, Texas Tech was just awful offensively for the most part, the brightest spot being G Luke Adams who finished with 15 points. It was the same thing that we've seen before, which is just 6 assists for the entire team and 22 turnovers. Again, it's just abysmal right now. Part of the problem is that prior to the game, we found out that PG Kevin Wagner didn't travel with the team and this morning we learn, per LAJ's Nick Kosmider, Wagner is likely out for the year. Then, within the first 5 minutes of the game, PG Javarez Willis injured his ankle never returned, which meant that the only real options in the backcourt were Adams and Ty Nurse.

Still, this team did not give up, despite playing basketball for almost the entirety of the game. F Jordan Tolbert had 11 points and 8 rebounds while F Jaye Crockett had 9 points and 8 rebounds. Again, this team didn't quit despite being just awful at times. LAJ's Nick Kosmider has a game recap with some quotes from head coach Billy Gillispie:

"We played as physical as we could possibly play against a very physical team," Gillispie said. "We just had too many turnovers. No matter what the situation is we just kept turning the ball over, but I’m real proud of our guys as far as their effort goes.

"That’s about as tough as we’ve played all year long."

One more thing from yesterday. Adams went to go visit a young boy who also wears cochlear implants like Adams does. Adams catches more crap on Twitter than just about any player I've ever seen and most people on Twitter are mean and don't give one flip about Adams' story, but from all accounts, he's a good kid and he's taking advantage of an opportunity at Texas Tech. I cannot imagine this particular team without Adams.

I wanted to supplement yesterday's news of Texas Tech's newest 2013 commitment, F Blake Danielak. I mentioned yesterday that D1Nation broke the story and I'm pretty sure that coach Max Ivany is reading DTN as he has a follow up to his initial story. Here's Ivany from yesterday (the initial story was posted on Sunday evening):

I’ve seen the Red Raider message board comments. One moderator wasn’t sure he could print the offer because there was such "thin evidence" that it was accurate…duh. Another comment was that the kid is only a 3A player. Throw that one out the window too folks.

A couple of things. TallMike posted a FanShot that linked to Level and Graham's twitter exchange and not this story and TallMike comment was that this appeared to be thin evidence, i.e. Level's and Graham's tweets seemed flimsy and truthfully, they should have linked to Ivany's story from Sunday night and not just referenced Danielak's facebook page. Whatever. Ivany assumes that the "thin evidence" is in reference to his story and I don't think that's what TallMike was implying. Ivany also says that the thought that Danielak is just a 3A player is irrelevant, in reference to some comments made in yesterday's DTN DD. I can say that I know of Ivany and he does know basketball players and is well-respected as a talent evaluator of high school players. You can take that for what it's worth, but I think that's an accurate statement.

In any event, Ivany has this to say about Danielak:

2013 F 6’7 Blake Danielak shows great maturity for a 16 year old. He can shoot it, he passes well out of the post and rebounds well. He’s bouncy and runs the floor extremely well. Look for BCG to pack some pounds on him and make him a stretch four man for the Red Raiders when the time comes. Expect him to be 6’9?-6’10? when he arrives on campus in the summer of 2013.

Not to pressure him too much but I feel I’m qualified to say the following. I’ve had the pleasure of coaching some pretty good players at the same point in their careers. John Henson (North Carolina), Cameron Moore (Alabama-Birmingham), Andre Roberson (Colorado), Daniel Alexander (Texas A&M), Cory Jefferson (Baylor), J.J. Avila (Navy) and Connor Lammert (Texas signee) to name a few. I believe Danielak belongs in that company. He’s not as long as Henson, not as tough defensively as Jefferson, or as tenacious as Roberson. BUT, the tools are there. He’s a better shooter from all areas on the floor at this point as a 16 year old than any of them. Of course he’s got close to two years of hard work ahead of him to meet those lofty standards of where the aforementioned kids elevated their games.

LADY RAIDER BASKETBALL | The Lady Raiders take on Oklahoma St. tonight, in Stillwater and the game starts at 7:00 pm. LAJ's David Just and DT's Chois Woodman both preview the game. Just notes that this is an important game as the Lady Raiders are tied with both Oklahoma St. and Iowa St. in the standings:

This is a critical week for the Lady Raiders, who are in a three-way tie for sixth place in the Big 12 Conference with a 4-6 record. Tech’s next two opponents — Oklahoma State and Iowa State — are the two teams it’s tied with.

"It’s obviously a great opportunity to separate yourself," said Tech coach Kristy Curry, who expects the top seven teams in the conference to get at-large NCAA invites.

And from Woodman:

"If you don’t play in February, you’re not going to have March," she said. "And there is no one across the country that’s in the tournament right now because it’s the first week of February. That’s where resumes are made and I think our kids understand that. We’ve certainly tried to educate them February is important."

LADY RAIDER SOFTBALL | DT's Matt Villanueva profiles SS Raven Richardson and talks about her getting a second chance at Texas Tech. This is a good story and hopefully Richardson can keep things on the straight and narrow. Here's her head coach, Shanon Hays:

"She’s a more mature hitter and now looks for her pitch," Hays said. "As a person, she is settled and is more comfortable. She always shows up ready to work and is consistent."

TEXAS TECH FOOTBALL | LAJ's Don Williams has the latest on some offensive line changes. I've done a more detailed write-up on these moves as well as some comparisons to Abilene Christian's offense and Texas Tech's offense as I wanted to know how the offenses compare.

Rivals.com recognized the best recruiters from each school and Robert Prunty continues to receive praise:

Robert Prunty, Texas Tech
Buzz:The Red Raider defensive end coach was last year's Rivals.com Big 12 Recruiter of the Year and he showed no signs of letting up in the class of 2012. Prunty was the lead recruiter for U.S. Army All-American Michael Starts and beat out the likes of Michigan, Notre Dame, Texas and Texas A&M for his services. He also held onto cornerback La'Darius Newbold late when other schools made a hard run at him. Texas Tech went heavy on the junior college ranks this year and Prunty was the lead recruiter for most of them as well.

I'd agree, but I'd also say that Tommy Mainord is 1B to Prunty being 1A. I noticed that in a lot of the conversations that I've heard from recruits, Mainord's name was mentioned quite often. I also wanted to add that TechTalk spoke with Prunty yesterday and the two things that I thought were interesting was that the team and the staff sense some urgency in 2012 and he also said that DE Branden Jackson is 6-5.5/252 and DE Kindred Evans is 6-5/240 and praised S&C coach Joe Walker. That means that both Jackson and Evans have added about 20 to 30 pounds from their freshmen years.

Spring practices start next Friday (I think).