ODDS AND ENDS | You'll note that the recruiting sidebar on the right has been updated to reflect the two early commitments of the 2013 class. As always, I have a dedicated page where you can find all of the data for 2012 and I also have a section for all of the 2012 recruiting stories (on the left).
NewsOK's Berry Tramel writes that the Big 12 may be waiting on naming a new commissioner until they get into further expansion discussions.
TEXAS TECH SOFTBALL | The softball team took both games of their second double-header, beating Idaho St. 8-4 (box score | official site) and then beat Portland St. 5-1 (box score | official site). They then player their third straight day of having a double-header today against DePaul and Utah St. That's one busy weekend.
TEXAS TECH BASEBALL | The baseball team beat Tennessee Tech 9-5 (official site | box score | quotes). Starter Shane Broyles pitched 7.1 innings, gave up 6 hits, 4 earned runs, striking out 6 and walking none. I mentioned yesterday the pitches to strike ratio and Broyles had 78 total pitches and threw 58 for strikes. Jared McCrummen pitched the final 1.2 innings without incident. CF Barrett Barnes hit his first home run of the year and went 2-5 with 3 RBI while the team had 14 hits, including multi-hit games from 1B Scott LeJuene, C Bo Altobelli, LF Brennan Moore and SS Tim Proudfoot. LAJ's George Watson has a recap of the game, including this nugget:
But perhaps the most pleasing sign for Spencer was seeing starters open the season with back-to-back 7-plus-inning outings, the first time that’s happened for a Tech team since Shane Wright (8 IP) and Brad Ralston (7 IP) did it against Howard University in 1999.
The team finishes with a double-header today as well, playing Tennessee Tech (@ 10:00 am) and Missouri St. (@ 2:00 pm).
RED RAIDER BASKETBALL | Welp. I didn't have a chance to preview the game yesterday, but I somewhat expected a blowout loss at Allen Fieldhouse and that pretty much happened as Texas Tech lost to Kansas, 50-83 (box score | official site). I had taped the game, or I thought I taped the game, and as it turns out the Dallas Stars were on the local Big 12 Network channel and the other listing I didn't have access, so I was out of luck. LAJ's Nick Kosmider has a recap of the game:
Tech (8-18, 1-13 in Big 12) entered the game having surrendered just 47 points in each of its last two contests. Kansas (22-5, 12-2) had 44 by halftime, doubling up the Red Raiders for a 22-point lead.
"It was a good whipping by a very, very good team," Tech coach Billy Gillispie said. "We just made too many mistakes offensively and defensively to have any kind of a chance to be in the game with them."
TEXAS TECH FOOTBALL | I was so wrong yesterday. I wrote that there was no practice yesterday as there was a junior day happening, but there was a practice yesterday and there was a junior day happening. Last time I use deductive reasoning. First things first, LAJ's Zach Long has some photos from yesterday. And speaking of Long, he also wrote a piece for the Abilene Reporter-News about new offensive line coach Chris Thomsen, which was a really good article and I can't recommend this enough on this Sunday morning. Long asks him about the risk of coming to Texas Tech given the fact that the past season wasn't the best ever, which I thought it was a good question to ask, and Thomsen answers:
"I wanted the opportunity to coach Division I," he said. "I have a great opportunity to do that here. I don't sit around and worry about what's going to happen. You can't. Even if I was still at ACU, you never know. As much success as we had there, that thing could turn. Tech had an inordinate amount of injuries last year, and that could have happened at ACU. You can't sit around and worry about the future. You just do the best you can do and go forward. I wouldn't be here if I didn't believe we can win."
And yes, I'm expecting criticism of Thomsen for referencing injuries, how dare he.
LAJ's Don Williams has a profile on IR Javares McRoy and head coach Tommy Tuberville talks about Javares:
"The thing about Javares, he’s got good hands," Tuberville said. "He runs good routes. He’s not playing as fast right now as he will, as he continues to pick stuff up. ... But I like the way he accelerates once he gets the ball in his hands. That’s going to be a big factor for him."
LAJ's Williams also has a notebook and for your Sunday morning giggle, there is a lot of weather talk (embrace the weather talk) as well as other notes, but I really loved this about IR Tyson Williams:
"Last year when he was on scout team, our DBs hated to go against him," Tuberville said, "because he knocks them around, pushes them around, talks trash. He does all that stuff you don’t want if you’re supposedly a starter on defense and you’re getting pushed around by a guy on scout team. He wasn’t your normal scout-team guy."