Double T Nation News:
We've got a lot to get to today, lots of news in Red Raider land. But first, DTN Reader TracySaulRulz wants you to vote for Michael Crabtree here at CBS Sportsline for Freshman of the year. The competition has been whittled down to Crabtree, Missouri's Maclin and Georgia's Moreno.
SMQ has a tremendous take on ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit's comments on Ohio State. Take the time to read this.
TB from Bring On The Cats also takes on a hypocritical reporter and yes, the hypocrisy is amazing.
Texas Tech Football:
There's not much news out there on the Leach to somewhere else story. LAJ's Don Williams sits down with Coach Leach and Leach has this to say about the rumors:
Huh? Doesn't sound very definitive, does it, or much less an answer. As I said yesterday, if he stays or goes, there's not much we can do about it. It's human nature to look at opportunities that come across your way. Yes, we'd love for Leach to say definitively that he's not available for any job, but he doesn't want to be a liar (i.e. see Nick Saban) and I can appreciate that.
Don wondered if this would affect recruiting and had this in the article:
"It's hard to gauge,'' he said. "Hard to gauge if it does or not. But with rare exception all coaches are on one of two lists. One list is a list of `gonna get fired.' The other is a list of `gonna get hired somewhere else.' I'm proud to say I'm on the right list.''
Leach acknowledges that recruits have asked about rumors regarding his leaving Tech.
"Some. It comes up some,'' he said. "But I certainly like that question better than , I've never had this one , but it's better than the question of `Are you going to be there because I've heard you're going to get fired.''
If I'm Leach there really only is one job that entices me and it's on the West Coast. Like I said yesterday, you usually only get one shot at top tier job and I don't see Arkansas being that much better than Texas Tech. You could argue one over the other, but it's not a no-brainer for me. One bite at the apple.
FWST's Jimmy Burch has his weekly Big 12 Insider and gives Coach Leach the honor of "Costliest comment" and "Best potential investment".
Texas Tech Basketball:
LAJ's Eric Finley has the latest on the Bob Knight shooting and/or confrontation. According to Finley, the Lubbock police say that Lubbockite James Simpson's claims that Coach Knight shot at him are "unfounded." Here's the Lubbock Police Department's official response:
"Our detectives investigated it fully and determined it to be unfounded," said Gregory Stevens, a spokesman for the Lubbock Police Department. "We have closed that case."
Texas law allows for hunting in certain areas of a municipality, including the area were Knight and his party were hunting, provided they keep the proper distance from residences. Police believe they were at a safe distance.
Police also questioned Simpson's motives, according to notes from Lofton's investigation. Simpson waited a day before calling police. He also canceled a meeting with investigators and waited several weeks to schedule a new one - by which time police had already closed the case.
"He called last week and made an appointment to meet (Tuesday). We talked and he got upset and walked out. I spoke to (Simpson) as a courtesy as I would do for anyone. When I disagreed with him, he became upset ... I can only assume he went to the media to voice his complaints," said Lofton.
I'll let you draw your own conclusions on this one.
Oh, yeah, there was a game last night and LAJ's Jeff Walker has his game review. I posted my game review last night and thought it was a tale of two halves and Coach Knight agreed:
Coach Knight had some nice praise for Mike Singletary and Ricardo De Bem:
"Ricardo and Mike Singletary did a good job in the game. I thought both of them really contributed and those five kids we had in there that brought it back were very good for us."