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Texas Tech Thursday Morning Notes - Beating 11 Guys Is Impossible Edition

By Seth C

Double T Nation News:

Because of personal obligations I have not been able to write DTN's version of this week's Big 12 Round Table, but make sure and check out Gabriel's Horn, a Texas blog run by 3 very lovely ladies, to catch up with the rest of the Big 12 (by the way, I am especially partial to BON's answer on which mascot you would choose other than your own - fear the mustache Longhorns).

An although this has absolutely nothing to do with the Big 12 or DTN, please check out Black Heart Gold Pants' interview with Minnesota head coach Tim Brewster

Texas Tech Football:

The Chron's Joe Duarte is trying to stir up the rumor mill about Coach Leach being available for the UCLA coaching job. Duarte connects the dots - Leach is from California and he went to law school at Pepperdine, but the rest is speculation. Duarate even goes so far as to say that Coach Leach had an interview for the Miami job, which isn't accurate. In December of last year, Coach Leach was asked about his meeting with Miami AD Phillip Dee:

"Just shook his hand,'' Leach said. "How you doing? He's a friendly guy. Nothing special. . . I wouldn't characterize it as a discussion."

"Have they offered me anything? No," Leach said. "Are they going to? I don't have the faintest idea. ... I haven't been offered anything. If I am, what will I do? I don't know."

Not exactly an interview, right? Not exactly "flirting", right? Duarte is better than this and until Coach Leach is actually announced as a candidate to the UCLA job then I won't waste my time. I'm not saying that Coach Leach wouldn't be interviewed for the UCLA job, but I like my chances of Coach Leach staying in Lubbock.

DMN's Brandon George notes that the Texas Tech defense will be charged with stopping Jamaal Charles and I think our Red Raiders have the right idea, from Coach McNeill:

"If you'll notice," McNeill said, rewinding the video before replaying a Charles run, "there is only one guy around him. You have to get a lot of guys around him."

And linebacker Brian Duncan is technically right, but over the last few weeks I'm pretty sure Charles has beat 11 guys in the 4th quarter:

"Coach Ruff tells us all the time, a person like that may beat one player on the team, but beating 11 guys is impossible," Duncan said. "You can't beat 11 guys running to the ball, hitting him at the same time."

I like his sentiment and attitude, this is going to be a team effort.

FWST's Dwain Price has his Texas Tech Football Notes and has this from quarterback Graham Harrell:

"I think he's a good player, and he's done lots of good things down there in Austin," Harrell said of McCoy. "But you can't really go into the game trying to make it a quarterback battle.

"We just have to go in there and focus on trying to move the ball against their defense, and I'm sure he's going to be focused on trying to move the ball against our defense."

LAJ's Jeff Walker gets to know Jamaal Charles and the reason for his recent success.

Texas Tech Basketball:

John Gasaway at Basketball Prospectus previews the Big 12 and does an excellent job of taking a look at the Texas Tech basketball team as well as a number of other Big 12 schools. As John rightly notes, the frontcourt, inside defense and the inside scoring will be a concern until results on the court prove otherwise:

Second, this team's interior defense should continue to worry Red Raider fans until events on the court dictate otherwise. In fact, Tech lost its "size," such as it was, with the departures of 6'9" Darryl Dora and 6'8" Jon Plefka. The only incoming size of note will be provided by Brazilian Ricardo De Bem, a 6'10" junior college transfer. Bear in mind that conference opponents made 52 percent of their twos last year (only Colorado opponents shot better) and rebounded a goodly share of their misses (only Missouri was weaker on the defensive glass). Knight's team was able to offset this performance only with a little luck and by taking outstanding care of the ball.

John fails to mention that Texas Tech returns Rizvic and will also have Trevor Cook available (who by the way I think will surprise some people). I'm not a huge fan of Suljagic and I think that if Knight can not play him then he won't. Still, an excellent read and make sure and check out the rest of the website for more on just about any conference your heart desires.

Big 12 Football:

FWST's Jimmy Burch has this week's Big 12 Insider and is picking Texas to win on Saturday (as are most most of the mainstream media outlets).

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