Double-T Nation News:
I won't go into all of the gory details, but let's just say I've been a little under the weather the last 24 hours (i.e. tethered to a toilet), so I've missed quite a bit. I'm still not 100% so please take everything I write this morning with a grain of salt.
Texas Tech Football:
LAJ's Don Williams writes that the Red Raiders are not feeling sorry for themselves with the BCS situation. Senior quarterback Graham Harrell with a little perspective:
"It’s a great conference," Tech quarterback Graham Harrell said, "and when you have this many great teams in one conference, things like this happen. You come up with three-way ties."Oklahoma State, who I think is good enough to win a lot of conferences, has lost two games (before the Cowboys lost Saturday night to Oklahoma) and aren’t even getting mentioned. They’re kind of left behind, and they’re a great team.
"We would like to have won last week and gone undefeated, but we didn’t. We want to go to the best bowl and want to go to the best game, want the best turnout, but whatever happens happens.
"It’s been an exciting year, been an exciting conference — I think the best conference in the country right now. It’s crazy at the top, but that’s the way things are."
And as far as I'm concerned, running back Baron Batch has the right attitude (emphasis mine):
"It was nothing that I could say, ‘Poor us. We’re getting messed over,’’’ Batch said. "All we had to do was go out and win, and we didn’t."
ESPN's Pat Forde on Graham Harrell's injured non-throwing hand:
Texas Tech football spokesman Chris Cook said that coach Mike Leach's policy is not to comment on the specifics of players' injuries. But he confirmed that Harrell did have surgery Sunday morning.The source said Harrell was X-rayed at halftime, and the Tech medical staff told him he was done for the day. Harrell responded, "Tape my hand up. I'm going out." Harrell finished the game with black tape around the two fingers.
And DMN's Brandon George on Michael Crabtree's ankle:
I received a text message late last night from the father of Michael Crabtree. And he said that Crabtree's injury is "not bad" and he called it a right ankle sprain. That's good news for Texas Tech fans. Crabtree looked like he could have been seriously injured when he came down and had his right ankle twist underneath him along the sideline in the second quarter against Baylor.
His team was clearly flat coming into the Baylor game, a result of their draining and emotional loss to Oklahoma last week. Tech was forced to play without likely All-Big 12 safety Daniel Charbonnet from the start. Michael Crabtree suffered an ankle injury that left him in street clothes along the sidelines for the second half. And Graham Harrell suffered a finger injury to his non-throwing hand that likely will require surgery early this week, the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal reported.Despite those handicaps and a two-touchdown deficit, Leach kept the Red Raiders focused as they persevered for a gutsy victory over the Bears and claimed a share of their first Big 12 South Division title. It likely won't be enough to get them into a BCS bowl, but still showed why Leach is an underrated motivator to go along with his clear offensive genius.
I'm not going to link to all of the BCS mess, but I'll simply point you towards the SB Nation BCS Hub. There are good cases made all three ways (Texas Tech, Texas and Oklahoma) and as I wrote yesterday, the problem with this system is that it just stinks that it never should have come down to BCS ranking to determine the Big 12 South Champion.
The Abilene Reporter profiles quarterback Graham Harrell who has West Texas roots.
I found some video of Texas Tech's game on the Versus website.
Texas Tech Basketball:
I haven't intentionally tried to ignore the basketball team, but it probably appears so. During this Thanksgiving Holiday the Red Raiders lost to Pittsburgh 80-67 (boxscore) and beat a decent Mississippi State team 77-73 (boxscore). LAJ's Jeff Walker has some thoughts in his blog Above The Rim and feels that the Mississippi State win was a pretty good win.
I'm going to try and work on a weekly basketball report sometime tonight or tomorrow.
Texas Tech's next game is against Wichita State on Wednesday, in Lubbock @ 7:05 and should be telecast on TTTN.