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Texas Tech Saturday Morning Notes - It's Been Crazy Edition

By Seth C

Texas Tech Basketball:

Bring it on Drew!!!! Seriously, if this doesn't get you pumped up for Baylor-Texas Tech then I don't know what will. Baylor coach Scott Drew said this after Baylor's loss to TAMU earlier this week:

"Don't get down about tonight," Drew said into a microphone while standing at midcourt, "because we're going to kick butt in Lubbock."

When asked to comment, PK essentially had none, but I'm sure he's well aware of Drew's comments. Baylor is fighting for an NCAA tournament win, so there's no doubt that this Baylor team is going to come into Lubbock ready to play.

LAJ's Jeff Walker previews today's matchup with Baylor and also writes that PK wants today's game for Charlie Burgess, Martin Zeno and Tyler Hoffmeister to be special. Go read the whole thing.

FWST's Dwain Price asks which Texas Tech team will show up. PK is thinking about taking some classes (see Sherrington article below for this to come full-circle):

"I need to take some psychology classes here at Tech to try and figure these guys out," said Knight, 4-5 since he took over for his dad, Bob, on Feb. 4. "It's been crazy.

"But I'm glad our last game is at home where we seem to be more comfortable and more aggressive. We just have a really hard time on the road."

This is how PK prepared his team for Baylor:

"I handled this one different because we have a huge game [today]," he said. "I had to kind of throw Kansas out the window, but it was tough.

"I really wanted to get into them about not competing, but I had to look at the bigger picture and what we had at the end of the week. I didn't want to bury these guys. I wanted to keep their confidence up and try to get some momentum heading into this game."

DMN's Kevin Sherrington writes about the Jekyll-and-Hyde nature of the teams in the Big 12, focusing on the coaching changes and how it affects teams. Sherrington talks to a psychologist and had this to say about Texas Tech:

"Any time there's a coaching change," said Matt Johnson, who works in Fort Worth, "dynamics shift."

Hard to imagine a bigger shift than going from Bob Knight to his kinder, gentler son, Pat. And, to a lesser degree, the same may be true in College Station, where Mark Turgeon, who last week referred to himself as a "wimp," replaced taskmaster Billy Clyde Gillispie.

The consensus of the experts is that when players have been indoctrinated into a regimented, totalitarian environment, they start identifying with their captors.

And when that Stockholm syndrome no longer is in effect?

"I might have good days, and I might have bad days," said John Lubker, who teaches sports psychology at West Texas A&M. "I might do all right in games where it's obvious what my goals are, and, in others, I might not be prepared to do what I need to do."

Case in point: Tech's rivalry with Texas is so ingrained, I could coach them and they'd still manage to get out of the huddle without hurting themselves.

"But it's hard to go into Kansas on senior night and play them well," said Scott Martin, based at the University of North Texas.

Seriously? Stockholm syndrome? Get the f*@k out of here. Please. It's one thing to say that playing for RMK is tough, but I think Sherrington and Lubker are taking it too far (which I am reminded by The Ticket's "sports psychologist" Carlton Maxwell - full of crap, but hilarious). This article makes me want to cuss and if my parents didn't read this I probably would.

Texas Tech Baseball:

LAJ's George Watson details the change of plans made by the baseball team, which includes an unexpected trip to San Marcos this weekend. Here's Coach Hays on trying to hit the road:

"It's really disappointing," Coach Larry Hays said. "We've got a good place to play here and we enjoy playing here and to have this come up again is disappointing. But we have to make the best of it. You can gloss over it any way you want to, but the bottom line is we're real disappointed. We were just getting rested up a little bit and to do this again and play five straight games on the road, be in town for a couple days and open conference is sure not the way you want to do it."

Here's your lineup:

  • Texas Tech v. Northern Illinois Saturday, March 8, 2008 @ 2:00 p.m. AJ Ramos (TT) (0-2, 4.63) v. Matt Jernstad (NIU) (1-0).
  • Texas Tech v.Texas State Saturday, March 8, 2008 @ 6:00 p.m. Nate Karns (TT) (1-0, 6.00) v. TBA (TSU) (0-0).
  • Texas Tech v. Northern Illinois Sunday, March 9, 2008 @ 12:00 p.m. Chad Bettis (TT) (1-0, 2.84) v. Adam Holdenrid (NIU) (0-1).
  • Texas Tech v. Texas State Monday, March 10, 2008 @ 2:30 p.m. Robbie Kilcrease (TT) (0-0, 0.00) v. TBA (TSU) (0-0).

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