Crabtree Wins Biletnikoff Award
Nice write-up on Michael Crabtree accepting the Fred Biletnikoff Award, and Crabtree sounds humble:
"It's a blessing," Crabtree said. "Last year they said nobody can do it, and it was just motivation for me to go out there and work hard every day to be back right here in this seat."
And how about this exchange between receivers coach Lincoln Riley and Wes Welker, back when Crabtree wasn't even playing:
Welker, who was playing for the Miami Dolphins at the time, noticed the freshman working out and had this to say: "That freshman kid that you guys signed working out, he could make the Dolphins' roster today.""Who?" Riley asked.
"That Crabtree kid."
"He hasn't even played receiver for us," Riley responded. "We haven't even taught him anything."
"I don't care," Welker said.
Pick a Side
I've put a poll at the bottom of this post. Just out of curiosity, I wanted to figure out where folks stand, so the request is simple, pick a side . . . Leach or Texas Tech.
Griffin, OU Destroy Texas Tech
I don't know if you guys have noticed, but that Blake Griffin guy is pretty good. All kidding aside, I think that Griffin is better than either Durant or Beasley and I loved both of those guys.
In any event, Griffin and OU throttled Texas Tech, 74-95 (boxscore) and it was somewhat close in the first half, but towards the end of the first half, OU started to pull away. LAJ's Jeff Walker has two stories online, Option 1 and Option 2. I think they both say the same thing, but in any event, here's the money quote from Pat Knight on Blake Griffin:
"You guys ever see the movie, ‘The Terminator?’ That’s what that kid’s like," Knight said. "No facial expression, he just plays. And, it’s like every player I put on him is like Sarah Connor and he just takes his time killing ‘em. That kid is good."
Spencer Ready to Rebuilding
LAJ's George Watson has a good look at Dan Spencer and the program he is trying to build at Texas Tech. There's lots of good things in this article, but the item that jumped out at me is that Spencer is going to be relying more on freshmen rather than JUCO's, which is a tough thing at first, but should pay off later.
His demeanor will tell anyone that Spencer is not intent on making this a five-year plan. If he has his druthers, it’d be a five-minute plan. But bringing in this year’s class is just the first step, and Tech has already announced a signing class for this coming fall that features three junior college transfers and six high school players."The key is to put this class that we signed in November with (the current one). You put two or three of those together and now you have something," Spencer said. "There are some similarities (to Oregon State) in the way the people of Lubbock want to win and expect to win. The difference is … at the time we put the bunch together at Oregon State we had a stadium in place and that helped in the recruiting area. That will be the key for us to take the next step, and we’re going to do that. We’re going to attack the stadium issue like we do the opposition and recruiting and whatever it is."