Texas Tech Friday Morning Notes - Weren’t Going To Let That Happen Edition

Big 12 Quarterback Battles

ESPN's Big 12 blogger Tim Griffin writes about which quarterbacks should be worried about their job and Taylor Potts comes in behind 5 Big 12 starters from last year (Bradford, McCoy, Griffin, Reesing and Robinson):

6. Taylor Potts, Texas Tech -- Mike Leach appears sold on him after 15 career games and 85 passes. But he still needs the activity to develop a better grasp of Leach's offense and work with his receivers.

Seems about right to me, as I think it's his job to lose and Potts is ranked right behind all of last year's starters, and ahead of Arnaud, Iowa State's starter last year.

Non-Conference Games

Who doesn't love a list? Also by Griffin, he ranks the top non-conference matchups in 2009 and Texas Tech's game with Houston checks in at #7:

7. Texas Tech at Houston, Sept. 26: This game will be coming the week after Texas Tech travels to Texas in its first road game. It could be dicey for the Red Raiders, although they won their last two games at Houston against the Cougars in the final days of the Southwest Conference. Tech averaged 45 points per game in those games -- and that was long before Mike Leach had taken over the program. I'm expecting a shootout in this one with both teams combining for more than 1,000 yards.

Tim notes that there's one big omission from the list:

That's right. Maybe that's why Texas is ranked as the conference's top team coming into the season.

But the Longhorns assuredly won't get much BCS bounce from a quartet of nonconference games featuring Louisiana-Monroe, Wyoming, UTEP and Central Florida.

Mack Brown better hope the South Division is as tough as usual in 2009. Because he's not going to get much sympathy in a head-to-head comparison with most other national powers when nonconference schedules are compared.

Red Raiders Motivated?

LAJ's Jeff Walker writes this morning that the Red Raiders were slightly motivated as Kansas guard Sherron Colllins' comments prior to the game:

"It’s a great feeling to clinch on the road," Collins said in Wednesday’s editions of the Kansas City Star. "You do it on the road, you get to celebrate in somebody else’s locker room."

And Alan Voskuil didn't want to let that happen:

"It was just a feeling we had," Voskuil said. "After we came in and heard what Collins said, that he couldn’t wait to celebrate in our locker room, we weren’t going to let that happen. That just kind of fired us up and we said right there that we were going to win this game."

Previewing Iowa State

DT's Alex Ybarra previews Saturday's game against Iowa State and Pat Knight wants the team to build on Wednesday night's win:

"Now we just gotta build on this in the future," Knight said. "This is a great foundation for our first year - Senior game, being able to beat a team like (Kansas) - and now we can use this to build upon. It's just gotta be a springboard for us from here on out."

And Mike Singletary is a little worried about Craig Brackins (one more highly rated players in the country via NBADraft.net and DraftExpress):

"He's a great player," Singletary said of Brackins. "You can see, he can play inside-outside and be that big. He's gonna be a tough matchup. I think we're gonna have something ready for him, and something to slow him down a little bit."

Junior Knight Learning

NY Times Thayer Evans talked with Pat Knight about learning from this tough season:

Knight said he had also leaned this season on Texas Tech Athletic Director Gerald Myers, who is the winningest men’s basketball coach in Texas Tech history. Nebraska Coach Doc Sadler and Texas Coach Rick Barnes have also provided support, he said.

"Man, it’s been tough," said Knight, who coached Texas Tech to a 4-7 record last season after his father retired. "We’ve been getting beat down so much that guys are trying to keep my spirits up and make sure I see the big picture instead of just getting so caught up in what’s going on now."

And we should expect a different type of player that what Bob Knight previously recruited:

"Everybody has a different taste who they’re attracted to," Knight said in a telephone interview. "It has to be the same way for players. There’s not like one attribute that I like more than my dad likes, but it is going to be different because I’m a different person."

Added Knight, "If two girls were walking down the street, my dad would probably pick a different one than I would."

Red Raiders Lose 5th Straight

*Click on the score for boxscore.

Texas Tech 5, UC Riverside 9

This has got to be getting tough for this team as Texas Tech has lost 5 straight games, all on the road, and the biggest problem for this team was a pitching staff that is struggling to throw strikes and 4 errors (recap). Starter Nathan Karns (3.2 IP; 6 H; 4 ER; 3 BB; 3 SO) and Cory Large (3.2 IP; 3 H; 4 ER; 3 BB; 0 SO) struggled to get opponents out and I can imagine that the errors certainly didn't help. Chris Richburg (2-3; 3 RBI) led the way on offense, but this very young team is still struggling to get some consistent offense, and perhaps this team is really starting to show the effect of not having Willie Rueda at the top of the lineup.