Another Recommendation: I've been meaning to mention this, and Alan even emailed me to remind me, but I got burried doing other things. Anyway, Alan Burton, the author of Pirates, Soldiers & Fat Little Girlfriends: More Classic Texas Sports Quotes will be at a book signing at Barnes & Noble located at South Plains Mall from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Alan's also got a new edition coming out with a forward from Mike Leach. Another good holiday gift.
Want a Free TV? SB Nation is giving a Samsung 46' 3D TV to one lucky reader of SB Nation. See the link for more details.
Phillips and Crabtree: FWST's Dwain Price with a profile on CB Jarvis Phillips, who, like former Red Raider Michael Crabtree, starred at Carter H.S. in Dallas as quarterback, but Crabtree transitioned to receiver, while Phillips is transitioning to defensive back. Here's head coach Tommy Tuberville on his redshirt freshman:
"We've put him in a bind most of the year playing man coverage a lot," Tuberville said. "I bet he's played man coverage more than half the time he's been on the field, and he's held his own well for a redshirt freshman.
"He's got to cover the tall receivers and the physical receivers, and guys with a lot of speed. Obviously there's been times when he didn't do as well, but that's going to happen to anybody that plays a lot of man coverage."
Price also talked with Tuberville about the difference between the Big 12 and the SEC, and before anyone goes there, I'm guessing he was asked about the differences.
Win to Hopefully Go Bowling: DT's Mike Graham writes that with a win on Saturday, Texas Tech has an opportunity to go to a bowl game, which is like having a second spring practice, which this team needs. Tuberville talks a bit about Weber St. and the difference between BCS and FCS teams:
"The difference in levels is just depth," Tuberville said. "They don’t have as many scholarships, but they made it through the year pretty good without injuries. It’s their last game, and they’ll do everything. We’ve got to be ready for fake punts, (fake) field goals, onside kicks. They have nothing to lose coming into this game.
"They’ll be ready to play. Again, they’re excited about coming here and playing; hopefully we have a good crowd and it’ll be just another football game."
Academic All-Big 12: Per Big 12 Sports and Texas Tech, the Academic All-Big 12 teams were announced yesterday and 15 Red Raiders were named on the first and second teams:
First Team:
Britton Barbee (Psychology & Human Development and Family Studies)
Bront Bird (Energy Commerce)
Cody Davis (Management Information Systems)
David Neill (Exercise and Sport Sciences)
Mickey Okafor (Human Development and Family Studies)
Chris Olson (MBA)
Taylor Potts (Exercise Sport Sciences/Human Development & Family Studies)
Austin Zouzalik (Business Administration).
Second Team
Jonathan Brydon (Marketing)
Donnie Carona (Business Administration)
Brian Duncan (Management)
Jonathan LaCour (Advertising)
Alexander Torres (Business Administration)
LaAdrian Waddle (Business Administration)
Matthew Williams (Human Development and Family Studies)
Congrats!
Miscellaneous: DMN's Mike Graham has his game prediction for the Weber St. vs. Texas Tech game . . . KC Star's Blair Kerkhoff has the best of the Big 12, including a certain school with the best celebration and a couple of Red Raiders on the All-Time Big 12 team . . . Kerkhoff also takes a look at the other Big 12 teams playing this weekend . . .
Lumberjacks Tonight: DT's Tommy Magelsson looks at tonight's game with the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks and although Texas Tech was beat in overtime on Tuesday night against North Texas, PG John Roberson said that the Red Raiders beat themselves:
"Just watching the film and seeing what we did wrong was pretty disturbing," he said. "But I think it’s not a time to panic because I think we beat ourselves — they didn’t beat us.
"It’s just the fact that we need to go back to the drawing board and realize what we did wrong and fix it."
Umm . . . I would disagree, and I would say that Roberson had one of the biggest hands in losing to North Texas by not playing much defense (see below). SF Brad Reese talked about what this team needs to fix:
"We had a seven-point lead going down the stretch," Reese said. "(If we) take care of the ball going down the stretch, we would have won. Just got to hit our free throws, too. And when we’re on the road, you’ve got to have everything, loose balls, play great defense down the stretch. It was a tough one."
Oh Snap: DMN's Mike Graham has a ton of quotes from yesterday's press conference with head coach Pat Knight. Apparently, PK is tired of hearing about the offense:
"I'm so tired of hearing about the offense," Knight said. "We're averaging close to 80 points a game. I said it the other night, reporters have got to learn how to analyze a game. You guys should sit down and watch film with us sometime if you want to know what's important in a game. It's not the scoring." "They've got to pick it up," Knight continued on the same question. "John's got to contain these guards, we just got buried by a guard up there in Denton, the kid had 32 points. That's how you get beat. Mike's got to do a better job - there's more to this game than scoring. We're deep now and people have got to understand Mike and John's stats aren't going to be the same to what they were last year. They aren't going to score as many points as they did because they don't have to. We have six or seven guys who can average in double figures so people have got to quit looking at the stats. "Do you want to have 25 points and be on a bad team or do you want to average 14 or 15 along with about five other guys averaging the same on a really good team? I think we're at a point I think we're at the point now where we're going to have four or five, maybe six guys in double figures and then you're going to have two or three probably around six or eight (points)."
I agree with all of this.
Miscellaneous: Yahoo! Sports Jason King takes a look at the Big 12 and someone is already on the hot seat . . .
Red Raider Profile: The official site previews freshman C Mason Randolph. Here's head coach Dan Spencer on Randolph:
"Mason is a kid that we are very fortunate and glad to have," head coach Dan Spencer said. "He is a very athletic catcher. He has a very good arm and he is very quick. He is going to be an impact player at Texas Tech before he is done here."