Student Athlete Talent Show: The DT has this covered and this is good to see the student athletes at Texas Tech being part of an excellent cause. Each year, for the past few years, the student athletes put on a talent show to raise money for the Special Olympics. DT's Josuha Koch wrote about last night's event and the DT also has some video. Good stuff, make sure and check it out.
UT Being Sued by ESPN: I wasn't sure where to put this, but I found this yesterday and it's interesting. Courthouse News Service writes that the University of Texas is being sued by ESPN:
ESPN says the University of Texas is playing games with sports station's FOIA request about plans to move the Longhorns out of the Big 12 Conference. Possible realignment of the Big 12, PAC 10 and Big 10 is big news, and the public is entitled to it, ESPN says, despite the UT's claim that the documents are protected from disclosure by attorney-client privilege.
ESPN and its reporter Paula Lavigne sued the University of Texas System, seeking declaratory judgment in Travis County Court, Austin.
Lavigne submitted a FOIA request on June 22, seeking any documents generated since May 1, including emails, fax, or telephone notes from UT officials, regarding membership realignment of the Big 12, Big 10 and PAC 10 conferences.
The UT refused, citing attorney-client privilege, and saying the attorney general, agreed.
A few things come to mind here. First, if UT is able to assert attorney-client privilege then some of the attorneys at Texas Tech need to take some classes to figure out how to protect all of the information that was requested from them. Second, there's the thought that Texas Tech sometimes wants information out in the public. Third, I don't know what I'm enjoying more: UT being sued or the thought of ESPN afraid that they're about to be played if they give the Longhorns a mega-television deal and before they sign on the dotted line, they want to know if UT had /had some other motives.
Conversations: Hat-tip to KLBK's Brandon Rawe, Miami Herald's Michelle Kaufman had these two tweets yesterday (I've changed the order to make them chronological, i.e. the first one was the first tweet and the second was next):
Trusty sources: Tuberville, Mullen have had conversations w/#UM, but search far from over. Other candidates still very much in picture.
Michelle Kaufman
kaufsports
PS "conversation" and "contact" don't necessarily = "interview" in coach-speak. Everyone plays semantic games in these situations.Michelle Kaufman
kaufsports
Back when there were rumors of Leach talking with Miami so many years ago, I dismissed those rumors because I just didn't think that Leach would leave Texas Tech. I was young and foolish. With that being said, I still take rumors and tweets with a grain of salt. It's information and since we all know that Tuberville coached at Miami, it's conceivable that he did talk with some of his old acquaintances. Of course, it could also mean that this was a serious conversation. Keep in mind that over the weekend, Tuberville said that he had not been contacted by Miami:
"I’m happy to be here," he said. "We just got this thing started. We want to keep it going. All the coaches like it here. I want to be here. So there’s no other thing to say.
"You can always say, ‘I’m not going’ or ‘I am going’ or ‘I’ll listen to them.’ There’s been no contact and that job’s been open, what, a week or so."
It certainly bears watching and one of the reasons I haven't written much about it is because I had not seen anything worth noting other than just speculation and maybe I should be wringing my hands over this, but I hate to do that over a just a little bit of smoke.
Miscellaneous: SB Nation's Brian Cook with This Week In Schadenfreude: Excuse Nebraska While They Have A Seizure . . . Dr. Saturday's Matt Hinton with a detailed look at a glitch in the BCS computer rankings that was discovered by SI.com's Jerry Palm (both articles are really interesting reads) . . . Pre-Snap Read's Paul Myerberg with his end of season Big 12 Awards . . .
Game Tonight: TCU Horned Frogs vs. Texas Tech Red Raiders
Wednesday, December 8, 2010 | 7:00 p.m.
United Spirit Arena | Lubbock, TX
Defense Needs Work: LAJ's Courtney Linehan writes that the defense continues to hold this team back and SF Mike Singletary says the team wants to show that the Saturday arse-whipping by Washington isn't the team that you'll see this year:
"It’s not about them, we don’t think," Tech forward Mike Singletary said. "It’s realy about us. It’s about us rebounding from that awful game we played Saturday. We’re all anxious to get back in the gym, compete, and really make a statement."
Snip.
"We have mental lapses," Singletary said. "There’s spurts where we play really good defense for four, six minutes here and there, then we forget what we’re supposed to be doing. When you play good teams you can’t have that."
I'm not holding my breath.
Roberts and Cooper Healthy: DT's Tommy Magelssen writes that head coach Pat Knight is happy that PF D'Walyn Roberts and PF Paul Cooper are finally healthy:
"If there was one positive out of the whole game, it was getting those guys minutes," Knight said. "I know they’re going to make mistakes because they haven’t played in a while, but I was kind of happy to get them minutes against a high quality opponent and a really good road environment."
And Cooper talks about his game:
"I play mostly real physical," Cooper said. "I like the power game, that’s what I like to go to — the power line with my headfakes, and just power it up to the rim and finish strong."
Miscellaneous: Big 12 Hoops has their weekly Big 12 power rankings and things aren't looking good for the Red Raiders . . .