This Week: Now that National Signing Day is done, we get to focus on things at our leisure. We'll be continuing the Post Season Awards, finishing up with the defensive and offensive MVP, a preview of the men's basketball team traveling to Norman for a game against the Sooners, and some more detail analysis on the most recent commits.
DTN T-Shirts: Probably by the middle of the week, we'll start the t-shirt contest where you guys and gals will design, nominate and vote on the t-shirts that DTN will make widely available to the public. We'll start with reader submissions, and to clarify, you do not have to be an artist to contribute, those of you who are famous for their witty repertoire will have a say in this as well. If this contest falls flat on it's face, I'll still have a couple of t-shirts designed on my own and will still make them widely available to the public.
Baseball Previews: Believe it or not, the baseball season is a week or so away from starting as the Red Raider Classic starts up on February 19th. For those of you who love following college baseball, I cannot recommend enough The College Baseball Blog. Last week, TCBB previewed the Big 12 and you can find all of their stories tagged with Texas Tech here. I also stumbled across Easton's College Baseball Today and their Big 12 preview.
Ready to Play: LAJ's George Watson writes that with the team just one week away from starting, the team is ready. Head coach Dan Spencer said that the team is competing:
"I think we’re going to be very good defensively, we’re pitching well, and we’re just grinding it out right now," Spencer said after Saturday’s practice. "I think we’ll be ready to play in a week and be ready next week when we play with the alumni, barring any unforeseen injuries to guys we have battling now.
And Watson reports on how the pitching staff is currently shaking out:
One guy who apparently showed up for the first week is junior transfer Brett Bruening, a right-handed pitcher out of Seward County (Kan.) Community College. With returning junior right-hander Chad Bettis penciled in as the Friday starter and junior right-handed transfer Bobby Doran the leading candidate for Saturday, Bruening might have taken a big step toward securing the Sunday role.
And with junior left-handed transfer Jay Johnson set to go as the closer, the rest of the staff is battling to be a midweek starter or key relief pitcher out of the bullpen, which was a sore spot in 2009.
Despite finishing seventh in the conference at 12-15 in Big 12 play, Tech was just 13-17 in non-conference action, a big reason why it missed out on the playoffs while eighth-place Baylor and ninth-place Oklahoma State made the NCAA playoffs.
Roberson passes Bonewitz: DT's Mike Graham writes that on Saturday's win against Oklahoma St., PG John Roberson passed Stan Bonewitz for Texas Tech's all-time leader in assists:
"It feels good going into history," Roberson said. "I didn’t even know, I think someone gave me a hint that I might break it this game. But it feels good just to know your going to be in the books going down in history."
And head coach Pat Knight said that Roberson's achievement is close to being out of reach:
"That’s a heck of a record to get so soon," Tech coach Pat Knight said. "Usually you hear about guys in their senior year with maybe two or three games to go who get that. I just feel bad for him because if we could have had some better teams his first two years he might have gotten it last year."