ODDS AND ENDS | I was sent this by good-strong DTN reader Jeremy. Texas Tech and Susan Polgar's chess team secured the commitment from Wesley So, who just happens to be the 1st Philippines, 3rd under 20, 64th in the world.
Remember how West Virginia was supposed to join the Big 12 next year? Not so fast. Per East Coast Bias, a Rhode Island judge has dismissed West Virginia's motion to dismiss the Big East lawsuit (which means that the lawsuit continues) and WVU, Pitt and Syracuse may be "stuck" in the Big East until the 27 month exit period expires.
LADY RAIDER BASKETBALL | For you night owls, The Lady Raiders will tip-off at 9:00 pm tonight to take on Cal State Bakersfield.
LAJ's David Just writes this morning that the defense is the key to the Lady Raider 10-0 start, as well as a more mature team:
Curry credits a growing maturity for Tech’s improving defensive pressure. The team is much more focused on scouting reports and film sessions, Curry said.
“It’s just glaring,” Curry said of the increased maturity level. “You see percentages as far as stats and you see (opponents’) strengths and weaknesses. We challenge them daily to break down the scouting report. You’re going to give something up and you’ve got to pick and choose. If 70 percent of their shots are from 3, we want to make them put it on the floor.”
RED RAIDER BASKETBALL | I forgot to mention this earlier, but Big 12 Hoops are naming their all-freshman, all-sophomore, etc. teams and, of course, PF Jordan Tolbert made the all-freshman list.
TEXAS TECH FOOTBALL | Every morning I search Google News for the words "texas tech" to see if I'll pick anything up and this morning I came across two Scout articles that you couldn't tell what they said inside, but when you search under Google News, you get a snippet of the article. The first is on Florida high school CB Larry Hope and I assume that Texas Tech has visited recently:
"Texas Tech came to my house, and a lot of SEC and Big 10 schools have came to my ... Texas Tech's coaches are nice and I listened to what they had to say. ...
If you want to check out his Scout, Rivals or ESPN profiles, there they are and some YouTube video. Also, according to the Rivals profile, Hope visited Texas Tech in November.
I think I linked to some news on this before, but apparently East Mississippi C.C. QB Bo Wallace is going to be taking an official visit to Texas Tech early in January:
"I am going to Baylor on January 4th and then to Texas Tech on the 6th," said Bo. "Mississippi State wanted me to come in on the 4th, but I was already set ...
As I'm trying to move quickly this morning, I couldn't find any JUCO profile pages (I found Wallace's old high school profiles) so all I can offer to you is some YouTube video. I just can't believe this, but according to the NJCAA statistics page, Wallace threw for over 4,600 yards, 53 touchdowns and 14 interceptions. I'd bet that Texas Tech is a bit down Wallace's list, especially since it also appears that Baylor is on his list and if Griffin leaves, then that would make a lot of sense.