ODDS AND ENDS |
| GUY BAILEY TOWN HALL MEETING |
I've had a couple of people inquire about what happened with Texas Tech President Guy Bailey town hall meeting and the only article after the fact that I found (very quickly) was from the DT's Stephen Gibson, who reported that the town hall meeting focused mainly on Texas state budget cuts that are affecting higher education and Texas Tech:
"The reason we’re here today is because there is a current shortfall of $4.3 billion in the state budget for the biennium we’re currently in," Bailey said during the meeting, which was hosted in the Citybank room in United Spirit Arena.
I'll let you read the whole thing, if you're interested.
| HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY |
Barry White. 1975. Germany. Can't Get Enough of Your Love. Happy Valentine's Day.
TEXAS TECH BASKETBALL |
| SINGLETARY INJURED; NEWS AND NOTES |
LAJ's Courtney Linehan and Adam Zuvanich discuss the injury that kept SF Mike Singletary out of Saturday's game. Apparently, head coach Pat Knight didn't know about the injury before the game so that means that the injury was not a reason why PK did not start Singletary. It doesn't take a genius to figure that there's an obvious disconnect here:
Pat Knight said Singletary had a calf injury the Tech coach was unaware of before the game. When asked whether the Red Raiders were affected by Singletary’s prolonged stint on the bench, Knight said, "I don’t know."
"I thought we were playing pretty well without him," Knight said. "But, you know, he’s one of your better players and he’s out, so obviously you’re probably better off if he could play. But he couldn’t play."
So what happened here? Singletary finds out right before game-time that he's not starting because of matcups and perhaps because he stinks defensively and he's a liability defensively. Mysterious calf injury appears and Singletary only plays 4 minutes. Keep in mind that the team had all of last week off and didn't play a mid-week game. Does this sound plausible?
DT's Tommy Magelssen also wraps up the game from Saturday.
Last, but not least, the men will travel to Columbia and take on the Missouri Tigers. I think at this point, I don't want Singletary starting the rest of the year and let's see if his calf injury gets any better.
TEXAS TECH BASEBALL |
| WEEKEND LINKS AND ALUMNI GAME WRAP-UP |
If you missed Sunday's FanShot with the day's links, and you love baseball, then make sure and read LAJ's George Watson's look at the offense, the pitching and re-cap from the alumni game.
DT's Jose Rodriguez also wrapped up the game and former Red Raider Chris Richburg said that the current team must throw strikes:
"A whole lot of strikes," Richburg said, when asked what he saw from Red Raider pitchers, "which, you know, I think (Tech has) had some trouble with in the past, and I think that’s the biggest key for them … they’ve got to throw strikes."
Gagree.
Also, you've heard a bit about how the college bats have changed and KAMC did a story on how the "ping" is dead. The ball does sound different coming off the bat and the familiar ping isn't there. The story explains that it's because the sweet spot has been reduced from 22" to 5".
| BARNES CONTINUES TO RACK UP PRESEASON ACCOLADES |
OF Barrett Barnes continues rack up preseason accolades as he was named to the preseason All-Conference first team by Perfect Game USA. The actual Perfect Game USA article previews the Big 12 and says that Texas Tech is one of the team's with their stock falling:
Texas Tech: Coach Dan Spencer is a great teacher and eventually will guide the Red Raiders to a postseason berth. But that season likely won’t be 2011. The Red Raiders had a solid one-two punch last season with Chad Bettis and Bobby Doran leading the way. But now, without those two, they have some serious question marks on the mound. Tech could surprise if the pitching staff exceeds expectations.
Part of that is true. Texas Tech did have a solid 1-2 punch, but the problem is that there was nothing after that. Literally nothing and had problems finding pitchers for mid-week games and Bettis had to swing between starter and closer during the weekend games as the team didn't have a third pitcher that could get any outs.
The key is that this year's team has a ton, and I mean a ton, of pitching, but it's not proven. By my count, there are 9 left handed pitchers and 11 right handed pitchers. We're going to learn a lot about this team in the non-conference games, which starts this Friday, Saturday and Sunday.