Double-T Nation Daily Diatribe | 2011-03-01

The Williams and Hyatt Show, DTN's favorite radio show, had Texas Tech President Guy Bailey on yesterday and Bailey discussed the hiring of Miami's athletic director, Kirby Hocutt.  I thought it was a good listen and it's interesting to hear Bailey's thoughts on Hocutt.  And Wednesday there will be a Hocutt press conference at noon on Wednesday.  I've been struggling to find any information on Hocutt and what he did for Miami (FL) and at Ohio.  I did run across this Q&A with Hocutt from Athletic Management from July 2010 which happened right after Hocutt was named Street & Smith's SportsBusiness Journal's "Forty under 40" list.  I recommend that you read the whole thing and in my opinion, Hocutt is big on improving graduation rates (which were bad at Miami before his arrival) and Hocutt also talked about his eight goals for Miami:

The areas include student-athlete welfare, educational experience, competitive excellence, ethical conduct, financial stability, relationships, employee wellness and development, and the athletic facilities. We have a stated goal for enhancing each of those eight areas, but those are the pillars of our department that we as employees and coaches and student-athletes have said are important to us.

If Hocutt were to say the same thing about Texas Tech on Wednesday, then I'd be fine and if I had to summarize what I want from an athletic director, that blockquoted paragraph is a darned good summary.  If anyone else is able to find anything else on Hocutt, please link it in the comments.

You can support the recovery and rebuilding effort from the flooding in Australia by purchasing a tremendous t-shirt from Portland Trailblazer's point guard Patty Mills, originally from Australia . . .

There's nothing out there this morning, but there is a practice later this afternoon so we'll have some news tomorrow.  There were two interesting reads on the topic of oversigning from Get The Picture and Garnet and Black Attack (SB Nation's South Carolina blog).  South Carolina signed 32 players in the 2011 signing class and had to tell Lorenzo Mauldin that they didn't have any room for him after he originally committed to South Carolina . . .

There is a game tomorrow evening, which is the last home game and Senior Night and will play the Oklahoma Sooners, a winnable game.  Rush The Court's Walker Carey takes a look at the coaches that he thinks are on the hot-seat and include NC State's Sidney Lowe, Georgia Tech's Paul Hewitt and Texas Tech's Pat Knight.  Here's RTC's criteria for inclusion on the hot-seat and a bit about PK:

In an attempt to determine what coaches should be considered on the chopping block, one can rate a coach’s chance of dismissal by three criteria: (1) There must be considerable fan disdain, (2) There should be a degree of waffling administrative support, and (3) There must be a pattern of losing over an extended period of time. If a coach meets all three then a coaching change is extremely likely. If a coach meets two of the three there still exists a good chance that a change would be made. If a coach only meets one then it is a safe bet that he will be given more time to turn things around.

Snip.

Texas Tech head coach Pat Knight gained his position after his legendary father stepped aside in February of 2008. The younger Knight has struggled mightily since taking over the Red Raiders’ coaching reigns, compiling a very underwhelming 47-58 mark. During his tenure, Knight has only led the Red Raiders to one postseason appearance — an NIT berth in 2010. While Texas Tech is not known as a historic power, Bob Knight was able to take the team to four NCAA Tournaments in his six full seasons.

. . . and on the other side of the fence, PK's father, Bob Knight, has been selected as part of the 2011 College Basketball Hall of Fame class . . . Rush The Court's Owen Kemp checks in on the Big 12 . . .

Texas Tech Red Raiders (7-1, 0-0)
Vs.
UNLV Rebels (7-1, 0-0)

OUTFIELD
LF | JaModrick McGruder (SO)    CF | Barrett Barnes (SO)    RF | Andre Wheeler (FR)
INFIELD
SS | Kelby Tomlinson (JR)     2ND | Nick Popescu (SR);
3RD | Reid Redman (JR)                                  1ST | Stephen Hagen (JR)
C | Bo Altobelli (SO)
DH | David Paiz (FR)

*Click on the score for boxscore. Texas Tech series preview (pdf).

The Red Raiders will take on UNLV in a two game series with a day off on Thursday and then hosting TCU starting on Friday for a 3-game series.  It will be really interesting to see how Texas Tech will fare in these mid-game weeks and it will be really interesting to see how Texas Tech will handle a very good TCU team.  LAJ's George Watson and DT's Jose Rodriguez take a look at this mid-week series.  Here's a bit from Watson:

"I like our pitching," Spencer said. "I like our ability to match up. I like our bullpen. I like the fact we have a lot of left-handers in our bullpen. I like our depth and I like for the most part the way most of them have competed. I haven’t seen a guy not compete."

Compared with the first eight games of the last three seasons, Red Raider pitching is improved greatly in most statistical categories.

Tech’s ERA, which ranks fourth in the Big 12 Conference, is almost three runs lower than last year’s mark (5.96) through the first eight games of the season. With just one more inning pitched than at this point in 2010, the Red Raiders have given up 10 fewer hits, 22 fewer runs and earned runs, eight fewer walks and struck out 18 more batters while holding opponents to a .260 batting average.

And from Rodriguez:

Five games in six days may seem too demanding, but Tech first baseman Stephen Hagen said it won’t be a problem for the Red Raiders, considering the depth at all positions.

"We got a lot of guys; I mean, we’re not really worried about it," Hagen said. "Pitching, we got a lot of guys that can throw, and we’re not really worried about putting anybody on the mound. Position players are fine; we got (Monday) off, so we can kind of recoop and get ready for Tuesday."

One other note, which is that the Red Raiders will be on ESPNU on April 2nd against Oklahoma, which is the second of two television appearances for Texas Tech this year, the other being against Kansas St. on April 23rd.