POWER IS BACK: It's not the best thing to be without power, but it was only about 24 hours. The power came back on sometime last night, so that's good. I mentioned this in a comment, but some strong winds blew through the DFW area on Sunday night or early Monday morning (about 2:00 a.m.). Our power went out and as I got up to see what happened, I looked in our front yard and we have a tree, that's about 5 foot in diameter, that fell in front of the street, blocking traffic and narrowly missing my neighbor's cars. Of all the places it could have fallen, it fell in the best possible place and didn't hurt anyone and I feel lucky. And if anyone needs any firewood, let me know.
IS PELLEY THE CHOICE? The NY Times is reporting that 60 Minutes anchor Scott Pelley, who also happens to be a Texas Tech graduate, is the top candidate to replace Katie Couric for the CBS Evening News.
COLLEGE TRANSPARENCY: LAJ's Jon Arnold has a nice article about how there needs to be some transparency about college funds and the salaries that students and taxpayers are paying for the administrators of Texas universities as there are cuts being made across the board:
Here at Texas Tech, top administrators Guy Bailey, president, and Kent Hance, chancellor, have a base pay of $350,000 and $420,240, respectively. Taking into account perks, the CHE report cites Bailey’s total cost of employment as $475,684, with a $42,000 housing allowance, $18,000 for a car, an expense account, club dues and deferred compensation. Hance’s total cost of employment is worth $592,766. He gets $6,000 more than Bailey for his car allowance (for Hance’s sweet stereo system, perhaps?) and a house, in addition to some deferred compensation, according to the CHE.
Bailey and Hance may be deserving of all that and more. All of that money could come from an endowment. Who knows? We don’t, and that’s the problem.
With jobs being cut and an unclear future, it’s time for universities to open up the ledgers and tell people exactly what money is going where. That way the public can be heard when their money is being spent on something truly wasteful.
MARQUEZ IS A PRETTY GOOD ATHLETE: OAVarsity's Chris Grove has a short story on incoming commitment, RB Bradley Marquez, who is participating in track and field for the first time since 8th grade and he's already qualified for regionals in some events:
Marquez basically has three weeks left to work on the long jump and possibly the two running events, in addition to still trying to help Odessa High’s baseball team rally into a playoff spot.
"He’s coachable, very, very coachable," Bronchos jumps coach Ricky Santiago said. "It’s nice to have a kid that’s hungry and listens to every syllable you’re telling him. He’s doing this because he wants it, and his motivation is really pushing everybody else up. It’s even good for me."
MORE ON STREET AGENTS: Recruitcosm's Jesus Shuttleworth talks to their source, Big Cigar, about street agents and how UT is attacking the street agent rather than embracing them:
JS: What else can you tell us about the Athletic Department’s strategy to attack the street agent scene?
BC: You saw one tactic already during the broadcast of the Spring Game. The booth guys spent five minutes talking about a known street agent in Houston (Will Lyles). That wasn’t by accident or coincidence. We’ve got access to a PR machine and we’re going to use it to shine a light on this crap. The subject was also mentioned on other spring game broadcasts by ESPN—again, no accident.
JS: What other weapons is Texas using?
BC: Well, they had a former player come out to fuel fire to the street agent story. That also was no accident. The AD and SID plan on sharing recruiting misdeeds to the various media outlets to shine a light on the issue. We’re also calling high school coaches to inform them about cheating. We did exactly that on signing day, in fact. It’s a strategy of making sure everyone’s on notice in an effort to level the playing field. There’s a lot at stake — money, power, and jobs.
A BIT ON BOB KNIGHT: I just happened across this and thought it was interesting. Apparently Bob Knight threw his hat into the ring for the UNLV basketball position. UNLV ended up hiring BYU assistant coach, Dave Rice. In any event, CBS Sports Gary Parrish and he dropped this bit about Bob Knight:
Meanwhile, Knight remains the only high-major coach in history I never actually saw at a summer event while he was still coaching. I was on the recruiting circuit in some form for the final four Julys of Knight's tenure at Texas Tech, and I swear I never saw him. It's possible our schedules just had us in different spots every day, I guess. But I've never gone a July without seeing Mike Krzyzewski and Roy Williams, Bill Self and Jay Wright, Boeheim and Calhoun, and I saw Lute Olson every summer before he finally retired. Bob Knight? I never saw him once, and that's among the reasons he never finished better than fifth in the Big 12 in his final three seasons.
This isn't surprising to me, but it does confirm that perhaps one of the reasons that PK struggled so mightily to attract recruits was that the head coach was no where to be found to interact with his players. Just something to think about.
RED RAIDERS LOSE SERIES TO AGGIES, ARE SET TO FACE NEW MEXICO: I'm woefully behind on the baseball team, but here's the short story: Texas Tech dropped two of three from Texas A&M, splitting the first two and then losing the final game 14-8. LAJ's George Watson has the story from the loss. Starting today, the baseball team will take on New Mexico, in a short mid-week two game series, and this two game series is one of nine straight on the road. That's not good for this team and it needs some conference wins and series wins. LAJ's George Watson and DT's Jose Rodriguez preview the New Mexico series and here's a bit from Watson's article:
Texas Tech baseball coach Dan Spencer insists his team have a short memory concerning games, win or lose, so he gives them one hour to celebrate or ponder what went wrong after every outing.
For the most part, that mentality has worked in the favor of the Red Raiders, especially coming off disappointing weekends with key midweek games ahead. In 2010, those midweek outings essentially cost Tech an NCAA tournament berth. This season, Tech (20-13) is 15-6 in non-conference games and 3-1 in midweek games heading into a two-game set at New Mexico beginning at 1 p.m. today at Isotopes Park in Albuquerque.