ODDS AND ENDS | Not a lot of content today, although I will finish up with recruiting profiles on ATH Casey Gladney and FB Michal Pearson today and tomorrow with some concluding recruiting thoughts on Wednesday.
LADY RAIDER BASKETBALL | The LAJ's David Just and the DT's Chois Woodman both have articles (beware, the LAJ is auto-play video) and here's head coach Kristy Curry after the win:
"We’re in the Big 12," she said, "and we’ve got to understand that consistency and all the little things — from our free throw shooting tonight to how hard we played on the defensive end, I thought our focus was good. We’ve got to be consistent with our focus. It’s not what’s across the other team’s chest, it’s what’s across ours and how we need to play the game."
TEXAS TECH BASEBALL | LAJ's George Watson profiles OF Barrett Barnes and here's head coach Dan Spencer on Barnes:
"I’m expecting a big year out of Barrett, but I think Barrett just needs to be Barrett Barnes and do his job and not try to do someone else’s job," Spencer said. "He’ll have good players around him. He’s a great player and I expect Barrett to be a great player, and he will have a good year. Whether or not he had a great year, he could, and he’s certainly capable of that, but he doesn’t have to be great. We just need a very good year from him."
TEXAS TECH FOOTBALL | LAJ's Don Williams has an article on James Gray and the difference when he was recruited to Texas Tech and his son's commitment to UT:
"It’s apples to oranges, the way everything is now with Internet and social media," Gray said. "It’s almost to the point where it’s like the NFL draft with kids deciding on ESPN where they go to school."
True, there are more outlets pumping more information on more prospects than ever, but the recruiting process for the two Grays differed in another respect. Whereas James Gray had scholarship offers from two programs — Texas Tech and the University of Texas-Arlington — there might not have been two schools in America that wouldn’t have taken Johnathan. The son rushed for just short of 11,000 yards while setting a national high school record with 205 touchdowns, all while leading Aledo to three state championships in a row.
I thought this was humorous, the Abilene Reporter-News had this on new offensive line coach Chris Thomsen:
Texas Tech could name former Abilene Christian University head coach Chris Thomsen as its offensive line coach today, according to a Red Raiders' website.
Double-T Nation reported Wednesday that sources close to the Tech program confirmed that Thomsen will replace Jim Turner as the Red Raiders offensive line coach.
We are finally in print folks, that's big-time. To be fair, FootballScoop was the site that had the news and I just posted it as a FanShot. I'll still take the free publicity.