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ODDS AND ENDS | TTURed's Totally Texas Tech has a new round of campus pictures. Great work and there's been a lot of progress with the construction.
I wasn't sure whether to put this under football or somewhere else, but does anyone remember the Oklahoma St. "gift of a lifetime" situation? Well, I think what happened is that Oklahoma St. took out a lot of insurance policies on wealthy boosters with OSU as the beneficiary and OSU began making premium payments and then stopped making those premium payments, I guess because money got tight. OSU wanted to get those premium payments back, $33 million worth of premium payments, and a judge said no way. Good times for sure.
TEXAS TECH BASEBALL | Texas Tech clobbers Alabama A&M, 21-1 (official site). The baseball post has been updated and you can also check out LAJ's George Watson's recap.
TEXAS TECH SOFTBALL | Per the official site, the softball teams plays a double-header today at Stony Brook, which is on Long Island.
RED RAIDER BASKETBALL | This is almost a year old, but I thought it was interesting, Arkansas prep player Archie Goodwin, who is thought to be one of the best players in the country and has signed with Kentucky, was asked about a lot of things, including Texas Tech signee Dusty Hannahs:
Dusty Hannahs (from Pulaski Academy) has really improved because he used to be a heavy-set kid who could shoot, but he’s become stronger and faster and still has that shot, but he’s more athletic. He probably has the state’s best three-point shot in high school. I’ve scrimmaged with both him and Rotnei Clarke, and Clarke’s shot is quicker than Dusty’s and more efficient but at the same time he’s older. I think Dusty can get his shot off more than Clarke because he’s bigger and stronger and Rotnei needs more screens set for him to get his shot off.
As you may recall, when Goodwin and Hannahs met earlier in the year (this was the one game that I've found that head coach Billy Gillispie attended), Goodwin scored 27 while Hannah's scored 43. Also interesting that Hannahs was named the player of the year in Arkansas and Texas Tech's most recent commitment, F Aaron Ross, was the player of the year in Arkansas last year (I think). I also ran across this YouTube video of Hannahs talking after a game and he also talks about what he needs to do to get better, how he's working out early in the morning, etc.
TEXAS TECH FOOTBALL | The Sports Business Journal broke the story last night that the Big 12 and ESPN are nearing a record television extension to 2025:
The Big 12 and ESPN are nearing an extension that will earn the conference — combined with its Fox TV contract — $2.5 billion over the next 13 years, according to industry sources. The ESPN extension would run through 2025 and sync up with Fox’s deal.
The article also states that if this were to happen, each Big 12 institution would make about $20 million a year.
LAJ's Tommy Magelssen (Magelssen wrote for the DT last year I believe) updates yesterday's story from the LAJ regarding TE Jace Amaro and RB Kenny Williams releasing statements and stating that they should be cleared of the unauthorized use of credit card charges. This linked article also has quotes from Williams' high school coach who said that he's a good kid and the worst thing he did in high school was wear earrings in the field-house. I'm in total agreement that I don't think that either Amaro or Williams are bad kids, but they made a bad decision and although I'm still reserving judgment, I do think that this was a friend's credit card that they had permission to use, but then things got out of hand for whatever reason. I wish I could explain why things got out of hand, but they apparently did and I do believe that most likely, the worst thing that they may have done is have a fake ID and possibly have some dranks.
DMN's Mike Graham writes about the linebackers and has this bit:
For now, junior college transfers Will Smith and Chris Payne have risen to the top of the depth chart and Smith is probably Texas Tech's best linebacker of all. Smith is currently the starting middle linebacker while Payne is working alongside some very athletic players in Sam Eguavoen, Daniel Cobb, Zach Winbush and will be joined by former starting weak safety Terrance Bullitt who is recovering from shoulder surgery.