ODDS AND ENDS | I'm switching things up a bit. We'll get to the Dylan Cantrell profile next week, but have another football related post going up later this morning.
I've only gotten through half of this, but Outside Magazine's Mark Sundeen has a terrific story and here is the lead:
He was a proud Marine who survived three brutal tours in Iraq and had plans to redeploy with the national guard. But when 30-year-old Noah Pippin vanished inside Montana’s remote Bob Marshall Wilderness, he left behind a trail of haunting secrets—and a mystery that may never be solved.
Again, I'm only through half of it, but it's pretty good.
TEXAS TECH SOFTBALL | Win! This game was the third game of the three game series (UT took the first two in Austin earlier in the year) and Texas Tech won yesterday, 5-2 (official site). Raven Richardson hit a three-run home run to put Texas Tech ahead and Cara Custer pitched a complete game, only allowing two runs. LAJ's David Just (beware video auto-play) and DT's Matt Villanueva recap the game and here's a bit from the DT article:
"We’d have a chance to beat anyone we’ve played as long as we get good pitching performances," he said, "and obviously Cara (Custer) went out and gave us a chance to win, and you gotta score runs to win, and obviously one big hit is what it takes in games like this."
Also, yesterday the softball team and head coach Shanon Hays were featured on ESPN and it's a very good read if you want to know the road traveled by Hays to get to the point of softball coach at Texas Tech. Worth your time.
TEXAS TECH BASEBALL | Win! Always nice to get a win, but I wish that the wins would come during conference play. Texas Tech beat Dallas Baptist, 7-1 (official site) behind a quality start from Rusty Shellhorn, who gave up no runs and only three hits, while Barrett Barnes went 2-4 for three RBI. LAJ's George Watson and DT's Brett Winegarner recap the game and here's a bit from the LAJ article:
"It was a very good team win and a lot of things happened," Spencer said. "We got a good start out of Rusty, the guys out of the (bullpen) did a nice job. It was a really mature effort from our offensive guys in those innings."
The official site has a profile on freshman SS Tim Proudfoot and here's a bit from head coach Dan Spencer:
"One thing about Tim is he works hard," Spencer said. "Since the fall, he has done a good job at getting better every day. During the fall he was good defensively, but struggled at the plate. This spring he came out and swung the bat really well leading up to our first game. He has been outstanding defensively and has hit in our two-hole for most of the season."
Crimson and Cream Machine recaps what's going on in the rest of the Big 12.
TEXAS TECH BASKETBALL | So signing day came and went with a whimper. No press release, no official announcement from the official site. No live blog. No nothing. What this probably means is that the roster is still in a state of flux. There is a possibility that some of the high school guys might not qualify, particularly Wannah Bail or Michael Carey as I think they bounced around to different high schools quite a bit. I mentioned that over the course of the last month or so that despite having seven committed or signed players, head coach Billy Gillispie was still looking for additional players (here and here), including PF Reny Lenz (6-9/220) from Arizona Western, C.C. and PG Trency Jackson (6-2/175) from Northwest Florida State College.
TEXAS TECH FOOTBALL | I'm going to mention this in passing because I'm running out of time, but I thought this was interesting. SB Nation's Wescott Eberts (Eberts is Ghost of Big Roy for BON) had a post yesterday about why Arkansas should choose a head coach with ties to Texas and in that post was this bit:
Of course, highly-ranked classes are not the only cause for success on the field, but the International Journal of Sports and Science Coaching study found that in the SEC, Big 10, and Big 12, 63% to 80% of success resulted from recruiting well.
I couldn't access the link because I don't have a subscription, but it seemed that those numbers are much higher than I thought they would be, but maybe I shouldn't think that way. Traditionally, teams with the most talent win. There are coaching wizards out there, but for the most part, better talent wins games.