ODDS AND ENDS | The TECHSPY Awards was last night, which is the athletic department's way of honoring the student athletes and the official site has all of the award winners. Congrats to all of those student athletes!
Black Heart Gold Pants continues their Pro Combat Series with a look at new Nebraska uniforms.
This is a long read, but interesting read from Outside Magazine, Inside the Quidditch World Cup.
SOFTBALL | The softball team held onto a 2-1 win against Oklahoma St. (official site), winning 40 games for the second straight season. LAJ's David Just (video auto-play) and DT's Matt Villanueva recap the game.
BASEBALL | Per the LAJ, the baseball team will take on Dallas Baptist today in the last non-conference game. OF Nick Hanslik was on the Williams and Hyatt Show yesterday and Nick is always a good listen.
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL | I found this on Twitter, so take it with a grain of salt, but I think that Hutchinson C.C. (KS) F Jackie Patterson (6'1") has signed on with Texas Tech for next year. Patterson averaged about 12 PPG and 7 RPG last year and Hutchinson was the #2 team in the nation last year in Division I JUCO. If this is true, then welcome to Texas Tech!
MEN'S BASKETBALL | I was forwarded this by a reader, but in addition to PG Javarez Willis and SF Jaron Nash transferring, from CBS Sports, it appears that PG Deshon Minnis and SF Terran Petteway are on this transfer list. If that's true, then there is just one more player that won't be on the roster from the list of returning players: Kevin Wagner, Toddrick Gotcher, Ty Nurse, Jaye Crockett, Jordan Tolbert, Kader Tapsoba and Dejan Kravic. My guess is Wagner.
Per MyPlainview, head coach Billy Gillispie was in Plainview yesterday and promises that the team will be better:
"I’m really excited about next year," he said. "I came here for one reason and that’s to win. I’m the worst loser in the history of the world . . . . Our guys this year tried their hardest and I’m proud of them, but I’m not going to wait four years to get it done or three years to get it done. I’m madder than hell if we don’t get it done yesterday.
"I’m not a prediction maker, but we’re going to be fun to watch because we’re going to be a fast and athletic team. We’ve recruited and added some players to our team and have some great guys that are coming back. I guarantee this team will be playing harder than anybody in the league. I appreciate your support in coming to our games."
FOOTBALL | Rivals.com's Steve Megargee runs down the list of impact early enrollees and LB Will Smith makes the list:
Rating: Three stars
Junior college: Riverside (Calif.)
The buzz: Smith didn't arrive at Texas Tech with much of a reputation. Smith's other offers came from the likes of Nevada, New Mexico, New Mexico State and San Jose State. But he has wasted no time making an impact. Smith quickly has established himself as the favorite to open the season as Texas Tech's starting middle linebacker. Smith made plenty of plays in just about every scrimmage and picked off a pass in the spring game.
Sporting News Matt Hayes ranks the Big 12 coaches and this list is invalid for a handful of reasons, but most notably because he thinks that Kansas St.'s Bill Snyder is the 4th best coach in the conference and Kansas head coach Charlie Weis is ahead of Baylor's Art Briles and West Virginia's Dana Holgorsen. Texas Tech head coach Tuberville is dead last and says the job in Lubbock is brutal. I'm not real high on Tuberville, but I don't think that he's the worst coach in the conference and would definitely put Weis last, but right now, it would be real tough for me to put Tuberville much higher. I also think that Hayes has never been to Lubbock. Anyway, Hayes doesn't detail how he comes up with his rankings, but it appears that it's just based off of last year for some coaches, but for other coaches Hayes cites what the coaches have done in the past.