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The Fastbreak | Lammert Created the Red Raider Reach Program

Weekly update for the Red Raiders basketball team… hot topics, quotes, stats, and more.

By DanSwany
Michael C. Johnson-USA TODAY Sports

Hot Topic

Clark Lammert was in the spotlight on the Big 12 website in an article published yesterday...

Lammert, a senior forward for Texas Tech, has made a habit of ending opponents’ possessions by sacrificing his body and taking charges. In fact, he is among the Big 12 leaders in charges drawn this year and it’s not by accident.

"This season I’ve worked on trying to become a better defender," Lammert said. "I really focus on help defense and taking charges. If someone on our team gets beat off the dribble, they know I’m going to be there. They rely on me to have their back."

Lammert, listed at 6-7 and 210 pounds, gives up a considerable amount of size to nearly every Big 12 forward he faces. Having the ability to anticipate the play and get into position is important, but being willing to take the hit to help his team is what separates Lammert from others.

Lammert might not be the most talented basketball player on the roster, but he sacrifices his body for the team to gain an advantage. How can you not respect that? I'm glad he is a Red Raider and represents Texas Tech on the basketball court. He is a walk-on and has no scholarship, that in itself should show how much being a part of the team matters to him. He has also done some great things for the University off the court.

Last year, Lammert started the Red Raider Reach program, an organized community outreach program that sends Texas Tech student-athletes to nearby UMC Children’s Hospital and Covenant Children’s Hospital to visit with kids suffering from cancer or other various illnesses.

The program schedules two of Texas Tech’s 17 athletic teams to the hospitals each month. The Red Raider baseball team, which advanced to the 2014 College World Series for the first time in school history, was the first team to participate in September.

"I worked with Kirby Hocutt, our athletic director, and Chloe Barnes, our director of student-athlete affairs," Lammert said. "They’ve both been instrumental in helping me implement this program. It’s something I really wanted to do to show how active our student-athletes are in the community and how much they really care about this community because Lubbock supports our athletes and supports Texas Tech. We wanted to show that our student-athletes really do care about this community and want to give back.

"Both of the hospitals are blocks from campus and have a lot of kids that spend weeks at a time in a hospital undergoing cancer treatments or treatments for other illnesses. To have Texas Tech student-athletes come visit them gives them a lot of hope and makes them realize they aren’t going through this journey alone."

The Red Raider Reach program is such a great thing, and knowing that Clark Lammert is the catalyst to get it up and running is amazing. He might not move forward in the future with his basketball career after Texas Tech, but he will go on to do bigger and better things...

"The best thing about being a Red Raider is the people," Lammert said. "It’s the people at the university and specifically in the athletic program. Each coach has challenged me with a different thing that has challenged me to become a better person over the years. I’m very grateful for my time at Texas Tech."

Although his eligibility will expire at the end of the season, Lammert will be enrolled in graduate school working on his master’s degree in sport management with an ultimate goal of becoming athletic director at Texas Tech.

I hope it all works out for Lammert, because in the future I would be honored to support a guy like that to run our athletic department. Wreck 'em Tech!

Quotes

After the walloping from Kansas...

"We felt like we played OK in the first half as far as doing something of the things we need to do... I guess it was a poor locker room talk because we just didn’t show up." - Coach Tubby Smith

"At halftime, Coach Smith said basically just got to show our heart and fight back in it... Play hard and execute." - Zach Smith

"When our guards shoot like this, it’s going to be a long day," - Coach Tubby Smith

After losing a hard fought battle to K-State...

"We just weren’t concentrating... We were relaxing on defense in a pivotal moment. We needed a stop. They capitalized on it." - Devaugntah Williams

"Nobody wants to lose like that... We’re a better team than that. We let a team kind of bully us a little bit. That’s not our style of basketball. That’s not the team that we are." - Robert Turner

"I thought we were really avoiding contact when we got inside... That’s why we missed a lot of easy baskets inside." - Coach Tubby Smith

Stats

Player Class Pos Ht Summary
Luke Adams SR G 5-9 0.3 Pts, 0.1 Reb, 0.4 Ast
Keenan Evans FR G 6-3 5.3 Pts, 1.8 Reb, 1.2 Ast
Alex Foster SO F 6-8 1.4 Pts, 1.2 Reb, 0.2 Ast
Toddrick Gotcher JR G 6-4 6.5 Pts, 2.9 Reb, 1.6 Ast
Justin Gray FR F 6-5 7.1 Pts, 2.9 Reb, 0.5 Ast
Justin Jamison JR F 6-9 2.7 Pts, 2.0 Reb, 0.2 Ast
Clark Lammert SR F 6-8 0.6 Pts, 1.2 Reb, 0.4 Ast
Isaiah Manderson FR C 6-10 4.6 Pts, 3.0 Reb, 0.2 Ast
Stan Mays SO G 6-2 1.6 Pts, 0.3 Reb, 0.0 Ast
Norense Odiase FR F 6-9 7.4 Pts, 4.8 Reb, 0.8 Ast
Randy Onwuasor SO G 6-3 5.8 Pts, 3.5 Reb, 1.6 Ast
Aaron Ross SO F 6-8 2.0 Pts, 0.8 Reb, 0.3 Ast
Zach Smith FR F 6-8 5.4 Pts, 4.9 Reb, 1.1 Ast
Robert Turner SR G 6-3 9.1 Pts, 2.9 Reb, 1.8 Ast
Devaugntah Williams JR G 6-3 11.2 Pts, 3.3 Reb, 1.9 Ast
Provided by Sports-Reference.com/CBB: View Original Table
Generated 1/16/2015.

G FG% 2P% 3P% FT% TRB AST STL BLK TOV PTS/G
Team 17 .426 .476 .312 .651 625 197 116 80 242 66.5
Rank 230th 208th 265th 289th 86th 225th 112th 49th 283rd 205th
Opponent 17 .395 .434 .325 .658 548 178 127 57 239 61.4
Rank 64th 63rd 137th 67th 141st 74th 308th 190th 99th 64th
Provided by Sports-Reference.com/CBB: View Original Table
Generated 1/16/2015.

With all the poor stats, let's find a positive to check out. You can see that Texas Tech is nationally ranked in the category of total blocks at #49; and #65 in blocks per game. That is really good, and it all mainly due on the efforts of Zach Smith.

Smith averages 1.8 blocks per game and that ranks him as the #3 shot blocker in the Big 12. He is only behind Myles Turner (Texas) and Micheal Cobbins (Oklahoma State) in the conference. In the entire NCAA he is ranked at #70 with his bpg.

Zach Smith is developing quickly as a forward and has great leaping ability combined with excellent anticipation on defense. He will continue to improve and could be one of the best all-time shot blockers in Texas Tech history by the time he leaves the program. Keep your eye on Smith and his shot rejecting ability for the rest of the season.

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