BIG 12 WOMEN’S BASKETBALL GETS CLOCKED, LADY RAIDERS VS. T.C.U., I MAKE DUKE FANS HAPPY AND TECH SPRING FOOTBALL IS HERE. . .BUY NOW!

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Good morning West Texans and all you good, fine, friendly folks out there who wish you were. . .

 

BIG 12 WOMEN’S BASKETBALL AS GOOD AS WE THOUGHT. . .BUT IS IT GOOD ENOUGH THIS YEAR?

 

I took some e-mail heat from some folks last when I wrote that the Big 12 was still a year away on the women’s side and that I’d be shocked if anyone other than A&M could advance past the Sweet 16 this year. (Don’t worry, I still love y’all at www.hoopscoop.net and www.raiderpower.com , just try and spell all the hateful words correctly next time!) After watching the Big East handle the Big 12 in round two it should give folks a sense of where this league is this year. The Big 12 has great young talent, most of which is coming back. One through eight, I think this league was a tightly competitive and talented night-in and night-out as any in the country. That of course doesn’t necessarily translate to deep runs in the NCAA Tournament though. Just like leagues don’t get bids, teams do, the same holds for individual teams and their match-ups in the tournament.

 

The fact is that most of the Big 12 teams had flaws this year that made it hard to advance in the tourney. Over the course of a conference schedule you can over-come those flaws, but late in the year in one-and-done situations it makes for bad mojo.

 

If you look at Baylor, Oklahoma and Kansas State as examples I don’t think you can say that they are nearly the teams right now they were a month and a half ago. Whether through injuries or just a bad finish (chemistry classes for OU, anyone?) these teams all were trying to overcome their seeds, I think. ISU, Nebraska and Texas did about all they could do I think and now it’s up for A&M and OSU to carry the banner.

 

I know some will bemoan the fact that the league didn’t have more success overall in the tournament this year, but as for me, I think it speaks volumes that the people that know basketball realized that the league was this deep this year, put the teams in that deserved to go in and will be looking out for the Big 12 again next year. I generally hate next year. . .but now I look forward to it.

 

TEXAS TECH VS. T.C.U. TONIGHT AT THE UNITED SPIRIT ARENA

 

I hope you go if you can as this is Big 12-level basketball in the WNIT. TCU has a tremendous defense, can get up and down the floor and will be sky-high to get only its third shot at Texas Tech since the demise of the SWC. Should the Lady Raiders win, they’ll take on the winner of Colorado and Villanova. Not sure if the WNIT would make Colorado come back to Lubbock for a second time this year, although on the men’s side UMASS just did that at Syracuse and won for the second time and I’m not sure what kind of bid ‘Nova would put in to host if they won. Bottom line is that Tech has to beat T.C.U. on the court first, then figure out a way to host after that.

 

I’m sure some were surprised at the low attendance for the Tech-Texas St. game. Many wondered how fired-up the Lady Raiders were to be in the WNIT. The question should have been, “how fired-up is the Lady Raider Nation to WATCH them play in the WNIT”? With the game on a Saturday night on Spring Break, Easter Weekend and The Ten Commandments on television, I’m not shocked at all at the low number. When you look around the nation at prominent programs, both men and women it’s not unusual to see huge percentage drops in attendance for NIT games. Just look at Syracuse on the men’s side. This is one of the nation’s annual leaders in attendance and they can pack nearly 30 thousand fans into the Carrier Dome if they need to. Their NIT games had about a third of their normal attendance. See, it’s not just the teams that need to be motivated to play in the NIT, it’s the fan-base.

 

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY BASHER-PRAISER HERE FOR DUKE BASKETBALL

 

I wrote a few weeks ago about the Duke-North Carolina game at Cameron Indoor Stadium and drew the ire of many a Duke fan for questioning why Coach K didn’t have on a blue-ribbon that night. Just to prove that I’m not an ogre, I’ve got to point out that the Duke men’s program is one of the few nationally, like Texas Tech’s, to still feature the American Flag on their uniform.

 

Thank you to Coach K and Duke for realizing that even though the emotions of Patriotism have died down since the initial foray into Iraq and Afghanistan, our fighting men and women are still involved in a shooting-war and deserve our respect and our admiration. If it was the right thing to do in 2003, it’s the right thing to do in 2008 as far as wearing the American Flag on your uniform. I just wish more programs would follow the lead of Bob Knight, Pat Knight, and Mike Krzyzewski on this front.

 

TEXAS TECH SPRING FOOTBALL BEGINS

 

Nobody covers it better than Don Williams at the A.J. and here’s one of his first reports: http://www.redraiders.com/stories/032608/foo_032608002.shtml

If your looking for even more coverage and some really good break-downs on Tech football go to  http://doubletnation.com/

and check out their thoughts. These guys do a great job.

 

Don points out that Mike Leach doesn’t rule out Shannon Woods earning the starting job back, which surprises me. At some point, no matter how good a guy is, he’s just not worth keeping in the mix if you can’t count on him to do the things necessary to be there. For a team like Tech that could be on the verge of an historic season, I’d make sure I had no possible distractions anywhere near my program. . .

 

MORE LATER.

HYATT

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