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Post by motorcitysam on May 23, 2013 19:56:03 GMT -5
Tubby Smith has hit the ground running in Lubbock, TX. He was hired there in April and his quickly assembled a strong coaching staff, including the guy who was his first recruit at Tulsa, Pooh Williams.
On the player front, Smith has signed highly regarded JUCO point guard Rob Turner. He also brought former Minnesota commit and Chicago native Alex Foster to Texas Tech.
Smith is a good coach, but Tech is a tough place to win. It will be interesting to see how he does.
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Post by motorcitysam on May 24, 2013 23:14:31 GMT -5
Texas Tech has reportedly signed a class of 2013 high school point guard out of Texas. Early indications are that Joe Coleman, former Mr. Basketball for the state of Minnesota and Gopher transfer, will not be following Coach Smith to Lubbock, Texas.
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Post by motorcitysam on Aug 27, 2013 9:15:00 GMT -5
For a while it looked as if Texas Tech was trying to add a late member to it's 2013 recruiting class (as the Titans did) but as time goes on it looks as if they are set for 2013 and will carry the remaining scholarship over to 2014.
Lots of similarities between Tech and Detroit's recruiting efforts right now. Both had over five scholarships available (Detroit ended up with six) to fill for 2013 and both have at least five available for 2014. Both had to replace a starting point guard (Tech's returning sophomore transferred) and both got hit by an unexpected late summer transfer, Calliste for Detroit and a senior point guard for Tech.
Coach Smith was at a real disadvantage in recruiting, having been hired by Tech on April 1, just a few weeks before the April signing period. He had no coaching staff, and had to hire coaches as he was recruiting. He hired Pooh Williams, who played for him at Tulsa and had developed a reputation as a great recruiter at TCU, and brought in two guys who worked for him at Minnesota, one of whom has extensive Texas ties, including many years at a head coach at a small Texas college. To ensure his Texas connections, Smith also hired a long time Texas JUCO coach as his director of basketball operations.
The 2013 class included four players. Alex Foster is a 3 star recruit from Chicago who originally committed to play for Smith at Minnesota before following the coach to Texas Tech. Rob Turner is a highly regarded JUCO point guard who is expected to contribute right away. The last two recruits are high school combo guards Randy Onwuasor from Los Angeles, who was ranked as a top 50 player in the state of California, and Cory Scott from Copperas Cove, Texas. You could compare these two guards to the guards in the Titan combination of Williams and Grant. Onwuasor is the higher ranked of the two, he chose Tech over LSU, much like Williams chose the Titans over other mid majors. Scott was a lower profile recruit, having signed with SFA University before getting a release after their coach left to take another job. Grant, of course, was the lightly recruited guard the Titans signed.
Much like U of D, Tech has a list of over 30 players that they have offered or have interest in for the class of 2014. Also like Detroit, Texas Tech has to replace a lot of size that is leaving after the 2013-14 season.
Going to be an interesting November signing period, and an interesting upcoming season for Texas Tech basketball.
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Post by motorcitysam on Sept 3, 2013 16:03:23 GMT -5
Update on Texas Tech's class of 2013. SG Cory Scott has reportedly left school and will be transferring to a junior college in hopes of landing at another D1 school later. Speculation is that he found himself overmatched in the summer workouts and scrimmages and decided that he was not ready for this level. Good luck to him in the future.
Coach Smith is bringing in a 3 star 2014 prospect for an official visit on campus this weekend, so maybe that guard spot won't stay open for long.
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Post by motorcitysam on Oct 3, 2013 13:01:24 GMT -5
Texas Tech picked up their first verbal commitment for the 2014 class today when SG Justin Gray of Tampa, Florida committed to Coach Smith and the Red Raiders. He's a three star guard. His final three were Tech, Stanford, and Harvard.
Coach Smith has a tough recruiting job this year. He's new at the school, the team has been struggling for years, and Lubbock, Texas isn't exactly a hot spot for college basketball recruits. Nice job by Coach Smith to get the ball rolling with Gray.
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Post by motorcitysam on Oct 6, 2013 15:39:56 GMT -5
Texas Tech got their second verbal commit on Saturday when Rivals three star forward Zach Smith of Plano, TX committed to the Red Raiders. Smith addresses the need Tech has for front court players, and the signing of a highly regarded Texas high schooler is a good sign for future recruiting in the state. One of the concerns that some expressed about Coach Tubby Smith when he was hired was the fact that he was unfamiliar with the Texas high school scene. That's actually not even true, since Smith recently successfully recruited a highly rated Texas kid to Minnesota.
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Post by motorcitysam on Oct 16, 2013 16:30:15 GMT -5
Coach Smith pulled in his third verbal commit of the class of 2014 with PG Keenan Evans, a three star player from Richardson, TX. Tech's likely starter at point guard this season is junior Robert Turner, a JUCO transfer. Evans can back him up next year and might be ready to take over as a sophomore.
Solid pick up for the Red Raiders. He fills a need, and he's a Texas kid.
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Post by motorcitysam on Nov 12, 2013 22:36:25 GMT -5
Coach Smith pulled in his third verbal commit of the class of 2014 with PG Keenan Evans, a three star player from Richardson, TX. Tech's likely starter at point guard this season is junior Robert Turner, a JUCO transfer. Evans can back him up next year and might be ready to take over as a sophomore. Solid pick up for the Red Raiders. He fills a need, and he's a Texas kid. Tech might be getting burned by Evans. He is now saying he is going to wait until Spring to sign his LOI, while saying at the same time that he is committed to Tech. If I was Tubby Smith, I'd be shopping for a new point guard right now. I believe Evans is just hoping to get a better offer and is using Tech as a fall back plan.
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Post by motorcitysam on Nov 27, 2013 11:02:32 GMT -5
Texas Tech moved to 5-2 last night with the first "notable" win of Smith's tenure in Lubbock, scoring a 12 point victory over a good University of Houston team. Tech had a lead as big as 19 early on but the Cougars fought back to cut it to five in the second half before the Red Raiders took over late to get the lead back up to 15.
Tech got good frontcourt play, a staple of Smith teams, and dominated on the boards.
Tech's losses are to Alabama and Pitt, and they have tough road games coming up with Arizona and Arizona State, along with a tough home date with a good LSU team. A few mid majors are sprinkled in among those games. Then things get really tough when the Big 12 season opens.
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Post by motorcitysam on Dec 21, 2013 10:50:18 GMT -5
Texas Tech takes on our recent nemesis Arizona State today. The Sun Devils got two players we were recruiting, beat us in the NIT, and beat another of my favorite teams, DePaul, all in the past few months. I will be ecstatic if the Red Raiders pull the upset, but ASU is very tough at home.
Send out some good thoughts to Tubby Smith today. :-)
Detroit native and former MSU Spartan Brendan Kearney makes his debut for ASU tonight.
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Post by motorcitysam on Jan 5, 2014 23:46:45 GMT -5
GOing to be an uphill battle in the Big 12 for Coach Smith and the Red Raiders. Lost on Saturday to #13 Iowa State. ISU was up 17 before Tech fought back and tied it at 50 in the second half.
The Big 12 looks pretty deep this year.
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Post by motorcitysam on Jan 6, 2014 22:20:30 GMT -5
Another heart breaking loss for Tech tonight, 89-86. A last second three pointer just missed at the the overtime buzzer. Ugh.
Good effort, though, and an exciting game.
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Post by motorcitysam on Jan 16, 2014 10:04:06 GMT -5
After another tough conference loss on Saturday (by three to rival Texas) Texas Tech got their first Big 12 victory with an 82-72 upset of #12 Baylor. That's a big deal for Tech, which had been winless in it's last 34 games versus ranked opponents.
Tech has a big talent deficiency against most of the rest of the stacked Big 12, and was struggling with confidence after one possession losses to LSU, WVU, and Texas. They needed this.
In an effort to boost student attendance for the game last night, Coach Smith showed up at the student cafeteria during lunch yesterday and went around introducing himself to students, paying for their lunches, and inviting them out to the game. Looks like it helped as the attendance last night was the highest of the season and the students were loud and engaged. They rushed the floor at the buzzer.
Smith is doing good work in Lubbock.
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Post by motorcitysam on Jan 19, 2014 15:44:13 GMT -5
Texas Tech kept my sports Saturday from being a total loss beating TCU 60-49. Tech did not play their best, but TCU played even worse.
This was the first back to back Big 12 wins for Texas Tech in a span of 50 games.
Next up for Tech is a chance for revenge at West Virginia on Wednesday. The Mountaineers beat Tech by three in OT on January 6.
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Post by motorcitysam on Jan 24, 2014 19:34:12 GMT -5
The Raiders lost another close one, dropping an 87-81 decision to WVU on Wednesday. They're hoping to bounce back against Oklahoma on Saturday. OK is ranked number 25 in the country, but Tech has been playing well at home and expects a big crowd.
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