Lady Raiders Down Arkansas-Pine Bluff, 84-40. This was over early as the Lady Raiders defeated Arkansas-Pine Bluff 84-40, which was the last non-conference game of the year for the Lady Raiders. Brielle Blaire scored 19 points off the bench to lead the way, while Rayven Brooks scored 12 and handed out 5 assists, while Dayo Olabode scored 12 to go along with 6 rebounds. The Lady Raiders won’t play again until December 30th, when they face TCU at the United Supermarkets Arena.
Highlights from Arkansas-Pine Bluff. The official site isn’t releasing these highlights for up to a day or so later, which doesn’t make sense to me as they were releasing them pretty much right after the game, or at least by the morning. A whole day later seems odd. In any event, here are some sweet highlights:
Manderson to South Florida. CBS Sports Jon Rothstein reports that Isaiah Manderson will attend South Florida and have three years of availability. Just by watching Matt Temple for a couple of games, I think that Texas Tech isn’t any worse off without Manderson and I honestly like Temple’s skill set better than Manderson, especially off of the high post.
Up Next . . . Little Rock. From Rock City Life, a look at how Little Rock has started the season 10-0 with former Texas Tech assistant coach, Chris Beard:
Beard is no stranger to success, he holds a .768 winning percentage as a head coach. Much of this success he says comes from doing things the right way over a long time. Something he learned from spending eight years with the legendary coach Bob Knight at Texas Tech.
“I’ve been blessed to work for some really good people in college basketball. I was with coach Knight the longest, eight seasons,” Beard reflects. “I am proud to be associated with someone who has the best graduating rates in the history of college basketball, was never involved in an NCAA violation. He won at the highest level and he won with character and he won following the rules. A lot that we do here is based on coach Knight.”
Texas Tech plays Little Rock tomorrow at 2:00 pm on FOX Sports Southwest.
Attacking the LSU Pass Defense. LAJ’s Don Williams writes about how to attack the LSU pass defense:
Maybe it’s set up for Patrick Mahomes II to have a good day, too, though.
LSU’s secondary, though it has two high-profile players, has been criticized this season for giving up big plays. Opponents have 17 pass plays of 30-plus yards this season, six for touchdowns.
Not that the Red Raiders are necessarily buying that as a weakness.
“They’re a very respectable defense,” Tech inside receiver Jakeem Grant said. “They are big and physical and they use their hands a lot. They want to get their hands on guys like me and my other receivers, so we’ve got to work our technique and do the same thing we’ve been doing these past games.”
Picone Ready to Play. The Advocate’s David Folse, II writes that Texas Tech 2016 commit, linebacker Jonathan Picone, has signed his financial aid agreement and is ready to begin his career at Texas Tech and believes that he will have a significant leg up on his fellow freshmen:
“It’s absolutely huge,” he said. “That doesn’t even include the time I am going to get to have in the weight room and nutrition-wise developing my body. When I talked to the coaching staff, I am going to get to have 17 practices on the field more than the other freshmen who start to arrive in June and August. I mean I already have my playbook too and have been studying it. I am going to arrive on campus as prepared as I can possibly be. I’m not coming into this thing raw.”
This was also interesting as Picone said that he’s already been tabbed as the back-up middle linebacker:
“I’m looking forward to that more than anything,” he said. “When I was being recruited the coaching staff, they told me they would want me immediately to come in and compete. Before even my first practice I’m the backup middle linebacker on the depth chart. That’s before I even put a helmet on.”