Texas Tech defeated UTEP in round 1 of the WNIT, 67-54, powered by 17 from freshman Bailey Maupin and 13 points and 7 boards from Bre’Amber Scott. I won’t pretend to know a ton, but I do love numbers. UTEP made just 2 of 21 3-pointers (that’s 0.95%) and had one player go 0-8. At some point, you have to stop shooting. UTEP also turned the ball over 18 times and Texas Tech scored 18 points off of those turnovers. Those seem like the biggest numbers in the game.
“It felt great to get a postseason win on our home court, and what an amazing crowd tonight. I’m super proud of Lady Raider nation for showing up for these girls, and so proud of these girls. we’re trying to extend our season and I thought that they did such a great job today of coming out in the first quarter and really setting the tone. This was one of the hardest games I’ve ever had to coach against. Kevin Baker means so much to me; I knew his kids would not lie down. They continued to fight and made it a very close game. I’m just proud that these girls hung through, came through and just did a great job of closing out a game. So, we’re excited to get this win and looking forward to moving on to round two.”
Up next? Texas Tech will host SMU on Monday, March 20th with tip-off at 6:00 p.m.
ESPN ($) is reporting that UAB head coach Andy Kennedy is gaining interest in the Texas Tech men’s basketball search:
Andy Kennedy of UAB is picking up some steam as a sleeper candidate at Texas Tech. North Texas’ Grant McCasland and Oral Roberts’ Paul Mills still appear to be the favorites, but Kennedy’s name has been buzzing the past couple of days.
It’s been difficult to find any sort of updates so this is all I was able to find. Of course with Kennedy, he had an incident where he assaulted a cab driver in Cincinnati where he allegedly hit and hurled racial epithets at a cab driver (which he denied), was arrested, then he filed a defamation lawsuit and that eventually settled. This from Red Cup Rebellion when Kennedy stepped down as the Mississippi head coach and how he deserved better, basically he did more with less.
And if you’re checking in on other coaches and how their teams are doing, Oral Roberts was drummed by Duke yesterday, 74-51. The Golden Eagles still won 30 games, but coaching up is tough. North Texas beat Alcorn State in the first round of the NIT, 69-53, and will face Sam Houston on Sunday.
[Ed. Update] Really should have added that baseball hosts No. 12 Oklahoma State this weekend and make sure and follow Keith at Red Raider Dugout for all of your updates. And softball is in Maryland for a weekend tournament where they’ll play No. 22 Maryland, Rider, North Dakota, and Bucknell.
Happy St. Patty’s Day! It’s also my dad’s birthday, 75 trips around the sun today. Love you dad.