Dean Named Freshman of the Week Third Week in a Row. Another congrats to freshman guard Japreece Dean, who was named the Big 12 Freshman of the Week for the third straight week:

Dean is the first Lady Raider since Dominic Seals (2008) to win this award three times in a single season. She is also the first player to win the award three times in a four-week span since Iowa State’s Jadda Buckley did so in 2013.

Dean is the Big 12’s leading scorer in conference play (21.5 ppg) after scoring 22 against TCU on Wednesday and adding 21 more against No. 5 Texas on Saturday. She did so while shooting 50% (18-36) from the field in those games. She has now scored at least 20 points in four of her last seven contests.

Congrats!

Receiving Votes. Texas Tech received some votes in the most recent Coaches Poll, 17 points and 31st overall. The Red Raiders also received votes in the AP poll as well. You should bookmark College Poll Tracker as you can see which AP voters ended up voting for Texas Tech. Texas Tech was voted as high as 21st by Dough Doughty, from the Roanoke Times, and Michelle Kaufman, from the Miami Herald. Pretty cool site.

Bracketology. For Real. It’s kind of a shock, but both CBS Sports and ESPN have Texas Tech in the NCAA Tournament. Jerry Palm at CBS has Texas Tech as a 6th seed in the East and Joe Lundardi at ESPN has Texas Tech as a 10th seed It’s crazy early for this sort of discussion, but it’s still pretty cool to see.

The Difference. LAJ’s Krista Pirtle writes about how Texas Tech has improved, with head coach Tubby Smith stating that it really comes down to more experience:

“The difference has been that we’re more experienced,” Smith said Monday morning on the Big 12 teleconference. “Last year we had five freshmen in the program. We have four sophomores not playing a lot of minutes — Justin Gray, Zach Smith, Norense Odiase and Keenan Evans. We’re very fortunate to have those young men that believe in the program.”

• Via STP, Emmett Jones Promoted to Offensive Assistant.
• Via STP, Texas Tech Names Joe Robinson to Coach Special Teams.
• “Bill Hancock says CFB Playoff locked in for New Years Eve despite massive failure on TV” (LOL)
• LAJ’s Don Williams has his recap of the two hires from yesterday, Emmett Jones and Joe Robinson.
• Via the DMN, former Oklahoma quarterback Trevor Knight is transferring to Texas A&M.