I had a had one heck of a weekend and had nothing to do with Texas Tech athletics. Youssouf had basketball practice on Friday night, which ended about the time that Fitsum’s junior high dance ended. Fits said that he absolutely slayed the dance floor and he epitomizes the thought of “dance like no one is watching” because he hears the music and just jumps and wriggles around. No actual moves, just moving to the music. He said he had a blast and high-fived me as soon as he got into the truck.
The next morning Yo and I headed to Grapevine (out the door by 6:30) to play 2 of the 4 basketball games for the weekend and immediately after the second basketball game we hit the road to go to Van to try to catch the second half of his basketball game (which we did).
Yo really is very good at basketball (he is actually good everything he does, including grades), he’s just so strong and can jump and finish. His basketball team went 2-0 on the day. I don’t keep stats, but he definitely gets his fair share of points and rebounds. In soccer (he plays with the 14U, but is only 11), he ended up scoring the game-winning goal, dribbled 70 yards down the field through the defense to score an absolute heater. What he does simply doesn’t make sense because most kids can’t do what he does and it is an absolute joy to watch.
Sunday we were in Frisco for the back-end of the tournament, and his team won both games and the tournament trophy. Yo was really good in the 1st game, but fouled out in the 2nd way too early. I did post pics on Twitter if you are interested and this answers the question why I am not able to keep writing the way I want here on STP.
The Lady Raiders were eliminated from the WNIT on Friday night after losing in Arkansas 71-66. A heck of a run by the Ladies and I am sure the expectation for next year is NCAA Tournament.
Baseball and softball didn’t have as good of weekends as Yo and Fits. baseball was swept in Austin this weekend, 2 of them were 1-run games. This is a new team and maybe this is just part of the learning process, but you hate to see them getting swept. Winning on the road is difficult and I think they’ll figure it out. They’ll hit the road and travel to Albuquerque to take on New Mexico tomorrow and then host TCU this weekend. If you need to get caught up, then Red Raider Dugout is your one-stop-shop.
Softball also was swept this weekend in Austin also with 2 games being 1-run games. They’ll host Iowa State this weekend. They’ll also figure things out I suspect.
If you are tracking this, North Texas plays Wisconsin tomorrow evening against Wisconsin. If we are to believe the things we are being told, then if UNT loses, then we can expect (according to reports) that Grant McCasland will be named Texas Tech’s new head coach. If UNT wins, then we’d have to wait until March 30th, which is Thursday where UNT would play the winner of Utah Valley and UAB. If you’re worried that because McCasland isn’t the head coach now and we’re losing out on portal activity, my guess is that this is being handled most likely. I sort of appreciate that McCasland has apparently indicated that he’s going to give his North Texas team the attention they have earned and when it’s done, then that’s great. We complain about loyalty all of the time, I feel like McCasland is handling this the right way.
Receivers coach Justin “Juice” Johnson.