Basketball team opens its doors for first practice

The Texas Tech men’s basketball team gave fans an up-close look on Friday at what this season may have in store as it invited the public to its first practice.

The practice in the United Spirit Arena was the first official practice session of the fall and was open to the public for the second consecutive year.

Tech coach Pat Knight said last season the Red Raiders averaged 78 points per game and the focus was not on the defensive side of the ball, but he is excited to move forward with this years squad.

“We’re excited. It’s tough, you know, when you have kind of a down season in your own mind just waiting all spring, summer and fall to get back at it,” said Knight, who begins his second full season as head coach at Tech. “It starts today and to me we’re kind of getting a bad taste out of our mouths even though I’m proud of some of the things we accomplished last year. It’s still the team we wanted to have here.”

On Friday, practice seemed to have a different tone as the Red Raiders’ intensity was high and the expectations have grown from a team that finished 3-13 in Big 12 Conference play. Tech returns nine players to the squad from last season.

During the offseason, Tech also added some new faces to the roster by inking five new signees. Pat Knight tapped into the junior college ranks, bringing in guard David Tairu from South Plains College, Theron Jenkins from Itawamba Community College and Brad Reese from Gulf Coast Community College.

The Red Raiders also introduced two freshmen at the open practice Friday: swingman Jaye Crockett from Clovis and point guard Mike Davis from Houston.

John Dalkowitz, a Lubbock resident and Tech alumnus said Pat Knight is beginning to command the respect from his players and enjoys watching the progression of the team at the open practice.

“I’m just curious you know,” Dalkowitz said. “It’s interesting just to watch how everyone practices, see who’s new and see if anyone has improved.”

Despite the loss of the team’s second leading scorer, Alan Voskuil, the Red Raiders return the trio of John Roberson, who averaged 14.4 points per game and led the team with 201 assists, Nick Okorie and Mike Singletary, both of whom averaged 11 points.

Expectations for the 2009-2010 season are not only up amongst the players but the fans hope to see an improvement from Tech’s 11th place finish in the Big 12 last season.

“I think it’s going to be a good season. I look forward to it being a better season that last year,” said Wade Allen, a senior education major from Abilene. “So far I’ve seen some really good stuff defensively as far as guarding the goal and overall team defense.”

Allen also said he could see a difference in the attitude and the hustle in the way the players competed on the floor.

Pat Knight and the Red Raiders begin their season with the Duel in the Desert against South Dakota Nov. 13 in the United Spirit Arena.

1 comments

TechBuddy

Mon Oct 19 2009 14:16

If you take out that 167 point abomination of a game, the average is down to about 74 ppg, isn't it? This team needs to reduce turnovers, stop taking dumb shots, and play better defense in order to play .500 ball or better in conference. Roberson's assists need to be balanced against an unacceptable 116 turnovers. And Singletary turned it over 68 times in 23 mpg.

The Raiders will likely be "outranked" in player "talent" in all but a handful of conference games, but they can make up for much of that with intelligent play, hustle, and heart. The question is, will they?

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