Well, we made it. Friday. Whether you’re trying to figure out what to do without football, looking forward to some college basketball or having to finally do all the projects you’d been putting off now that your wife knows football season is over–we’re here to help. Actually, that’s not true. You can’t borrow my truck, my back’s acting up and I can’t help you clean your garage and I honestly have no desire to do much of anything this weekend except destroy some good BBQ and perhaps liberate a few bottles of Shiner Bock. If that’s in your plans, give me a holler. Now, on to 5 Things.

If you agree, disagree or anything in between, let us know. We love comments. The best make it on the air. The worst certainly make it on the air.

1.  I want the Texas Tech Lady Raiders to make the NCAA Tournament. I make no apologies for my bias and anyone that knows much about me knows why. That said, right now they are on the outside looking in. In fact, they’re kinda out in the street just wandering around wondering where the window is and what that orange square on it is for…

This team still has time to make it happen. There are signature wins out there for them if they can just put the ball in the hoop and make a few free throws. A senior post player shooting better than 27% in Big 12 play would help too. (Ya, Mallard, that’s you) This team has the experience, the talent and I’d like to think the scoring ability to be better than this. You look at the shots they take and miss and they’re good shots. Not crazy, wild prayers but the end result of running solid offense. They should be performing better.

Those that think Kristy Curry and staff will be gone if Tech doesn’t make the NCAA Tournament can think again. First and foremost her extension last year makes it unlikely. Second, Texas Tech A.D. Kirby Hocutt is smart enough to see that the coach is putting this team in a position to be successful. It just isn’t working. Third, Tech’s attendance is still way ahead of most in the NCAA. It may not be what it was 10 years ago, but that might never happen again at Tech no matter how good the team is. Times, they are a changing. Curry isn’t the problem right now, no matter how loud some may bang that pot…

2.  If I’m forced to switch to that new Time-Line thing on Facebook I’ll probably leave Facebook. (Might still buy the IPO) It is hard to read, hard to find what you’re looking for and doesn’t work. Linear works better for most of these things. While trying to be linear, it is far too jumbled. Plus, I really don’t want to know what I was thinking on April 12, 2009. I might have had a few cock-tails and it might not be pretty. Facebook seems to be trying real hard to be the next MySpace. Good luck with that.

3.  At the end of Texas Tech Football spring drills Seth Doege and Michael Brewer will be listed as C0-#1 QB’s. I’m not in either camp. Not rooting for either one. Tea Leaves right now though are telling me this job is up for grabs. Stay tuned til August to see who wins the delegates from the Neal Brown Caucus.

4.  The day Whataburger starts delivery service is the day I buy a Whataburger franchise. Talk about printing money. Even if you only delivered from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. you’d make a killing.

5.  I know some will hate this, but I still don’t like the idea of women on the front lines of combat in our Armed Services. Old-fashioned? Sure. Out of touch? Guilty. To me, when it comes to the military and war, the goal is to break things and kill people without getting your stuff broken or killed. It is not a social program and should not bow to the whims of society nor should it even be fair. If a person can meet all the physical standard that are in place to keep soldiers from being in harms way, sure, let women into those roles. If there are any “gender norming” standards in place or they have to meet any physical criteria that is less than that of a male to be in a combat role or to serve Special Forces roles, than that is wrong-headed thinking. The objective of the military is to get the job done, not to make sure everyone has a fair shot at career advancement, gaining rank or having a chance. That’s just not the goal.

Now, flame away. I expect it…

Hyatt

Day 2 of Spring Football Previews for Red Raider fans. Today we’ll focus on the WR corp with Don Williams of the A-J. He’s got a good write-up that you can sink your teeth into today before show time hits.

It’s Thursday so that means Cultural Index Time. Today we ask you for your All-Time Favorite Paul Newman movie. Good luck trying to narrow it down folks. Hud? Cool Hand Luke? Cars? Let us know starting today at 3p.m. on SportsRadio 1340 The Fan. You can listen live online free everyday so there’s no need to ever miss out.

Aside from news of the day and Texas Tech we’ll feature your thoughts on our running topic of the day. Today we want you to give us those athletes that gave away promising careers due to bad choices. We look for the ultimate screw-ups. From Steve Howe to one-hit wonder Timmy Smith. You could even say some stars gave away a lot of their talent like Mickey Mantle. Had Josh Hamilton not missed those seasons to drug use and suspension, where would he be today? Looking forward to your thoughts on this one.

Of course you’re welcome to post your thoughts on all of our topics right here each day, pose any questions you have for the show or otherwise. We’ll use some of the best stuff on the air each day. Thanks for being a part of the show, you guys make going to work fun!

Hyatt

Another Big 12 game and another loss for Billy Gillispie’s Texas Tech Red Raiders. More and more it becomes painfully obvious that Tech has little to no Big 12 level scoring punch outside of Jordan Tolbert. The thing that still impresses me is how hard this team is playing compared to the squads of the last few years. The defense has been very good, even when resorting to “junk” defenses like they did quit a bit last night in the back-alley brawl with Kansas State. I still think the Red Raiders pick up a conference win before it’s over. One night Tech will be hot, the opponent won’t be and the Red Raiders will capitalize.

There is a lot of cool stuff off the court for this team including the rising fan-favorite Luke Adams. Nick Kosmider from the A-J tells the story today of how he continues to inspire kids with hearing problems that he’s shown they can overcome. Good read.

A couple of days ago Chicago Now Blogger Gregg Fort told you about Gummers. He was talking about those folks that mess things up when you’re flying. Bad news. They’re also on the roads driving. . . sorta.

Yesterday was a day filled with me just trying to dodge the Road Gummers. You know them. If they’re in the right lane, they must cross all the way across four lanes of traffic to get in the left lane. They drive 30 mph down the “turn lane” using it as a merge lane causing everyone actually trying to turn to dodge and weave as they motor down the road on their cell phone.

Road Gummers are also the ones that go through the drive-thru at Whataburger and site there for 10 minutes trying to decide between Whatasized or not. When they get up to pay they take another ten minutes trying to find exact change in the cup holders.

Road Gummers are also a joy to get behind when you’re getting onto Loop 289 or any other major freeway. They inch their way along the access road, slowly make their way on the merge ramp, get to the end and … stop. And Wait. And Look. Then after 274 cars have gone by they inch onto the freeway and immediately go over to the far left lane and drive 49 mph and gum that up. It’s what they do. They’re Road Gummers.

Meanwhile back in the Big 12, Interim Commissioner For Life Chuck Neinas  proved he’s not the man to go buy a car with yesterday. Neinas boldly told the West Virginia Mercury News

“They will be with us come July 1, 2012,” Neinas said of the Mountaineers, “and we’ll play the football schedule in the Big 12 Conference.”

Neinas also said that if WVU needs help paying the exit fees to the Big East the Big 12 might just hand over some cash to make life easier.

Nice call Chuck. The price of poker just went up if I’m the Big East. Five million dollars? Naw, let make it 7 just because we now know the Big 12 is willing to pay to make sure they have a football schedule before July 4th.

Can you imagine buying a truck with this guy?

“Hey, dealer! I need a truck by lunch and I’m willing to pay. What ya got?”

Now that’s some hard-line bargaining.

UPDATED AT 11:44 A.M.

We also want you to weigh in on our Fan Feedback Poll of the Day Question. If you could spend an entire year inside any pro sports organization, with all-access, go to all meetings, see all operations; which organization would you choose and why? You can attack it merely from the sports side, you can look at it from the business side and maybe translate it to whatever you do in life. Looking forward to your responses here and on the show tonight. We’ll read some of the best one’s on the air!

We’ll hit all of this stuff today on The Show, visit with National Football Post guru and Next Mayor of Las Vegas, Joe Fortenbaugh, preview the Lady Raiders trip to Stillwater and get your feedback on the Domino’s Fan Line. Get ready. We’ll see ya at 3p.m. on The Fan. Don’t forget you can listen online every day. FREE even.

Hyatt

Breaking up is hard to do. Just ask anybody. There’s hurt feelings, you fight over wagon wheel coffee tables and usually some one throws out a box of t-shirts that you’ve collected since high school. It can get ugly.

Just ask Texas Tech and Texas A&M officials.

One of the big things we’ll be talking about today is the cannon shot fired by Texas Tech A.D. Kirby Hocutt towards College Station yesterday in the A-J. Hocutt says, and that he’s backed by his coaches, that either A&M plays Texas Tech in all sports or it’s none.

“We discussed it with all our head coaches,” Hocutt said, “and that’s something we as an athletic department and we as a group of coaches feel strongly about at this time.”

As the Aggies exit to the SEC looms we’ll see more comments like this from A.D.s around what’s left of the Big 12. You’ve got the specter of the Border War between Kansas and Missouri coming to an end after 150 years of pure, awesome William Quantrill fueled hate. You’ve got Texas and A&M trying to figure out if it’s ok to date again on Thanksgiving or whether they should wait a while til it feels right.

Now, you’ve got the Red Raiders saying either you play all of us or none of us. Does it have to be that way?

We ask you today, should it be all or nothing? Do you want Texas Tech to play Texas A&M in any sports, let alone football? If not, why?

It reeks of punitive action by Hocutt and Texas Tech over something that I don’t think Tech needs to be upset about. A&M only did what so many Texas Tech fans wanted to see the Red Raiders do: leave the dying Big 12. A&M had a stable place to go in the SEC, one that doesn’t have to work around The Longhorn Network, an interim-commissioner for life and the Fake Dan Beebe on Twitter making more sense than the actual “leaders”. Had Texas Tech gone to the Pac-12 like so many wanted, it would be Tech fans saying teams like Baylor and Kansas don’t need to have hard feelings towards them, Tech’s just taking care of Tech. Well, same goes for the Aggies.

Personally, if it works for some Tech sports to play A&M and the coaches agree, let ‘em play. If it doesn’t work or if the coaches don’t want it, then don’t play them. But to issue an edict of all or nothing implies that it is a punishment to A&M for doing what Tech couldn’t do but wanted to. That seems silly to me.

I still that that the future of “leagues” will actually be schools playing some sports against certain school and then playing other schools in other sports. What works for football, might not work for basketball. What’s good for a basketball league – not so good for tennis. In the coming years because of budget constraints and other factors, don’t be shocked to see it happen.

So, what are your thoughts? Keep playing the Aggies? Drop ‘em. All or Nothing? Let us know.

We’ll hit the air at 3p.m. today on The Fan. Be sure and tune in where ever you on with our free, live online streaming via www.1340thefan.com . Looking forward to your comments and input today.

Hyatt

Just saw where the Powerball lotto is up around 150 million dollars. Not a bad little tax problem to have I must say for a dollar “investment”. I rarely play but for some reason it will occasionally grab my attention and dollars. I don’t even pretend it goes to public education any more. I just figure I’m buying a “dream” and paying a “stupid tax”.

Let’s say today though that you did hit the lotto and suddenly had the kind of millions to bestow on Texas Tech that many Red Raiders wish they had. I hear a lot saying that if Tech had a T. Boone Pickens the school would get a lot more out of it than Oklahoma State has so far. . .

So, what would you do with your cash? What would you fund at Texas Tech? Would it be sports-related? Would you do something for the school or college you got your major in? I’m interested to see how creative y’all can get with this today.

Don’t forget that if you live outside the Hubbaplex you can catch our show every day live via www.1340thefan.com where you can also download the smart phone app for SportsRadio 1340 The Fan. I also encourage all of you to give our podcast a FREE TRIAL right now. That’s the best way to never miss a segment, an interview or any discussions about your Red Raiders, Lubbock and West Texas news. Click on any podcast on the front page of our site and begin the journey.

Have a great Sunday and we’ll talk to you on the radio come Monday.

Ryan Hyatt

I wish I could put into words tonight everything I’m feeling with the passing of Texas Tech broadcasting legend Jack Dale. I wish I could, but I can’t right now. He meant so much to me as an inspiration to get into the business, as a mentor once I was crazy enough to try broadcasting, and then later as a great friend and co-worker.

Instead, I’ll leave you to the link and the story Don Williams crafted tonight for the Avalanche-Journal. I know they’ll be many more tributes to come for Jack, and I’ll have my own writings later this weekend when the pen inside my brain gets ready to write again, but for now I just want you all to know that there was no finer gentleman, no honestly kinder soul in this cut-throat business than Jack Dale.

Thank you, Jack. I don’t have the words. . .

Ryan Hyatt

It is hard for me to believe that it has been a decade since we all suffered along with the Oklahoma State family in their loss of ten members of their men’s basketball program in a plane crash on the snowy plains outside of Boulder, Colorado. So much has changed in that time, but one thing remains constant for me and that is the moment in time I realized how very much connected all of us involved in college athletics are on some very basic, human levels.

The day the OSU plane went down the Texas Tech Lady Raiders were traveling to Norman for a Sunday date the next day with the Sooners. It was a bitter cold day in Lubbock with lots of ice and wet stuff falling from the sky. We wondered at the airport if we’d be going by plane or by bus. After a long day of waiting, spending over an hour on the plane waiting for clearance to leave on that cramped, cold plane, being deiced not once but twice, we finally got word that we were clear to go to Norman. At the time it seemed like we’d really been put out. We’d find out later how selfish we were in our complaints of delays, missed shoot-around time and late supper. . .

After finally getting to Norman we headed straight to Outback for a late meal before getting the team down for a noon tip the next day. I don’t know why, but over the years I made it a habit to be the last one off the bus whether it was practice, team meals or whatever. So, as got ready to get off the bus that night I realized Tech Head Coach Marsha Sharp will still in her customary front seat, on the phone, talking in hushed tones with another of our coaches near by.

For some reason I held back just a bit, not wanting to intrude when she wrapped up the conversation with a blank look on her face.

“They lost a plane today,” she said.

“Oklahoma State’s men’s team is missing a plane coming back from Colorado,” She added.

Before I could even begin to process and ask what lost meant she told someone else that they didn’t think or weren’t sure at that point if there were any survivors.

From that moment on that night it would be an evening starting out with the slightest of hope only to learn that the worst would be confirmed. All ten on the plane killed. All ten lost doing the very thing all of us had just done and would do tomorrow at about 4 p.m. Get on a plane and go home. . .

That night was an emotional one for anyone involved. Whether it was the OSU family or all of us extended members of the college basketball family. From coaches to players, from trainers to doctors, radio and TV and media relations directors; we could all share in the connectedness.

We all sat there not really eating watching the first TV reports out of Oklahoma City confirming what we’d been privy to just a few minutes early. No one really even had to say it. We all knew and all understood that night that it could have been any of us, at any time. To say that as a program that night everyone understood exactly where basketball ranked in life would be a sad understatement.

Not that it mattered but for some of us in the business we could relate even more perhaps. At OSU, as in most places that used multiple small planes to ferry the travel party of up to 25 or 30 on a given trip the groupings usually were the same. The plane that went down for OSU was the slower traveling plane with a few players, but mainly support group personnel like their young media relations employee, some reserve players, their director of basketball operations and their radio play-by-play man. It was not an uncommon grouping of folks and it wasn’t a deliberate caste system that put them on that plane, it’s just the way travel was and is still done a lot of times.

Obviously for me it hit home that night because I’d been on “that plane” any number of times. It didn’t matter, but it did. No matter who was involved it still was a horrific moment, but for some of us we related maybe a little closer to that group of people and said our prayers that night knowing that at any time in the past or any time in the future it might have been or could be our families getting that awful call.

The memories of those men still are rightfully celebrated and more importantly honored by the safeguards put in by many universities when it comes to travel these days. For that, everyone involved in the business of college athletics owes them a debt of gratitude every time they head to the airport for an away game.

Beyond that though for me, that night galvanized a feeling that one day I wouldn’t want to get on a plane again and one day that would probably contribute to me not doing sports play-by-play, at least the way I did it for two decades.

I had always had a fear of flying. It was part of the job though and even though we all accept it I never could accept it as an “acceptable risk”. I hated it.

Ten years ago when we were all struck by the OSU tragedy I was single. I had just met the woman I’d marry and have a wonderful son with. Ten years ago on this night though I knew even then that my days of calling games and flying for six months of the year through snow storms, ice storms and everything else would probably come to an end in part because I hated flying so much.

I think that to this day that night had a profound affect on so many not just involved in the program at OSU, but around the league and basketball in general. To this day I think it played a large role in Eddie Sutton’s battle with alcohol and painkillers. I know he made some bad choices afterwards, and that’s on him, but I’ve always tried to cut some slack to a guy I know had to make ten of the hardest phone calls a man will ever make in one night. I feel the same way for Sean Sutton and issues he’s dealt with. I even know how personally affected men like then Texas Tech coach James Dickey was affected, having been a part of Sutton’s staff at one time and still a great friend.

As I write this tonight I don’t want you to think it is from the self-serving perch of woe-is-us who have or had to travel. Lots of people do. Mainly I want to write it from the standpoint of letting folks know what what happened that day in Colorado wasn’t a singular incident that just affected the Oklahoma State program or family. It changed all of us in the business that day.

I would call Texas Tech games for another eight years after that season. I never got on another plane when I didn’t think about those ten men, those ten men that died doing something they loved but left so much more life out there ahead of them.

I have so many good friends still on staff at Texas Tech, around the Big 12 and beyond. As the seasons go on now I think about them each time I get a release that says they’re going a road trip. I think about them each time I see on facebook they’re heading to the airport for a quick-trip to fill-in-the-blank. I think about them and I say a prayer that every last one of them makes it back every single time, because ten years ago tonight I learned that life doesn’t always work that way.

For me now, I fly when I want to and not when I “have” to. Since I stepped down calling the Tech games after the 2009 season I’ve been on exactly two planes.

And yes, both times I thought about sitting on that bus outside a Norman, Oklahoma steakhouse hearing the words that would forever change the way I looked at my involvement in college sports. No, we won’t forget you:

Kendall Durfey- Broadcast engineer

Bjorn Fahlstrom- Pilot

Nate Fleming- Player

Will Hancock- Sports info. director

Daniel Lawson- Player

Brian Luinstra- Trainer

Denver Mills- Pilot

Pat Noyes- Administrator

Bill Teegins- TV director

Jared Weiberg- Manager

All of us in or out of the business will always know that we’re just one of you guys. . .and we’re glad y’all were “one of us”.

Ryan Hyatt

It’s a busy day on the show this afternoon. We’ll get you started by helping you set your fantasy football line-up with the help of NFP.com’s Joe Fortenbaugh. If you’re not following him on Twitter, you should be by the way.  .  . great stuff.

After that Lady Raider Head Coach Kristy Curry joins us before the season opener at New Mexico this week.

We’ll also take a look at the Texas Tech defense and see if they can do to Oklahoma what they did to Missouri. Don Williams has the write-up in the A-J today on what worked so well last weekend.

There’s also that little Cam Newton story brewing in the SEC. It is just another reminder that the two slimiest sports out there ( after cycling ) are men’s college basketball and college football. Nothing else is even close. No matter what the truth is on the Newt0n-Auburn story is, all whole bunch of folks are lying somewhere and playing with fire. This will only get uglier. Of course, that’s just a normal Wednesday in the SEC.

Get your calls in today starting at 3 on The Fan by dialing 1-866-984-5326.

Hyatt