Dang it, I’ve got to admit it. I really do love cold weather. I hate what it does to my old creaky bones, but I love the way it looks and feels. It puts me in the right mood for Christmas and even the ice doesn’t seem so bad today. Of course knowing it is going to be gone by lunch helps, doesn’t it?

Meanwhile…

The red Raider men’s basketball team finds itself back in the Top 25 after their win over then 10Th ranked Washington last week. That’s a big step for Pat Knight’s bunch and something that will help fans buy back into the program after a few down years. There were more than a few skeptics out there when Pat was bequeathed the team after Bob Knight abruptly called it quits a few years ago. Already Pat has shown he can upgrade the talent and get a few big wins. Now we’ll find out quickly if it can translate on the road with games against Wichita State and TCU looming.

Down in San Antone

Anyone thinking that Texas Tech fans might not be as excited to go to a bowl game this year after an up and down season were wrong as Texas Tech is moving tickets to the Alamo Bowl against Michigan State fast according to the A-J.

This says a lot about the Texas Tech fan of 2009 vs. the Texas Tech fan of a decade ago. Today Tech fans have by and large built into their budgets the idea of going to a bowl game each year. They don’t know when and where for sure but they’re used to going and having a good time. That’s something that the major programs that have always traveled well, read Nebraska, have done in the past. Texas Tech has a great reputation with bowl officials right now, more so than even the vaunted Huskers if you talk to the right bowl reps.

Most bowl reps will tell you that they can gauge how well a bowl game will do within 48 hours of the announcement of the pairings. If today’s news is any indication the Alamo Bowl is going to have a banner year thanks to Tech fans in a down economy. That may end up being the crowing achievement of this football season. Well played Tech Fans!

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5 things we know on a Friday: 11/13/09

1. I love it when folks who aren’t from around here lecture me and others on what it takes to be “true basketball fans” and how to support a program or two. The A-J’s Courtney Linehan should probably do a little more research before she talks about fans in West Texas for the Lady Raiders and the Tech men’s program. Linehan has already written some fine articles but she’s off-base here. I’ve learned over the years when upper-midwestern types talk about their love of basketball they usually mean men’s basketball. They forget that West Texas has long supported two programs with a much higher combined ticket sales number than most schools around the nation, including those so-called basketball hotbeds. Is it down right now? You bet. Will it get better when the programs get better? You bet. That’s logic.
2. TCU deserves to lose this weekend for mocking the football gods with their new uniforms. Someone stop them. Please.
3. I still think Mike Leach should have supported his QB Taylor Potts more publicly over the past few weeks since coming back from a head injury. Players and fans alike have taken their cue from the Lead Pirate in their Potts bashing. It wouldn’t have taken much for Leach to say that Potts was the guy, is the guy and that they can’t wait to win with him again after the concussion. He didn’t. Hum. Some controversies are of your own creation. Meanwhile it’ll be up to Potts to save their bacon again this week at OSU.
4. John Tesh was in Lubbock last night? Who knew.
5. When did it become The United States is vs. The United States are? I’d like to know that answer as I think it would be most revealing as to the attitudes of the governed towards the government.

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