But it makes you wonder if Pat Knight is slowly taking the Bob Knight route to silliness and unusual stunts to motivate his team.

LUBBOCK, Texas — Texas Tech Red Raiders coach Pat Knight grew tired of watching his team miss shots that even a child could make. So he found one to illustrate his frustration.

While the Red Raiders (10-4) were busy botching about 15 layups against Stephen F. Austin on Thursday, Knight scoured the stands and invited a youngster to join the team huddle.

Knight asked the boy whether he could make layups. The boy said he could.

“I was just tired of having 18- or 21-year-olds miss layups that a 12-year-old could hit, so I brought a 12-year-old in to let them know that he could hit layups,” Knight said. “He’s 12 and he can hit layups, so why can’t you when you’re 18 to 21?”

The psychological maneuver evidentally worked. A layup by Mike Singletary with 8:44 remaining in the game put Texas Tech up 52-36, and Stephen F. Austin (7-4) couldn’t cobble together a comeback. The Red Raiders beat the Lumberjacks 69-55.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

Post from: EveryJoe

Layups are so simple, even a 12-year-old can make them at Texas Tech

Yeah I said it, DOMINATE.

– 17 UCLA turnovers mostly caused by Michigan’s feisty 1-3-1 zone defense

– DeShawn Sims abused the UCLA bigs all game long (by the way, keep Sims coming off the bench Beilein, it’s working)

– 8th grader Stu Douglass had his coming out party with 10 points and 5 feeds

– Darren Collison and Josh Shipp combined for 10 turnovers and only 1 three pointer

– Nikola Dragovic felt compelled to launch shots quite frequently. Nikola has a nice shot, but he’s no Memo Okur

– Manny Harris was 5-13 from the field, turned the ball over 4 times

Ok, maybe DOMINATE was too strong of a description.

Statement game might suffice.

That Michigan-Duke preview Kevin said I had in store for you…

Duke’s experience will propel them to a double digit victory. They played with a lot of energy against the Southern Illinois Salukis. The team is starting to gel and that Nolan Smith character will not allow the 3 guard rotation of David Merritt, C.J. Lee and Kelvin Grady to stifle Duke like they did UCLA.

As for Greg Paulus, eh, he might turn the ball over some, but he’ll probably hit some threes to make up for his dudness.

Nolan Smith going vertical

DeShawn Sims should be able to have his way again. But Manny Harris must explode for 25 plus points because Duke will certainly drain their share of triples and get their share of calls.

Duke is probably a much more disciplined defensive team than the Bruins. That alone should give them a decided edge over the young Wolverines, who, at times, got some easy baskets inside off of back door feeds and such against UCLA.

But honestly, UCLA should not have been rated #4. By the time February rolls around…? Well see.

By the way, Michigan hosts Duke on December 6th.

Note- Kevin mentioned it before, but what went on against Texas Tech and East Central is stupid.

STAT of the DAY

Texas Tech lets DII East Central put 116 on the board.

It’s so wild and insane that not even a single Mississippi Valley State joke is worthy enough to follow it.

Post from: EveryJoe

First of 2 Michigan vs. Duke Tilts (Today, 7pm)

The Red Raiders basketball team had ten players score in double figures as it defeated East Central (who?!) 167-116 tonight at the Legends Classic in Lubbock, Texas.

Ok. I just looked them up and East Central is a college east Oklahoma (Ada to be exact) and plays in Division II.

Post from: EveryJoe

And We Have Our First Blowout Of The Season