McLemore, Jayhawks eager for Big 12 road debut at Texas Tech

Kansas forward Kevin Young elevates for a dunk on the Texas Tech defense late in the first half Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2012, at United Spirit Arena.

Lubbock, Texas — Though they love competing at home in front of 16,300 adoring fans, Kansas University’s men’s basketball players insist some of the most memorable moments of the season take place in enemy gyms.

“That’s actually the best part,” KU sophomore point guard Naadir Tharpe said, “being able to go to another school, go in there, work hard and come out with a win.

“That’s the best feeling, I feel like,” Tharpe added.

The Jayhawks, who opened the 2012-13 Big 12 season by outlasting Iowa State, 97-89 in overtime, on Wednesday in Allen Fieldhouse, today face their first conference road test — at Texas Tech.

Tip for the game between the Jayhawks (13-1 overall, 1-0 Big 12) and Red Raiders (8-5, 1-1) is 3 p.m., in United Spirit Arena.

“I think it’s one of the biggest things I’m looking forward to, going on the road,” said KU freshman Ben McLemore, who scored 33 points in his league debut versus Iowa State. “I know what we can do at home. I know we can go out there on the road and play our game.”

McLemore attended Big 12 road games that were within driving distance of Lawrence last season, his red-shirt season.

“I went to Columbia (for KU-Missouri game) and one of the fans was watching, saying how they don’t like Kansas,” McLemore said with a smile. “I went to K-State. It was crazy. Away games are crazy. The crowd definitely will be in the game.”

The Red Raider fans who do attend today’s game — Tech has averaged just 7,353 fans in 12 games in 15,098-seat United Spirit Arena this season where the Raiders are 7-5 — definitely will be keeping an eye on McLemore.

The 6-foot-5 red-shirt freshman has gained even more notoriety the past couple days after banking in an overtime-inducing three-pointer Wednesday as time ran out in regulation.

“I guess they were thinking (it was) like one of the best performances in Kansas history,” McLemore said of fan and media reaction to his shot versus the Cyclones.

“As I said after the game, my teammates were getting me the ball. I’d like to thank them a lot for getting me going, especially Elijah (Johnson) the first half. I was telling him to try to get me the ball. That’s what he did. He helped me a lot and coach helps me a lot, telling me to get open one pass away and try to create things offensively. I’d like to keep performing like this each and every day,” McLemore added.

KU coach Bill Self said he may run more plays for McLemore in an attempt to get him even more involved in the offense.

“One thing he can always do is put his head down and drive it,” Self said Friday. “He did that late game. A lot of it is on Ben. I think our guys for the most part do a good job of looking for him. He has to do a better job of learning to move without the ball. In Ben’s case, if he’s got daylight, he needs to look to score.”

McLemore and his teammates today face a Red Raider team that opened league play with a 62-53 victory at TCU. On Tuesday, Tech was hammered at home by Baylor, 82-48, before just 6,385 fans.

“I don’t think it ever affects us too much,” KU senior forward Kevin Young said of rare occasions like today when the visiting gym may not be at fever pitch. “We are more focused on the game and what happens in between the lines. Going on the road ... we will miss our crowd a lot. They give us energy and help us a lot,” Young added.

One of the keys to KU’s winning eight straight Big 12 Conference titles has been performance on the road.

KU, in fact, entered the 2012-13 season with a 54-19 league road record during the Self-era, which is 16 games better than the Jayhawks’ closest competitor, Texas (38-35). Over the last nine seasons, Kansas State is 31-42 on the road, Oklahoma 24-49, Oklahoma State 20-53, Baylor 18-55 and both Texas Tech and Iowa State 14-59. This is first year in the league for West Virginia and TCU.

“It takes focusing in on scouting report and guarding and running our offense,” Young said of the key to road victories.

KU has had some problems in Lubbock, compiling a 2-3 record in Self’s first nine seasons at KU. The Red Raiders this year are led by sixth man Jaye Crockett, a 6-7 junior who averages 14.8 points and 8.5 rebounds a game. Only other double-digit scorer is Josh Gray, a 6-1 freshman, who averages 10.0 points with 36 total assists against 44 turnovers. Dejan Kravic, a 6-11 junior, averages 9.5 points and 4.7 boards.

Crockett has led Tech in scoring in both league games with 13 in each contest.

Interim coach Chris Walker took over for embattled coach Billy Gillispie, who stepped down during the preseason.

“I think they are playing faster. Their talent level has improved a tremendous amount,” Self said. “They are fast on the perimeter. Their team is capable from a talent standpoint of giving anybody problems.”

“Guys have done a great job lending me their ears, focusing on a new style and playing very, very hard,” interim coach Walker said. He prefers a pressing style: “We are moving at hyper speed. It’s been a challenge and refreshing to see how hard guys are willing to work and learn.”

Dance reax: McLemore on Friday commented on an animated GIF of his dance making the rounds on the Internet. McLemore led a dance in KU’s locker room after a 74-66 victory over Ohio State on Dec. 22 in Columbus.

“I was just looking at that today,” McLemore said of the looping image taken from the team’s “Pay Heed” video series on YouTube. “People are talking about the dance. It’s funny. We were just having fun. It was a big win in Columbus (Ohio). We were celebrating.”

Does the dance have a name?

“I don’t know what to call it. I was with the media (after game). My teammates were waiting for me to celebrate. I got there; we were dancing, having fun, celebrating.”

He’s No. 1: McLemore has moved up to No. 1 in NBAdraft.net’s 2013 mock draft. Draftexpress.com has McLemore projected to go No. 7 in the draft.

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vlbptt 4 months, 1 week ago

What happened to the JW Sports proofreader?

daneiorg85 4 months, 1 week ago

Congratulations, you passed the test. And you're fun.

bskeet 4 months, 1 week ago

Is the game televised? All I can find is that it's on the Big12 Network.

RockChalkCaliHawk 4 months, 1 week ago

most of those games are on watchespn.com a.k.a. espn3.com

phogphan2000 4 months, 1 week ago

It's ESPN Full Court, but ABC regional coverage must be picking it up, so you should be in luck if you're in B12 country Fox gives about the best overall breakdown of what games are on for difference channels, not hiding the info just 'cause it's not on their network, but just says ESFC for this one. http://msn.foxsports.com/collegebasketball/schedule

bobku1967 4 months, 1 week ago

In KC, it is on channel 38

fansincewilt 4 months, 1 week ago

If you have Dish, it is on 410 in HD.

drgnslayr 4 months, 1 week ago

It can be frustrating.... I've found most of the games on my local NBC affiliate. For some reason, most of the time the games aren't shown in my cable guide. I DVR all the games... sometimes that means recording several short shows in the tv guilde.

Check it out because you will be very upset if the game is on your cable box but you didn't know it because it wasn't listed in your guide.

Redlandsjhawk 4 months, 1 week ago

Anyone with an x-box (or a kid with x-box) and an x-box live account can get all the espn3 games.

phogphan2000 4 months, 1 week ago

You love to notice a can-do attitude from a team, with last year and this year's squad you feel like it's more of a will-do attitude. With all the Paul Pierce talk and HCBS's quotes in this article, just makes you wonder how well KU would have done with PP had Roy Williams had the same mentality of wanting him to look to score whenever he had space.

Raydude 4 months, 1 week ago

Gary, noted brief comment regarding Andrea Hudy getting National Coach award on Rivals. Could you reasearch and give us some insight. I know I would enjoy hearing what she does, especially after seeing the results with TRob, 'BlockParty', BMac, and Mr. Releford, etc.

Jesse Newell 4 months, 1 week ago

ray — Here are a few previous articles on her:

KU finds the right fit with strength and conditioning coach Andrea Hudy by Tom Keegan KUsports.com

Hudy: UNI loss in hoops ‘brutal’ by Gary Bedore KUsports.com

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/7936919/strength-coach-andrea-hudy-plays-huge-role-success-kansas-jayhawks-program-men-college-basketball

PikesPeakSmitty 4 months, 1 week ago

Anyone know a website or app to listen to the games? I can't get espn3 with dishnetwork here in co springs. Thanks!

Any Jayhawk anywhere within a 2 hour drive should be in Lubbock today!

chuckberry32 4 months, 1 week ago

is there even a town of more than 1000 people within two hours of lubbock?

texashawk10 4 months, 1 week ago

Yes and there's even two cities with over 100,000 people within two hours of Lubbock. Lubbock itself is about 250,000 people, Amarillo (2 hours north) is about 200,000 people and Midland (2 hours south) is a little over 100,000 people.

chuckberry32 4 months, 1 week ago

i was taking a facisous shot in the dark there. texas is a pretty big place and lubbock is in the middle of nowhere. to be fair, I'm fond of saying Lawrence is a great town but there isn't another place within 500 miles of it that i'd want to live in. :)

dylans 4 months, 1 week ago

<p>espn3.com is a website. Not a tv channel. Hope that helps.

wissoxfan83 4 months, 1 week ago

I use http://www.thefirstrow.eu/ It's always been very reliable, good picture. It'll tell you to download viewers and such, but I've never had to do that, it just comes on. Lots of popups initially, but that's it. If I was where you are I'd go skiing!

swunruhawk 4 months, 1 week ago

First row doesn't sem to work on a Mac?

chuckberry32 4 months, 1 week ago

i've used it many times on a mac.

dnvrhawk 4 months, 1 week ago

Pikes- in The Denver area the games is being broadcast on Altitude. Channel 25 or 725 in HD on Comcast. Don't know about dishnetwork.

coloradojayhawk 4 months, 1 week ago

Someone above posted that it's on 410, Altitude, on Dish. I found it there. Good luck.

kusayzone 4 months, 1 week ago

Old photo

leikness 4 months, 1 week ago

It's a photo of a game from last year at TTU? Not wholly inappropriate for the game today.

MoonwalkMafia66 4 months, 1 week ago

Stupid comment.

kuwells 4 months, 1 week ago

I would like see a photo from the game today. I wonder if Nick has that camera in his bag. That would be a cool camera!

dynamitehawk 4 months, 1 week ago

Wells - I asked for one from Santa... or was that Satan? Anyways...

by dynamitehawk

HighEliteMajor 4 months, 1 week ago

My first thought was to say that 7,353 fans is an "average" and to expect more for a KU game .. until I saw that attendance at last year's KU game was 7,454. Not quite a huge road test. Check out the picture from last year's game above .. the entire upper deck is empty and lower level just partially full. I doubt there was really 7,454 there.

akgjenkintown 4 months, 1 week ago

Watched the Baylor/TTech game on TV. There is no way there were 6,000 people in the stands. I can't imagine it is much fun for their players to play in a more than half empty stadium. The lack of interest and support from their students and alumni for a Big XII team is embarrassing to the conference. We are lucky at KU to have such a loyal fan base (which goes hand in hand with winning) and that the students attend even when school is out of session. I have noticed while watching games on TV many college venues are not sold out, even at UNC (although their stadium holds >5,000 more than Allen Fieldhouse) during their loss against Miami. Not sure if this is a recent trend in college basketball or that I am paying it more attention to the number of empty seats. Nevertheless, it is nice to hear the players and coaches acknowledge the support they receive from the KU fan base and indicate that their enthusiasm can indeed influence the outcomes, e.g., the latest two games. Rock Chalk.

texashawk10 4 months, 1 week ago

People don't go to support bad teams regardless of what sport it is. Bad pro teams struggle to reach 50% capacity unless a superstar player comes in. How frequently has Memorial Stadium been half empty over the past 3 years?

diegohawk 4 months, 1 week ago

During hoops season. During football season we are Texas Tech basketball.

HighEliteMajor 4 months, 1 week ago

diego .. that is brilliant. "During football season we are Texas Tech basketball."

Perfect way to put it.

Too bad they aren't KU during football season.

wissoxfan83 4 months, 1 week ago

I'll jinx myself but firstrow.eu works great for me. I watched a bunch of bears games on it and I've used it for Jayhawks as well. The spam, true, but other than that it works well. It's funny, but just a decade or even less ago, we were resigned to bemoaning that ESPN/CBS/NBC had the gall to show someone other than KU. I used to watch other games that I could care less about just to see the KU score flash across the screen!

rfoley 4 months, 1 week ago

Try channel 410 on dish network. Rock Chalk!

chuckberry32 4 months, 1 week ago

our players get tricked into thinking that every big12 school has a good turnout for games when in fact we are usually our opponents largest turnout of the year. even with us coming to town though, there is no way they will sell this out.

lubbock is really an awful town whose only claim to fame is being the home of Buddy Holly but he must have been living in new york by the time he wrote Rave On cuz there is certainly no raving there.

I will go on a prognosticating limb and say KU wins by 30.

Side story: I was perusing an espn men's basketball chat with Dana O'neil (I think) and an ISU fan asked the following question: "do you think ISU can be the second best team in the big12 this year?" Dana: "wake me when it's not Kansas" he responded "I SAID 2ND. 2ND 2ND 2ND"

I couldn't stop laughing when i saw that.

I for one have gotten spoiled during the Self era, not i only do i think we can win the big12, i expect it. However, I wish we had 1 other traditionally great school to compete with in conference the way the acc has duke/unc. generally there is one other really good team a year but it is always changing. I know that we usually have more teams in the tournament than any conference but the former big east but still it would be nice to get the national exposure of a duke/unc type game twice a year.

icthawkfan316 4 months, 1 week ago

chuckberry - agree on KU needing a consistent rival. I think that is the one thing that holds KU back ever so slightly. There's no national hype for any one KU game year in, year out. There's no long-running clips of classic games burned into the consciousness of college basketball fans' minds like UNC-Duke (ESPN has milked the Tyler Hansborough bloody nose clip for all it's worth). Sure there are games which grab our attention. Last year it was the first KU-Baylor game. And after KU dismantled them we heard how Baylor isn't "there" yet. We need someone to get "there", so that when KU does something like blow Baylor out it is viewed as a statement, not an indictment of the opponent.

And really, in my opinion that team needs to be either Texas or Baylor. It needs to be a big market team, because no one in the league has outstanding basketball tradition (OU would maybe come the closest to being considered a tradition-rich basketball school), so a big market must compensate for that. Granted Waco isn't "big", but it's in Texas so it could probably pass. Also, because of the success of the football team, RG3, and the women's basketball team the school has garnered enough attention to make it a national brand. The problem here is two-fold: one, the coaches are mediocre Xs & Os guys. Good recruiters (albeit slimy in Scott Drouche's case), but just not that good at the actual coaching aspect. The second problem is these are football schools, basketball is second-fiddle, and as long as those schools have moderate success in basketball their ADs are content to keep these stiffs in place. This is why I was such a proponent of adding Louisville to the Big XII. A basketball-first school with great tradition would have been a huge get for KU.

chuckberry32 4 months, 1 week ago

thank you for expanding my point much more eloquently. I'm walking dead this morning at work. as to your point about louisville, i agree that would be true from the perspective of adding a marquee basketball matchup but I don't think it would be overall good for our conference. I'd rather see a team like texas become consistently good. you'd think with all the resources that school has they would have accomplished this by now.

HighEliteMajor 4 months, 1 week ago

Chuck: Your last comment on traditionally great schools is why I really wanted Louisville in the Big 12. They are arguably a top 10 program. Six historically "elite" programs -- KU, Indiana, Duke, UNC, Kentucky, UCLA. Next tier Syracuse, Michigan St., Louisville, Arizona, Connecticut, Ohio St., and Florida. Obviously debatable. But as you pointed out, the Big 12 has only Kansas.

Historically, Oklahoma St. is arguable. But in recent history, Since 1998, only Oklahoma St. (1995/2004), Oklahoma (2003), and Kansas have made final fours from the Big 8/Big 12. Our conference is decent. Usually has good teams in the #15 - #35 range. But we've always been missing another really good basketball school. We missed out on Louisville.

chuckberry32 4 months, 1 week ago

i understand your guys' point about louisville. I would have rather had them than tcu for sure.

JayDogger 4 months, 1 week ago

Texas made the FInal Four in 2003. I otherwise agree.

HighEliteMajor 4 months, 1 week ago

Right, thanks for the correction - Texas 2003, Oklahoma 2002 (instead of 2003 as I had noted).

icthawkfan316 4 months, 1 week ago

Great minds think alike :)

I think you nailed the second tier schools. Ohio St. would be the only debatable inclusion, only because they haven't won a NCAA title in the modern era. And out of all those 2nd tier schools, I'd take Louisville I think over any of them if I was hand-picking a school to join the Big 12. With the way conference realignment is going, who knows? KU may get another shot at being in league with them.

chuckberry32 4 months, 1 week ago

I like his tiers as well. but if we are going to debate i would take florida off the list. they won two championships with the same team. that makes for a great run but not worthy of being in the mix with connecticut, syracuse, etc. imho.

texashawk10 4 months, 1 week ago

My personal ranking would go Kansas, Kentucky, UNC on the top tier with Duke one step in the door of that class. If they can maintain being a consistent Final Four threat after Coach K retires, then they belong with the other 3. UCLA's run with Wooden is probably the greatest dynasty in American sports, but they were a below .500 program pre-Wooden and have been up and down since then. Indiana does have two titles pre-Knight, but one of those titles was when the NIT was still the more important tournament and Indiana was a pretty inconsistent program before Knight got there. Knights run of greatness was really only 20 years and since the 1993-94 season, Indiana has only won 25 games 3 times.

texashawk10 4 months, 1 week ago

I guess I should go ahead and finish out my top 10.

Top Tier

Kansas- National title numbers aren't there with Kentucky, but Kentucky wouldn't be Kentucky without KU giving them Rupp, plus I'm biased on this argument. Same argument could be used on UNC as well because Frank McGuire left the program on a rocky road when he was forced out.
Kentucky- Most wins, 2nd most titles, 3rd most Final Four appearances. If it wasn't for my KU bias, they would be #1.
UNC- Same as Kentucky, just change out the appropriate numbers.

Tier 2

Duke- They're borderline top tier and if they remain a Final Four threat after Coach K retires, I would have no problem sliding them into the top tier.
UCLA- Their history is built off of the greatest 15 year run in the history of American sports. They were a below .500 team pre-Wooden and have been a consistent tournament and occasional title threat post Wooden.
Indiana- Similar to Indiana in that much of their history was built during a 20 year run under Knight. One of their 2 pre-Knight titles came when the NIT was still the more important tournament (1940) and were a somewhat inconsistent program pre-Knight. They only have 3 25+ win seasons during the last 20 years which includes the last 7 under Knight so not the dominance to be higher up.

Tier 3

Louisville- This was a tough call for between Louisville and Syracuse, but 1 more national title and 5 more Final Fours trump Syracuse's 180 more wins for me.
Syracuse- #5 all time in wins and almost always a very good team. They would be higher with some more Final Fours or another national title.
Michigan St.- One of the newer generation of good teams. Would be a top 5 team over the past 35 years.
Ohio St.- I give the nod here to OSU over UConn, Arizona, and NC State because of their consistency. OSU is one of 6 teams with 10+ Final Four appearances and those have come over time, not under 1 coach.

I think valid arguments could be made for UConn, Arizona, and NC State to be #10, but I like consistency over multiple coaches as opposed to 1 coach leading a team to greatness which is why I picked Ohio St. at ten.

wissoxfan83 4 months, 1 week ago

Maybe our conference needs some other coaches. The two who seem to attract big time talent, Dumb and Dumber, i.e. Barnes and Drew, can't seem to coach their talent laden teams into the big time consistently. I've always thought KState has had decent coaches, but doesn't get the talent to go along with it. West Virginia, seemingly hasn't recovered from the departure of Beiline to Michigan.

andrewbary 4 months, 1 week ago

I just moved from DC to San Angelo TX. The best thing about the move? I am now within driving distance of some KU games. SO my family and I are headed to our first Jayhawk Basketball Experience today. It won't be the Fieldhouse, but we'll be proud to represent the Crimson and Blue out here in the middle of nowhere. Any tips from those that have been to Lubbock/United Spirit Arena?

wissoxfan83 4 months, 1 week ago

No tips, but have fun!

dylans 4 months, 1 week ago

Have fun! Cheer loud, lets hear the rock chalk chant!

HighEliteMajor 4 months, 1 week ago

Tips? Don't drink the water ...

txrockchalk 4 months, 1 week ago

Welcome to Texas! A couple of good BBQ places to try in Lubbock are J&M and Tom and Bingo's. Both are on 34th street a couple miles south of campus. Have a great time at the game!

Brock 4 months, 1 week ago

It is on Direct TV on Yes - Channel 631.

BCRavenJHawkfan 4 months, 1 week ago

I'll be there.

If anyone else would like to meet a fellow fan and blogger I'll be there about an hour before tip. Section 114 Row 25 Seat 3.

ZIG 4 months, 1 week ago

I was somewhat surprised to learn of Baylors paltry Big12 league road record. 18-55!? And that is why Drew has never been able to bring home any hardware. That's just flat not getting it done.

chuckberry32 4 months, 1 week ago

tried to delete my orignial reply but it won't let me....

JHAWKNPHX 4 months, 1 week ago

I did that same dance after B MAC hit that 3!!!

JayDogger 4 months, 1 week ago

We're 2-3 vs. Tech in the Bill Self era??? I was shocked to read that. I suspect we'll be 3-3 after today.

jaybate 4 months, 1 week ago

Swish.

All great men have Achilles Heels. Just ask Achilles. It seems the Lubbock curse was Self's, at least with when there were Knights around. :-)

JayDogger 4 months, 1 week ago

And think about how many teams consider us their Achilles heel/curse...if you can count that high.

JayDogger 4 months, 1 week ago

('bate, I wasn't insinuating that you can't count to big numbers, just that we have beaten a lot of teams a lot of times!)

jaybate 4 months, 1 week ago

Never worry. We're cool.

jhawkrulz 4 months, 1 week ago

I'm guessing that is 2-3 on the road...he would have played about 10-12 times in all against TT.

Boouk 4 months, 1 week ago

Fellow KU fans, who would you rather have in a KU uniform next season- McLemore, Wiggins, or Randle?

daneiorg85 4 months, 1 week ago

Kleinmann

maverickhawk 4 months, 1 week ago

Who is Ben Kleinmann?

HighEliteMajor 4 months, 1 week ago

Randle. Ben would be my selfish first choice. But the only reason Ben comes back is if something goes wrong for him. And I don't want that. I don't think he should put a top 10 draft spot at risk returning.

Randle easily over Wiggins .. we need a quality post player, a plug in starter, to go with Ellis.

JayDogger 4 months, 1 week ago

I would be more excited about Ben but I totally agree with HEM re: need for Randle. I would probably be more surprised if Ben were here than Randle, though I haven't given up on Ben (he seems to be having a ton of fun).

I think our odds of landing Randle have gotten better over the last six months, maybe 35-40%.

I keep forgetting we're in the mix for WIggins and highly doubt he picks us.

jayhawkinATL 4 months, 1 week ago

Sure hope the Temple and ISU funk is out of our system!

jaybate 4 months, 1 week ago

I feel a Let'em labor game, before Self gives them another amping and "some stuff" to run.

jayhawkinATL 4 months, 1 week ago

These last two games have taken a lot out of me...don't know how many more I can stomach.

txrockchalk 4 months, 1 week ago

Come on ATL, you survived the last couple of seasons okay... :^)

jaybate 4 months, 1 week ago

Yep, laboring games are what Self does to teams to toughen them up for the real toughies.

It makes us nervous, when we forget it.

jaybate 4 months, 1 week ago

"Things to Do in Lubbock to Save Your Life"

Part 1

~Follow Bob Knight's lead: quit unexpectedly and leave.

~Follow Pat Knight's lead: get yourself fired and leave.

~Don't knock Buddy Holly, the town's most famous son, who left.

~Don't advocate for wool, silk, or micro-fleece, because the town is the Hub City of the South Plains, which is another way of saying the largest contiguous cotton growing region in the world.

~Don't knock unsustainable irrigation, because much of the cotton pickin' cotton growth depends on reputedly over-pumping the Ogallala Aquifer.

~Don't knock ag subsidies, because irrigated cotton growth reputedly doesn't pencil out without massive Federal subsidies.

~Don't knock their public schools, because their public schools reputedly do rank high in apparent red state rag Newsweek's rankings.

~Don't say Lubbock's in the Texas Panhandle to the north, or in the Permian Basin to the south, because its in between and proud of it.

~Don't say the winters suck, because the average low and high in January are 24/52F and average snow fall is only 2 inches.

~Don't say it isn't growing, because its population grew 15% between 2000 and 2010.

~ Don't say Lubbock has trouble sustaining relationships with sister cities, because it does (note: presently LubbockLubbock reputedly lacks a sister city and has two former sister cities: City of León, Guanajuato, Mexico; and City of Musashino, Tokyo, Japan).

~Don't say Lubbock isn't heavily on the Federal/state teat, because it is (note: of the ten largest employers, only three--United Supermarkets, AT&T, and Convergys--might operate largely on non Federal/state monies, and I have a wild hunch the AT&T and Convergys get their share of gubmint contracts).

~Don't say Lubbock's hoop tradition is nil, because it is (note: the Lubbock Wiki page mentions only Craig Ehlo among men's basketball players of note).

~Don't say Lubbock is afraid of arcane museums, because it isn't (note: The Silent Wings Museum not only features photographs and artifacts from World War II-era glider pilots, and a glider or two, the building is also shaped vaguely like a wing. Note, also, what some might call chem trails in the sky above the photo :-) ).

Sourced from a Wikipedia page for the Silent Wings Museum, which when I looked at the copyright status appeared to me to be in the public domain. by jaybate

jaybate 4 months, 1 week ago

Part 2

(Note: I've poked some fun here, but Lubbock is surviving and growing which is more than a lot of American cities can say. Lubbock may not be everyone's cup of Texas tea, but they're growing cotton, which is a good fiber, and they're growing in population, and they've got a good public school with an international baccalaureate program, and by god, I have always admired the World War II gliders and the men who flew and risked their lives in them, so though I would like it if Lubbockians eased up on the aquifer pumping [which they are trying to do by using still more government pork to build a reservoir to irrigate with] and voted a bit more progressively on social safety net issues, when they don't have to vote for a local boy like Dubya to make subsidy ends meet, Lubbock is alright with me. And well, Buddy Holly weighs heavy in the balance, too.)

JayhawkInAustin 4 months, 1 week ago

A little Texas music culture, from James McMurtry:

"Flatter than a tabletop

Makes you wonder why they stopped here

Wagon must have lost a wheel

or they lacked ambition one"

Okay the song was about Levelland, which is about 40 clicks west of Lubbock, but having spent time in both places, believe me, the lyric works. Jaybate, your cotton irrigation comment is what made me think of this song. From a later verse:

"Daddy's cotton grows so high

Sucks the water table dry

Rolling sprinklers circle round

Bleedin' it to the bone"