Managers helped fill house

After each Texas Tech game, the team awards an honorary game ball to someone who made a difference in that day’s contest.

On Thursday the game ball went to four managers who over the course of three days went door to door in campus dorms delivering flyers advertising the game against No. 12 Washington. Coach Pat Knight said after Tech’s 99-92 overtime win that those managers, and the fans they helped bring in, made a major difference in the game.

“I’m not dumb,” Knight said. “I coach basketball in a football state, so you get worried in the preseason what your attendance is going to be.”

Tech’s players said after the game they understand fans will not be back if they fall back to their lackluster performances of recent seasons. But that didn’t stop them from appreciating those who came by on Thursday.

“When we were warming up I just looked at the crowd and the stands were already full on the student section,” Mike Singletary said. “As long as we keep winning, as long as we keep playing hard, they’ll keep coming.”

Defensive switch leads to key steal

With 48 seconds on the clock, Knight huddled the Texas Tech players and instructed them to go with a 2-3 zone as soon as Washington inbounded the ball.

John Roberson politely declined.

Roberson asked to go man-to-man, and in putting his faith in the junior point guard Knight gave Roberson the opportunity for a steal and layup that pushed Tech’s lead to 93-89, all but sealing the Red Raiders’ win.

“He actually asked me if they could go man, said he thought they could get a steal,” Knight said. “John made the call, figuring they were going to run something.”

Quote of the game

“After you coach a season like I did last year you never take anything for granted. You stand there and wait for the worst. I kind of figured it might not go our way. I guess we ended up winning twice.”

-Pat Knight on his reaction to Mike Singletary’s shot at the end of regulation.

Compiled by Courtney Linehan

Washington lackluster in first half

Huskies coach Lorenzo Romar said he was worried his team might look past unranked Texas Tech after starting its season 5-0. After the game, though, he said the problem was his players tried to do too much individually.

“It took us a half to understand how we need to play basketball on both ends of the floor,” Romar said. “We made some careless efforts on our rotations, getting back on defense.”