Lady Raider Basketball

The Texas Tech Lady Raider Basketball team has a new coach this year: Candace Whitaker,
http://www.texastech.com/sports/w-baskbl/mtt/candace_whitaker_846454.html is a former Lady Raider player under Coach Marsha Sharp.

Kristi Curry, the previous coach has moved on to the University of Alabama http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristy_Curry.  She had a valid contract with Texas Tech, and took a pay cut to make the move.  But she never fit in at Texas Tech.

I am sure that the Athletic Department at Texas Tech, in hiring Candace Whitaker, was hoping to replicate the excitement and interest in Lady Raider Basketball that the hiring of Kliff Kingsbury http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kliff_Kingsbury engendered in the Texas Tech Football program.  Kingsbury succeeded the very respectable Tommy Tuberville http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Tuberville who came to Texas Tech from Auburn University.  Tuberville also never fit in.  It was probably not his fault: he succeeded the immensely popular Mike Leach, and the football community held a grudge against Tuberville that really needed to be directed to the Texas Tech administration, at the way they treated Mike Leach, no matter his faults.

It is my hope that as the Lady Raider Basketball season progresses, the excitement Kliff Kingsbury has engendered with the football program, will transfer to Coach Whitaker and her staff and team.

I am not very happy about the cost of season tickets, though.  Last year, with my employee discount, I paid $80 for season tickets to the Lady Raider Basketball games.  This year, so far as I can discern, the season tickets are $140.  Almost double the price. I have not found an employee discount. Even so, there are 17 games in Lubbock, including an exhibition game, so the cost per ticket is $8.24. This is not a bad deal, but not the bargain I was able to access last year.

I will wait until closer to the opening of the season, to see if there are some other options, discounts, or employee options before I buy season tickets.  But I will probably buy season tickets. 

The last several years, there has been a tournament in Lubbock over Thanksgiving, but this year, the schedule has the team playing in the Barclay's Center Women's Invitational at the Barclay's Center in Brooklyn, New York over Thanksgiving.  They will play Michigan, and then they will either play LSU or Rutgers.  I have no idea if these games will be televised or even aired on the radio, but at the very least, I would hope for the latter.

The Lady Raider Basketball program has changed. It will be interesting to learn how it has changed.