New Candidates Emerge for Red Raider Basketball

It was only yesterday that Texas Tech head basketball coach Pat Knight was told he was going to be relieved of his duties. Now less than 48 hours later, a slew of names have been thrown into the ring for candidates for the head coaching job for Texas Tech.

The list seemed to start with just one in former Texas A&M and Kentucky coach Billy Gillispie. Then a few others names came leaking through, including a pair of Texas assistant coaches in Rodney Terry and Russell Springmann.

Now, The Fan’s own Don Williams has thrown in more than a half a dozen names to the list of possible candidates to replace Knight. Williams includes Marquette’s head coach Buzz Williams, Wichita State’s head coach Gregg Marshall, Akron’s Keith Drambot, Utah Valley’s Dick Hunsaker, and Kansas assistant Joe Dooley.

Don also made mention to a pair of smaller school coaches. Making the list is long time South Plains College head coach Steve Green and Grant McCasland at Midwestern State.

I happen to think there are two names missing from the short list that I would like to see added to consideration. One being Saint Mary’s head coach Randy Bennett, and the other being Utah State’s head coach Stew Morrill.

The complete list of candidates that are being rumored is near a dozen and growing. More names will be added on and more will be taken off as the week’s go by. No official hire should come until the official end of Tech’s season.

The end of the season could come tomorrow night for the Red Raiders as they will battle Missouri in the opening round of the Big 12 tournament. The 11 seeded Red Raiders will battle the 6 seed of Missouri tomorrow night at 8:30. If the Red Raiders lose their game tomorrow their season will be over, and Pat’s career at Texas Tech will officially come to an end.