Miscellaneous
Bracket Challenge. Here we go. Texas Tech is actually in this thing and now we get to fill out the bracket. I think what you need to do is as follows:
- Go go to the link below.
- Choose “mayhem”.
- Enter the league abbreviation and the password (you may have to enter the password twice).
- Create a profile and then join said bracket. Let me know if there are any issues. Right now, I’m in first place. Don’t let that happen.
Bracket Site: http://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/universal
League Abbreviation: stakingtheplains
Password: texastech
Thanks to goldeneye101 for clarification on these instructions!
Tennis
The #10 Texas Tech men's tennis team defeats Indiana 6-1 to improve their record to 16-2 on the season! #WreckEm pic.twitter.com/YX09DetnmI
— Texas Tech Women’s Tennis (@TexasTechWTEN) March 14, 2016
Basketball
Dunham’s Success. IndyStar’s David Woods looks at Kellen Dunham as a player and a student-athlete:
Over the past 18 games, Dunham has been 54-of-100 on 3-pointers. If that had been all in the regular season, he would have broken the all-time Big East record for 3-point percentage, coming on the heels of that cold spell.
NBA scouts and potential agents have contacted Dunham’s father, Jim, and Butler coaches about his pro prospects. He does not appear on any mock draft boards but hopes to land on a summer league roster.
He said Stephen Curry is “inspirational” and that if he has a future in the NBA, it would be in the role of a J.J. Redick, E’Twaun Moore or Kyle Korver. Dunham has been invited to next month’s Portsmouth (Va.) Invitational, where would-be pros have an additional chance to showcase skills.
He gained a needed 10 pounds last summer and maintained his body fat at 14 percent. His aim is to reduce it to 10 percent, which would align with that of NBA wings. Work ethic, more than shooting skill, is “his calling card,” according to Brian Hahn, who coached him at Pendleton Heights.
5 Things to Know About Butler. DMN’s Mike DuPont writes five things to know about the Butler Bulldogs, here’s item 4:
4. Well prepared.
Butler was battle tested throughout the season, including games against seven opponents with top 50 RPI rankings. The Bulldogs went 4-8 against the top tier of their schedule with key wins against Cincinnati, Purdue and Seton Hall despite losing three times to Providence. Butler managed to record a pair of three-game win streaks during Big East play, both included wins against Seton Hall and Georgetown.
1 through 68. Sports On Earth’s Matt Brown ranks all 68 teams and has Texas Tech at 39 overall and Butler at 33:
39. Texas Tech (8, Midwest). Tubby Smith has the Red Raiders dancing for the first time since Bob Knight led them to a 10 seed in 2007. They survived a brutal Big 12, picking up impressive wins over Iowa State, Baylor and Oklahoma down the stretch to put them in position for a bid. Of course, you never know which Texas Tech you’re going to get, as they lost to last-place TCU in the first round of the Big 12 tournament.
33. Butler (9, Midwest). Butler can shoot and play smart offense, but we don’t know if it can defend well enough to do much damage in the NCAAs, especially with Virginia looming in the second round. They’ve fallen from seventh last year to 131st in KenPom’s adjusted defensive efficiency.
Chopping Block. TCU’s Trent Johnson was fired yesterday DMN’s Chuck Carlton writes that TCU needs to look to inspiration from Texas Tech and hire their own Tubby Smith. I don’t think that’s as easy as it sounds. Oklahoma State is also said to be in the final stages of firing their head coach, Travis Ford.
Football
Roles for Pipkins and Hill. RRS’s Mike DuPont takes a look at transfers DT Ondre Pipkins and LB Kolin Hill. There’s a few quotes there, including defensive coordinator David Gibbs on Pipkins, but here here’s Gibbs on Hill:
“I think his hand will be on the ground most of the time but he has the athletic ability to stand up,” Gibbs said. “Another guy who obviously was here all year so he knows the terminology and that’s the reason we took Kolin and Ondre a year ago is because we knew, especially this spring, there weren’t going to be many bodies out there.”