Team Luke Tennis

Kliff Kingsbury doesn’t lend his name to just anything. This is a special deal, I think, for Kingsbury and I’m sure it is a special deal for Tim and Luke Seigel as well as the entire Siegel and Tech family.

Basketball

Texas Tech has landed DePaul center Tommy Hamilton IV, who averaged a little over 8 points and 5 rebounds a game for the Blue Demons. Hamilton will sit out this year and then be eligible for his last and senior year for Texas Tech.

It is Big 12 week over at CBS Sports and one of their national writers, Jon Rothstein, tweets out a handful of things and has different things during the week. Rothstein has Texas Tech as the #4 team heading into the fall semester and thinks that both Anthony Livingston and Niem Stevenson will be two of the top five transfers this year. Rothstein has a companion piece on CBS Sports notes that the Red Raiders are one of the rising teams and could challenge for a top spot in the Big 12:

The Red Raiders return seven players — Aaron Ross, Zach Smith, Keenan Evans, Justin Gray, Devon Thomas, Matthew Temple, and Norense Odiase — from last year’s team that reached the field of 68 and lost to Butler while adding a pair of graduate transfers in Anthony Livingston (Arkansas State) and Gio Mclean (Quinnipiac).

The 6-foot-8 Livingston averaged 15.5 points and 9.4 rebounds last season while Mclean is an experienced guard that can run a team.

Add JUCO import Niem Stevenson, a 6-5 guard who averaged 24.7 points last season at Seward Community College and Beard has a real chance to make a major impact during his first season as a Big 12 coach.

Texas Tech isn’t a sexy pick to do damage in this conference, but this program has the personnel and coaching in place to be just as good as anybody not named Kansas.

Football

Texas Tech quarterback Patrick Mahomes was named to the Manning Award Watch List:

Patrick Mahomes has been named to the prestigious Manning Award watch list.

More: https://t.co/KORtRZAaOS #WreckEm pic.twitter.com/flMgeszwp7

— Texas Tech Football (@TexasTechFB) August 15, 2016

The Old Coach at Scout has a nice write-up on Xavier Martin leading Cibolo Steele this year:

“Steele always boasts one of the top teams in the state and with Martin at the helm it should be right in the thick of the race again in 2016,” said Scout.com national analyst Greg Powers.

“Martin is an amazing athlete at the quarterback position. He has been clocked with a laser-timed 4.43-second 40-yard dash. He has committed to Texas Tech to play quarterback and if that position does not work out his speed could be utilized at a different position.

That being said, he was recruited to play quarterback and he has the skill set to do so. He is a bit under-appreciated as a passer, but just because he is a great athlete does not mean that he can’t throw. He can.”

The New York Times has an interesting look at how Twitter won the rights to the ten NFL games on Thursday nights, namely that Facebook wanted a lot of terms as part of their agreement while Twitter was more flexible.

Miscellaneous . . . via College Football Talk, Iowa State lost their starting right tackle to a leg injury . . . via Deadspin, two female Kansas student athletes were forced to attend football games and cheer after a football player allegedly raped them . . . the ESPN Big 12 Blog Bros have their initial Big 12 power rankings and have Texas Tech 6th . . . DMN’s Brandon Soliz looks at the top potential break-out performers . . .