The Morning Stake: November 2nd

Soccer

Red Raider Basketball

original-double-t CBS Sports Gary Parrish has the CBS preview of the Big 12 and I think that this is pretty well-reasoned, although I still don’t know what to think about some of these middle of the road teams like Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Baylor. Parrish’s biggest issue with Texas Tech is the turnover issue, which is absolutely accurate. The X-factor is Niem Stevenson:

JUCO prospects in this era often don’t make huge impacts on quality teams. But there’s reason to be excited about Niem Stevenson, a 6-5 guard who averaged 24.7 points, 6.9 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.6 steals last season at Seward County (Kan.) Community College. If he transitions well to Texas Tech, and helps ease the loss of Toddrick Gotcher and Devaugntah Williams, the Red Raiders should be back in the NCAA Tournament.

original-double-t RRS’s Will McKay has a good Q&A with PG Keenan Evans and he talks about the competition thus far, among other things:

“It’s definitely competitive every day, and it’s just pushing us to be better, and we all want to be better for the team. When one person pushes another, it picks everybody up and is raising the level of practice. Even the coaches start coaching better, so it just makes for a greater atmosphere when everybody pushes each other.”

original-double-t Miscellaneous . . . College Basketball Talk has the top 30 dunkers and Zach Smith checks in at #30 . . .

Football

original-double-t The line finally dropped last night, via OddsShark, as Texas opened as a 4 point favorite and dropped to 3.5 within hours.

original-double-t Kingsbury breaks down the touchdown pass from Mahomes to Cantrell.

original-double-tLAJ’s Don Williams and RRS’s Will McKay both recap yesterday’s media availability. Both are terrific recaps. Some highlights . . . Gary Moore and Devin Lauderdale are both still not practicing and this was a “coach’s decision” . . . the Breckyn Hager is non-issue for Kingsbury (as an aside, it was for me too pretty much, just think it was a stupid thing to publicly admit that you want to injure a player, it seems to cross a line of intent vs. playing the game hard and it also wouldn’t surprise me to see Hager still attempt to injure Mahomes) . . . the team needing to get up for the 11:00 am kickoff better than the Wet Virginia game . . . how to bring down D’Onta Foreman . . .

original-double-tLAJ’s Don Williams writes about FB Mason Reed, the former Cisco linebacker and running back, who talked about his options coming out of high school:

“I had several scholarships for D-IIs,” he said, “but when I came up here and visited with these coaches, I saw something in my future with them that I just fell in love with. I felt like I could really work with them and they could work really good with me. Just to come up here has been a dream of mine. I know I don’t have a scholarship yet, but it’s something I’m going to push and work hard every day to get to.”

original-double-t The College Football top 25 was released and your top four are . . .

  1. Alabama
  2. Clemson
  3. Michigan
  4. Texas A&M

The top seven was rounded out by Washington, Ohio State and Louisville. The surprise is TAMU, but as Sports On Earth’s Matt Brown writes, fret not Washington fans, just keep winning. Right after the Texas Tech-TCU game, the Baylor-Texas game was on and Baylor, the lone undefeated team after West Virginia lost at Oklahoma State, lost to the Longhorns, prompting someone to ask me if I was concerned if no Big 12 team would get in the playoff. It was an Aggie who asked me and I could care less who gets in the playoff unless it’s Texas Tech and I’ve got no Big 12 pride.

original-double-t Miscellaneous . . . there is a CBS report that goes into great detail about how the sexual assault scandal at Baylor was far worse that previously reported, including that she could not get police reports, whether it be by Waco P.D. or Baylor P.D. and the former Title IX coordinator says that the problem was institutional . . . Grant Land Gauntlet’s Chris Ross has this week’s Big 12 power rankings . . .

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