The Morning Stake: March 8th

Golf

Softball

Tennis

Track and Field

Baseball

Well, Texas Tech dismantled #1 Arizona last night, 13-1. John Henry Gonzalez got the start, going 3.2 innings and allowing 2 hits, a run, 5 walks and striking out 4, while Jacob Patterson came in and earned the win, 3-0 on the year, with 1.1 inning of 1 hit ball. Erikson Lanning went the next 3 innings scattering 5 hits, while Caleb Freeman pitched the final frame. Freshman catcher Michael Berglund went 3-4 with 2 RBI, while Cameron Warren went 2-4 with 3 RBI, Connor Beck went 1-3 with 2 RBI and Hunter Hargrove went 2-4, scoring 3 runs and Tanner Gardner went 2-3, with 2 walks, also scoring 3 runs.

So, 13 runs on the #1 team in the nation. I’ve got no idea how good this team is, but it seems like they’re pretty good. Pretty good. Oh, and the uniforms were absolutely incredible last night.

Red Raider Basketball

LAJ’s Krista Pirtle writes about how Texas Tech cannot overlook Texas in the Big 12 Tournament:

“They’re trying to get better for next year and just get better in general,” Evans said. “They have a point to prove. They’re trying to go on a run as well.

It’s only been a week since the Red Raiders and Longhorns battled in Lubbock. Tech won that one 67-57 behind double digit efforts by Evans, Justin Gray and Aaron Ross. Earlier in the regular season, the Longhorns held on in Austin for a four-point victory.

And congrats to Pirtle for moving on to the Waco Tribune. Pirtle was a Baylor graduate and she’s going home, so good for her.

Football

Get to know offensive line coach Brandon Jones:

Buy your very own Staking The Plains t-shirt at the Staking The Plains Threadless Shop. Click on that danged shirt.

Gridiron Now’s David Ubben ranks the receivers and has the Texas Tech group at #4 in the Big 12:

The skinny: Tech’s receivers’ numbers were inflated last season because of a pass-heavy offense and a stud behind center in Pat Mahomes. Tech threw the ball 653 times with an NFL first-round pick last year. We’ll get a better feel for this unit on its own this year. Jonathan Giles has the second-most receiving yards (1,158) of any returning Big 12 receiver and the most touchdowns (13). Keke Coutee and Cameron Batson give this group great balance, and Dylan Cantrell is a big body (6 feet 3, 210 pounds) who can be valuable in the red zone. Coaches still are waiting for JC transfer Derrick Willies to click, and inside receiver Ian Sadler had to give up football because of knee injuries.

FOX Sports’ Bruce Feldman writes about what some scouts said about the quarterbacks, mostly liking Deshaun Watson quite a bit, but some thoughts on Patrick Mahomes and Davis Webb:

The rest of the top QB prospects were more of a mixed bag: Two of the quarterback coaches we spoke to were skeptical that Texas Tech’s Patrick Mahomes would blossom into an NFL starter. “There is so much film of him missing guys wide open. I mean WIDE OPEN. He’s going to need a lot of reps to refine himself.”

The other former Texas Tech quarterback Davis Webb, who ended his career at Cal, was reviewed more favorably. “He has really good size and is smart and he throws it well vertically. I like him.”

I’d caution you about two things: 1) Mahomes did miss open receivers, but that’s sorta the boom or bust aspect with Mahomes, whereas some other players sometimes just don’t take any risks; and 2) sometimes scouts say things to throw teams off of players and just as an example, Mahomes completed 65.7% of his passes for 8.5 yards per attempt and Webb only completed 61.6% of his passes for 6.9 yards per attempt. Errbody just calm down.

Miscellaneous . . .

  • ESPN’s Jake Trotter has a nice story on the coaching brothers of the Big 12, which includes Zac Spavital and Jake Spavital, Garrett Riley and Lincoln Riley and Mike and Cale Gundy.
  • SI’s Richard Deistch reports that ESPN will be laying off some of the on-screen or talent side of ESPN. And as some of you may probably know, I don’t link to Clay Travis on STP because I simply don’t like him and would note that Awful Announcing’s Ben Koo dissects a lot of Travis’ arguments when he essentially says that ESPN is doomed to fail. I know a lot of you don’t like ESPN for the Leach stuff, but that’s never bothered me because I use ESPN only for watching games. I haven’t watched any of the commentary shows in 4 or 5 years, including college football’s Game Day. I haven’t missed it at all.
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