Texas Tech Tennis
6-1 for the Red Raiders after a doubleheader sweep of UTSA and Abilene Christian. #WreckEm
📰▶️https://t.co/Tk5Q4WNOre pic.twitter.com/8r3YvQZ1LH— Texas Tech Tennis (@TexasTechTennis) January 16, 2018
Dvorak, Federici Stay Undefeated in Singles Play After Opening Tournament
📝⬇️ https://t.co/WEH0Sxtiy9
— Texas Tech Tennis (@TexasTechTennis) January 15, 2018
Texas Tech Track and Field
It’s not every day that track & field gets a spot on @SportsCenter. Thanks to Trey Culver, today was one of those days. #WreckEm pic.twitter.com/Ptg3gSxXX1
— TTU Track & Field/XC (@TTU_TF_XC) January 16, 2018
Texas Tech Basketball
Poll Update. The AP Poll and Coaches Poll were released and Texas Tech is at #8 in both polls. This is acceptable to me. NCAA’s Andy Katz has the Red Raiders 5th in the nation in his power poll. CBS Sports’ Jerry Palm has his latest bracketology, which includes six teams from the Big 12, Oklahoma, Kansas, TCU, Texas, Texas Tech, and West Virginia. Oh, and he also has Texas Tech as a #1 seed.
Notebook. A-J Media’s Carlos Silva, Jr. has a notebook from yesterday’s media availability, including life without Zach Smith, Josh Webster’s improved play, and Beard’s comments on the court storming:
“My job is to coach the team, but I will say this and I will say this very confidentially and very firmly,” he said. “We have great fans. I love our fans, I love our student fans, I love our season ticket holders. The message is: we really appreciate your support, your passion. And we want to continue to be enthusiastic about Tech basketball. Also, I have a lot of confidence in our administration in the plans that we have in place. … Things weren’t, I guess, executed perfectly the other day. So we’ll grow. Our university will get better, our department will get better and we’ll try to do a better job.”
Sutton’s Return to College Basketball. Tulsa World’s Bill Haisten writes about the return of Sean Sutton to coaching. Sean was terminated by Oral Roberts recently and Chris Beard then hired Sean as an “advisor to the head coach”. There aren’t any quotes from Sean, but a few from Beard and from Sean’s wife, Trena:
“Sean, simply stated, is impacting winning in our program,” Beard said. “Our players gravitate to him because of his experience as a player and a coach and, even more important, because of the type of person he is. Sean Sutton is a truth-teller. There’s no (bullbleep) to him. He’s very transparent.
“Sean has no ego. I don’t think we would have won as many games as we have if he wasn’t with us.”
This is a good article and interesting how Beard wants to lift up and help his friend. There’s some good mojo working here.
Roberts’ Transfer to Texas Tech. Right after the first of the year, Missour guard CJ Roberts announced he would transfer to Texas Tech and FWST’s Kevin Lonnquist talked with Roberts about why he chose Texas Tech:
“It’s a great opportunity for me to develop my game and be a playmaker,” Roberts said. “I know that Keenan has been doing some great things for them. I hope I have a chance to follow up there.”
Roberts said he and Texas Tech head coach Chris Beard found a connection as Roberts evaluated options. The two have known each other since Roberts emerged as a Division I recruit.
While Roberts said the Missouri coaches helped him improve the mechanics, what has to follow is him being more of a vocal leader on the court. He admits that’s not one of the stronger parts of his game. He understands the pressure on him to deliver.
“Every path is different,” Roberts said. “But there’s pressure on these coaches to win in college. The expectations are really high because of everything that goes into this. It’s a job. This is my job.”