The Morning Stake | 2018.01.17

Texas Tech Track and Field

Lady Raider Basketball

Texas Tech Basketball

Turning It Around. NCAA’s Joe Boozell writes about turning around a college program and they include Ohio State, TCU, Texas Tech and Arizona State. Here’s some of the bit on Texas Tech:

Former coach Tubby Smith deserves credit here, too. He took over a program that won a total of 19 games in the two seasons prior to his arrival. Smith reached the dance in his third year before bolting to Memphis.

But Texas Tech has 15 wins on Jan. 16. Between 2010 and 2015, the Red Raiders never won 15 games in a season. Veterans have improved over Beard, and his recruits have flourished. He was a home run hire for Texas Tech.

Miscellaneous. Everything Lubbock’s Ballie Burmaster has a quick little video on freshmen Jarrett Culver and Zhaire Smith . . . Oklahoma lost to Kansas State in Manhattan by double-digits last night and the night before Kansas came back from double-digits against West Virginia and won easily in the second half . . .

Texas Tech Baseball

Preseason Poll. D1Baseball released their preseason top 25 and your Texas Tech Red Raiders are #3 in the nation. The rest of the Big 12 shakes out with TCU at #7, Texas at #21, and West Virginia at #22.

Texas Tech Football

Picone to Abilene Christian. Johnathan Picone announced on Twitter that he would be transferring to Abilene Christian. God speed and good luck!

Johnson Has Preferred Walk-On. InsideTheRedRaiders’ Zach Tanner reports that Texas Tech has a preferred walk-on at running back, Andre Johnson:

“I had offers from Air Force and Tulane my junior year. I played the first two quarters of my first senior game with 14 carries for 124 yards and two touchdowns. When I came back in the third quarter, I tore my ACL. I rehabbed that same season, came back, and felt even stronger. But the schools I had offers from took them away because I got hurt, and schools that were talking to me stopped – TCU, Baylor, Boise State, Northwestern, etc. I went JUCO because I wasn’t going D2, I believed in myself.”

Last week, his father favorited the STP running back eligibility chart and I thought that was odd and a coincidence. Well, that’s no longer a coincidence. Johnson was at Cisco last year and here we are.

Miscellaneous. Oklahoma AD Joe Castiglione is set to join the CFB selection committee as the Big 12 representative, that will work out great when Texas Tech makes the playoff . . .

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