The Morning Stake is brought to you by DiamondStuds4Less.com. Enter promotional code RedRaider15 for 15% off your diamond jewelry purchase, including custom orders.
Briefly
We’re going to try something new and see how it works out.
Lady Raider Grayson Bright announced that she would be transferring from Texas Tech (via Twitter. This comes one day after Texas Tech hired Marlene Stollings as the head coach. Stollings is going to have a ton of work on the roster and she better be ready to rebuild the roster on the fly. As an aside, Stollings will earn $750,000 per year, up to $820,000 if she makes the tournament two times in six years (via Everything Lubbock).
Softball’s Jessica Hartwell was named the national player of the week, the second time that she’s received this honor (official site) and the team dropped their mid-week game against Abilene Christian 11-10 (official site).
The men’s track and field team is ranked 2nd overall and the ladies are ranked in the top 25 (via official site and official site).
Gabby Barker helped the ladies finish third in the Dale McNamara Invitational in Tulsa and Gabby Barker had her third top 10 finish of the year (via official site)
The men’s tennis team is set to play Tulsa in a match today at 5:00 p.m. and there will be a free Texas Tech cup and pizza (official site).
Texas Tech Baseball
Texas Tech fell 6-5 to Dallas Baptist last night (via official site). Texas Tech had a 5-2 lead at one point, but eventually gave it away in the 6th and 8th innings. Jose Quezada took the loss and Zach Rheams continues to rake as he hit a moonshot of a 3-run home run. This drops Texas Tech to 26-8 overall and there are worse things in the world. A-J Media’s Carlos Silva, Jr. reports on the drama that happened in the 8th inning:
“We’ve just got to do a better job in all phases,” said Texas Tech assistant coach Matt Gardner, who was made available for postgame comments due to head coach Tim Tadlock being ejected in the eighth inning. “Give them credit. They chipped away at us. They put some balls in play, got guys on base and got some big hits when they needed to. … We had a chance to keep it tied late, but just weren’t able to execute on some pitches. It’s the game of baseball. We just need to play better at the end of the game.”
With the bases loaded, Kurt Wilson appeared to have thrown a strike to make it a 2-2 count against Matt Duce but was denied by the home-plate umpire. Instead, it was a ball and Wilson walked in the Patriots go-ahead run that made the score 6-5 heading into the ninth inning.
To make matters worse, Tadlock was thrown out arguing balls and strikes. It marked the first time Tadlock was ejected from a game since last season at New Mexico.
Texas Tech Basketball
Texas Tech made it official and named Brian Burg as the new assistant coach replacing Chris Ogden who was named as the head coac at UT-Arlington (via official site).
Graduate transfer South Dakota guard Matt Mooney sounds like he’s very interested in Texas Tech and Chris Beard (via 24/7 Sports’ Evan Daniels):
In terms of Mooney’s meetings this week, it sounds like Texas Tech coach Chris Beard left a lasting impression on him.
“Honestly their head coach reminded me a lot of my previous head coach Craig Smith,” Mooney said. “In a lot of ways, they are different, but similar. He was able to get me to believe in him and what he has going on there. I feel like he believes in me and my game and I feel like they are building something special.”
Mooney said that he would for sure set up a visit at Texas Tech and also possibly Wichita State, Arizona State, Northwestern and Oregon. Mooney averaged 18.7 points a game last year and would be a huge boost to the offense.
Federal prosecutors have handed down additional criminal counts in the federal investigation involving Adidas james Gatto and now include families being paid that went to Kansas and NC State (both Adidas schools). The new charges stem from possible payments made to Silvio De Sousa, who was a freshman last year that played just a little through the year. Again, this doesn’t mean that Kansas was aware of the payments, for all they knew, they were happening outside of their scope (via ESPN).
Texas Tech Football
Sights and sounds with the offensive line.
Taylor Peters talks with freshman defensive back Adrian Frye, who played really well at the Frisco scrimmage.
A-J Media’s Don Williams has more on Frye, who Kingsbury has said has been really good this spring:
“He’s a talented athlete and he takes coaching very well,” Kingsbury said. “Whatever they tell him to do … (If) he messes something up one time, he doesn’t make the same mistake twice.
“You watch him try to play the proper technique every single rep. His alignments, every single rep doing the right thing. You put that together with his athleticism and his attitude and it’s kind of the blueprint for a good player.”
In things that will make you feel old, Lloyd Hill’s son, Keanu Hill, was in town on a visit and Keanu plays receiver for Euless Trinity (via Twitter).
Dalton Rigdon and Tyler Carr are getting a lot of love during the spring practices (watch the video to see how much Kingsbury hypes it up with Rigdon).
Here is @TexasTechFB coach Kliff Kingsbury talking on Perryton’s @D_Rig08 and Canadian’s @tyler__carr after practice.
Also, hear from @D_Rig08 & @tyler__carr on their progression #Big12 #wreckem #texastech #texaspanhandle pic.twitter.com/M4y5JwRArH— Kale Steed (@KaleSteed) April 10, 2018