Briefly

Congrats to the the ladies golf team and head coach Jojo Robertson for making the NCAA Tournament, as they are headed towards the NCAA Austin Regional on Wednesday (via official site):

“It’s always exciting to hear your name called during the selection show,” Tech head coach JoJo Robertson said. “I’m really proud of the team for their hard work this spring and the improvements they’ve shown. I’m looking forward to the next week of preparation and the chance to do something special in Austin.”

Another congrats to senior Gabriela Talaba for being named the Big 12 Player of the Week (via official site).

A nice feature on the seniors of the women’s tennis team and their group of seniors, Gabriela Talaba, Sarah Dvorak, Sabrina Federici and Katelyn Jackson (via ):

In their four seasons, the Lady Raider seniors have posted 17 wins over Top 25 opponents, 11 of those 17 coming over Top 15. Just last season, Texas Tech defeated No. 3 Pepperdine at the ITA Indoor Nationals, marking a win over the highest ranked opponent in program history.

The men’s golf team finished 7th in the Big 12 Championship at Southern Hills (via official site). This probably wasn’t the finish that they wanted, but their best golfer, Hurly Long, for a good part of the season and this past tournament. Let’s hpe the men get into the NCAA Tournament and Long gets healthy.

Dateline, Nigeria, which is the home country of Texas Tech sprinter Divine Oduduru (via Pulse.NG). This isn’t so much about Texas Tech as it is about Nigeria and how the elite athletes in Africa simply don’t get the care and training that you can at a place like Texas Tech:

He didn’t abruptly become more talented or passionate about sprinting, rather, he has had the benefit of better training, management and a more suitable surroundings that have improved him.

Everything about him seems to have changed; he speaks better, looks healthier and fitter and most importantly, his career is in better shape more than it has ever been.

Oduduru’s progress at Texas Tech highlights the worrying decline of talent development in Nigeria. There are thousands, if not millions of Odudurus out there, passionate and talented just like him who will never get the opportunity to a scholarship in the United States.

Lady Raider Basketball

Lady Raider head coach Marlene Stollings continues to add to her staff has added UT-Rio Grande Valley head coach Larry Tidwell as an assistant coach and chief of staff (via official site). Tidwell is really pretty accomplished in his own right, the winningest coach in Lamar history (128-66) and was 85-75 at UT-Rio Grande Valley (and technically, it was UT-Pan American for the first two years).

And the staff is very much hard at work at recruiting. They’ve got a ton of spots to fill.

We had a chance to catch up with new @LadyRaiderWBB assistant Erin Grant between recruiting trips to discuss her return to Texas Tech. #WreckEm pic.twitter.com/KTaIv9NlRM

— That David Collier (@CollieronTV) April 26, 2018

Texas Tech Baseball

Yesterday’s game against Arkansas was canceled due to continued rain. Up next is TCU on Friday through Sunday in Fort Worth. Should be a terrific weekend in terms of weather.

Texas Tech Basketball

I did get to watch the Elite Eight celebration last night and it was pretty terrific. Chris Beard spoke for the last 30 minutes of so and it was truly something that was pretty special. You do get some insight into what Chris Beard is about. Accountability and holding everyone to the same standards is something that Beard lives and breathes.

Texas Tech Football

The start of the 2018 NFL Draft, the first round only, with the second and third rounds tomorrow and then the rest of the draft is on Saturday. It is not expected that any Red Raiders get drafted today, most likely on Saturday is when players may get picked. Your guy Michael LaBarre has previewed the three likely draft picks, Nic Shimonek, Dylan Cantrell and Keke Coutee. BleacherReports’ Matt Miller has his top overall players, ranking Nic Shimonek as the 19th best quarterback, Keke Coutee as the 16th best receiver, and Dylan Cantrell as the 38th best receiver.