Leading Off

It’s good to be back. Well, it’s good to be back here as I’m not looking forward to returning to actual work and all of the things that get stacked up when you leave for a week. the trip to the Smokies was really fun. We found a relatively cheap 1-bedroom condo outside of Gatlinburg and it was really terrific. We got to hike 3 days or so, took the kids to the aquarium in Gatlinburg, and split up the trip back home, stopping in New Orleans for the night and then returning home. It was a long trip, a trip made even longer by bathroom breaks and grabbing food and all sorts of things. My wife now realize that a 6 hour trip to Lubbock is nothing. If you want to see some pictures from the trip, I posted some of them on Twitter at SethC_J.

It was a busy week on the athletics front and I am sure that you all have already covered all of this, but this is more for me getting caught up and getting on the same level as you all. As an aside, I didn’t take a look at comments or the blog the entire week that I was out. Sometimes a mental break from that can be good as well. Hollar at me if I need to take care of anything.

• Texas Tech announced their Hall of Fame class for 2018: men’s basketballers Sean Gay and Andre Emmett; Lady Raider Erin Grant; baseballer Jimmy Zachry; and footballer Ed Mooney. I’ve embedded the video below from the announcement with Robert Giovannetti and Rodney Allison.
• I don’t normally remember where Texas Tech is picked in the Big 12 Preseason Coaches Poll, we’ll have to remember to keep this in mind, but Texas Tech is picked to finish 7th, which is probably a step up for them, ahead of Oklahoma and West Virginia. Additionally, senior setter Missy Owens was named as a preseason All Big 12 second team.
• The track and field program announced the return of Zach Glavash to assist Calvin Robinson with the men’s sprints, and this also means that James Thomas is promoted to Associate Head Coach, which is incredibly well deserved.
• A-J Media’s Don Williams notes that running back DeMarcus Felton and linebacker Brayden Stringer have decided to return to the team, but then lost linebacker Kevin Moore, cornerback Jaylon Lane and punter Joh De La Garza. This article also confirms that running back Desmond Nisby and receiver JoJo Robinson are also off the team. And also confirmed are transfers from Oregon State receiver Seth Collins, Rice defensive tackle Preston Gordon and Minnesota defensive back Adam Beck (who will have to sit out a year, but Collins and Gordon are graduate transfers and eligible immediately).
• D1Baseball and BaseballAmerica came out with their final rankings and D1Baseball had Texas Tech at #6 and Baseball America at #5 at the end of the day. That’s a pretty impressive season for a team that lost so much pitching to start the year. If anyone is keeping score, Texas finished #7.
• Zhaire Smith got drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers and I left to go on vacation that next morning, so really wanted to write about what that meant, but I never got around to doing that. One of the things that did happen was that Keenan Evans did not get drafted, which was really disappointing. The good and bad is that Evans signed a two way contract with the Detroit Pistons, which allows a player to play on the Gatorade League and is allowed up to 45 days on the NBA roster. Evans was set to join Golden State’s summer league roster, but this gives Evans some security. Oh, and Tommy Hamilton, IV gets a spot on the Spurs summer league team.
• Texas Tech received the commitment from La Grange kicker Alan Orona (5-11/165), rated the #10 kicker in nation. He’s a left footed kicker, which is pretty interesting.
• Oh, Baylor, former AD Ian McCaw said in a deposition that “Baylor University undertook ‘an elaborate plan that essentially scapegoated black football players and the football program for being responsible for what was a decades-long, universitywide sexual assault scandal,’ according to a motion filed Wednesday in Waco’s U.S. District Court.”: McCaw said Pepper Hamilton attorneys told him there would be three potential outcomes to the investigation Baylor hired them to conduct: a “detailed document,” a “summary report,” or “to whitewash the whole thing.” He said it was ultimately decided that Baylor regent J. Cary Gray would write a “false” and “misleading finding of fact skewed to make the football program look bad and cover up the campus-wide failings.”