Leading Off

Trey Culver and Andrew Hudson received invites to compete at the North American, Central American, and Caribbean Championships, while Odaine Lewis will compete at the Central American and Caribbean Championships (TexasTech). Go Wreck’Em!

Soccer head coach Tom Stone held their first-year player banquet at The Rawls Course on Saturday where he welcomes the freshmen and their families, with their first exhibition game on August 11th. It’s a large group of players (TexasTech):

Stone’s incoming class includes: midfielders Alyssa D’Aloise (Dallas, Texas), Marissa Ling (Mansfield, Texas), Jen Rose (Orange, Calif.) and Michaela Sheehy (Plano, Texas); defenders Cassandra Hiatt (Parker, Colo.) and Sierra Jones (Dallas, Texas); goalkeepers Brecht Haakma (Amsterdam, Netherlands) and Averi Isaacs (Plano, Texas); and forward Charlotte Teeter (Alpharetta, Ga.).

“These girls hail from all over the world,” said Stone. “We’re not afraid to go anywhere to find the right players. I think it takes the right compilation that can complement each other on the field and is willing to buy into our culture off the field to make a great freshman class.”

A fun night at The Rawls to welcome our newest Red Raiders!

📽⬇#WreckEm pic.twitter.com/8ZqLR63n1P

— Texas Tech Soccer (@TexasTechSoccer) July 8, 2018

Texas Tech Baseball

Some good news (finally), which is that pitcher Caleb Kilian did not sign with the Baltimore Orioles on Friday, so he’ll be back with the Red Raiders in 2019, which really helps the pitching staff. I think this sets up for Kilian and John McMillon to be at least two of the three starting pitchers. On to other news, senior infielder Michael Davis official signed with the Minnesota Twins on Friday. If you don’t think these guys do this for the love of the game . . . Davis signed for a $1,000 signing bonus.

And what keeps the machine going is guys like Grant Little raking for the Tri-City Dust Devils (which is in Pasco, Washington) where he’s hitting .389 thus far (Tri-CityHerald).

Texas Tech Basketball

“The secret is in the dirt.” That’s a phrase that I would do this big expose on, but from what I can tell this doesn’t have some huge historical meaning. Ben Hogan was known for this statement and that link is to his obituary from the New York Times where it is in the first paragraph (NYTimes). The translation just means that the secret is in the practice range. This saying received a bit of a renaissance from Jason Witten’s retirement, where he said the same thing (FootballScoop):

‘The secret is in the dirt.’ I learned early on in my life through many challenges that I could change my circumstances with hard work, but I would have to be willing to go out and earn it. The sheer concentration that is required to pursue a dream, it’s not for everyone, but it was for me. I yearned for the daily grind, and I couldn’t get enough of it.”

Who is ready to go run through a wall?

Texas Tech Football

Basically Vegas thinks that Texas Tech is the 8th best team in the Big 12, which is pretty much in line with what everyone else thinks.

Odds to win Big 12 via @LVSuperBook:

Oklahoma 5/7
Texas 5/2
TCU 6/1
Oklahoma State, West Virginia 8/1
Iowa State, Kansas State 25/1
Texas Tech 40/1
Baylor 80/1
Kansas 100/1

— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) July 8, 2018

Very neat opportunity for Dominic Panazzolo who was able to participate in an internship as part of the J.T. and Margaret Talkington Leadership Academy, going to Baltimore, Maryland and the Under ARmour corporate offices (TexasTech):

Panazzolo, who enters his senior season as Texas Tech’s primary punter, was one of 17 student-athletes from across Under Armour’s network of collegiate partners to travel to Baltimore for the sports marketing internship.

While Panazzolo, a marketing major, may have been familiar with Under Armour’s products after a year as a Red Raider, he quickly learned of the prep work that goes into developing each new line of clothing.

“It was amazing how much pre-planning they do,” he said. “They showed us products that are coming out in 2020. That’s how far ahead they are in their planning. It was really impressive how they thought that far ahead.”