The Morning Stake: 2018.08.01

Leading Off

Plenty of content, but not enough news. I suppose with just a few days remaining before preseason camp starts. I’d imagine that Texas Tech’s media day is going to happen here pretty soon as well. Oh, and it’s officially August.

Texas Tech Basketball

ESPN released their preseason Basketball Power Index and without question, Kansas was the #1 team in the index. The BPI takes into account four different factors: quantity of experience on roster; quality of that experience; recruiting rankings for incoming freshmen, with an extra emphasis on five-stars; coach’s past performance. Texas Tech is ranked 78th, and that’s largely because of the loss of the seniors from last year’s team, but I think that Texas Tech’s team is going to be better than the 78th best team in the nation.

Texas Tech Football

AthlonSports does this every year, which is opposing coaches talk anonymously about opposing teams. That link is to the SEC version as the Big 12 hasn’t been published just yet, but if you want a bit of insight on Ole Miss:

“A.J. Brown might be the best receiver in our league. A physical, tough, catch anything receiver. And he can run. The question is, can (Jordan) Ta’amu get him the ball consistently? I know everyone is talking about the great numbers Ta’amu put up last season when Shea Patterson got hurt. But he wasn’t facing the best defenses in our league. He had a few gimme putts there. I want to see if he can do it when the big boys are on the field.”

“The one place where you’re really going to see the NCAA stuff impact this program is depth. I know people always laugh when we talk about depth, but in this league, you’re in deep trouble without it. They’re just not as deep on the lines of scrimmage as they need to be.”

“I love that defensive front, but if any of those front-line starters get hurt or get tired, who’s next? I think you’re going to see that a lot at various positions.”

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