The Morning Stake | 2019.01.11

Leading Off

I mention this in the basketball portion, but the men’s game will be in Austin this weekend and it will only be on LHN, which means you might want to make arrangements if you plan on watching it and you don’t get the LHN.

Texas Tech Track and Field

Please welcome your #1 team in the nation.

And they compete on Saturday in Lubbock.

Texas Tech Tennis

Lady Raider Basketball

Texas Tech Basketball

These are great and the fist bump is pretty terrific.

The best, and only daily ranker of teams, CBS Sports’ Gary Parrish has his top 25 and 1 with Texas Tech at #8 overall heading into their game against Texas on Saturday. Keep in mind that the game will only be aired on LHN and there’s nothing you can do about it. So, if you plan on watching it, you may need to make arrangements and head to a bar on Saturday to watch the game.

Texas Tech Football

I mentioned this yesterday, but Texas Tech head football coach Matt Wells will be traveling through the great state of Texas, 10 locations, this winter and spring.

January 16: Midland/Odessa
February 6: Lubbock
February 13: Dallas
February 18: San Antonio
February 18: Houston
March 2: Ft. Worth
March 4: Austin
March 30: Lubbock
April 5: Midland/Odessa
April 12: Dallas
May 13: Amarillo
May 14: San Angelo
May 14: Abilene

February 6th is National Signing Day, so it makes sense that he’s in Lubbock to have some sort of post-recruiting day event. Same thing for the dates in February in Dallas, San Antonio and Houston. I have no idea what the March date in Austin is, but the Midland/Odessa scrimmage will be on April 5th and the April 12th date is probably the scrimmage in Frisco. I can’t imagine that the actual spring game will be the first one on March 30th in Lubbock, but you never know. And I’d bet the May dates are for no other reason than to visit those communities without agenda.

The Ringer’s Roger Sherman writes about how he hopes that Arizona Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury takes Kyler Murray #1 this year. As an aside, Murray has not officially declared for the NFL Draft, but the A’s apparently expect him to declare, via the San Francisco Chronicle. Sherman writes:

There are a few hitches here. First and foremost, the Cardinals selected a quarterback, Josh Rosen, 10th overall in last year’s NFL draft.

Secondly, I just advised the Cardinals to devote their resources to bringing in top-tier defensive talent. How could I possibly endorse Arizona passing up Nick Bosa, Ed Oliver, and Quinnen Williams, among others, in favor of a quarterback—especially when it already has a young, promising one? The answer goes back to what Schefter discussed in the above clip. The Cardinals should try to trade Rosen in exchange for draft picks. Rosen had a disappointing rookie season, but showed enough promise that he’d likely be able to entice other franchises (is that the Giants’ music?) to give up a war chest of assets to get him. And in the long term, the Cardinals would be better off building around the QB Kingsbury wants rather than committing to the QB who was already there when the coach arrived. Use that newly acquired draft capital to stock up on defense, except for that first pick. Use that on the superstar who can make Kingsbury’s offense fly.

SI’s Albert Breer writes about how the Arizona Cardinals think they hired Sean McVay in Kliff Kingsbury and Kingsbury discusses his relationship with Arizona’s GM, Steve Keim:

“The focus was on Pat, which it should have been,” Kingsbury told me late on Wednesday afternoon. “But talking with Steve, you could just tell, and I’d heard incredible things. I had met him before, but really getting to know him, you could just see his passion for the Cardinals organization and the process. He’s a guy who works his tail off at what he does, and that’s why he’s regarded as one of the best.”

As strong as the impression the Cardinals GM made on the coach, Kingsbury evidently gave Keim just as much to think about as he left town. That’s why this off-the-wall Cardinals hire really has been more than a few weeks in the making. And maybe quietly being proven right on McVay steeled Keim’s resolve to follow his instincts and hire a guy whose record raises lots of legitimate questions.

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