The Morning Stake | 2019.05.03

Leading Off

Think a Good Thought For Noel Johnson. Via the Abilene Reporter News, former Lady Raider basketballer and current head coach at Midwestern State Noel Johnson has discovered she is now battling ovarian cancer:

Johnson told her team about a week after her diagnosis once a treatment plan was in place. It was an emotional meeting where she related how college athletics has prepared her for this moment.

“The biggest message I want them to understand is the hard times – the good days, the bad days, the blood, sweat and tears – prepare you for this in life,” Johnson said. “I feel like I’m prepared to fight this, and I wanted them to know that I’m fighting for them too.

“They need to know that every step they’re going through in this process of their college career as a student athlete is preparing them to be a mother, for cancer, for a family member that’s sick. Being able to handle those adversities.”

Having cancer naturally has changed Johnson. She’s a little softer in workouts and more honest, too. There isn’t time to sugarcoat anything she sees on the court. But there is plenty of time for hugs, which have been more frequent the past month.

Texas Tech Track and Field

Texas Tech Tennis

Texas Tech Softball

Lady Raider Basketball

Texas Tech Baseball

Texas Tech vs. Oklahoma. The Red Raiders are in Norman for a three-game series, first pitch is at 6:30 this evening and the series thread will go up at noon-ish.

Texas Tech Basketball

Shannon Signs. Congrats to Terrence Shannon, Jr. for signing with the Red Raiders. Shannon was committed since March, but has just now signed with the good guys.

Texas Tech Football

Report – Joe Wallace to Transfer. Yesterday, offensive lineman Gio Pancotti and linebacker Ja’Quay Pough announced they would be transferring with quarterback McLane Carter announcing his intent to transfer in April (that’s three scholarship players I believe) and that we could expect some more transfers with the spring semester close to ending. The fact that there were almost no transfers heading into spring practice is pretty amazing, I don’t recall seeing none in a coaching change, so it’s not surprising to see transfers as the semester ends.

I haven’t seen this reported anywhere else, but the guy that tweeted this covers the Texans and has over 55,000 twitter followers, so you’d expect that there’s be some accuracy there. Anyway, Wilson is reporting that defensive lineman Joe Wallace will transfer.

I wasn’t all too concerned about Carter, Pough, or Pancotti leaving. Sure, they’re depth, but I think there’s plenty of numbers at offensive line and I don’t know that Pough was ever really a replacement level Big 12 player (I thought it was a head-scratcher when he committed and actually signed, which was very late). Wallace is pretty significant, and I’m not too terribly worried about the depth this year because I think there’s some talent at the defensive line that’s pretty good, but next year I think Wallace should have been a starter. Wallace was suspended for most of the spring practices and he was suspended for a year, along with DaLeon Ward for an entire year under Kliff Kingsbury’s tenure.

I do think that it’s odd that Wallace’s transfer isn’t being picked up anywhere else, not that I doubt Wilson’s report, but that others haven’t confirmed or ran with it.

Marshall April Academic All-Raider.

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