The Morning Stake | 2020.02.25

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Lubbock In The Loop. Check out Lubbock In The Loop for all of your weekend plans and activities.
Podcasts. Check out your guys, Spencer and Michael, on 23 Personnel Podcast, a Texas Tech athletics podcast where food and sports clash at the goal line, as well as Keith Patrick and Dinger Derby, the only, yes only, podcast about Texas Tech baseball.

Back for Redemption: Athletes From Hit Netflix Docuseries ‘Cheer’ Ready to Take Texas Tech to Next Victory. Via Texas Tech Today:

But if you watch closely, you’ll see a familiar symbol of another university pop up throughout the series. About seven minutes into the opening episode, it makes its first appearance: the Texas Tech University Double-T. After that first time, it pops up again and again, on clothing, accessories and, finally, on the uniforms of a Texas Tech cheer squad as they perform onscreen for about 30 seconds in the fifth episode.

To those within the world of competitive collegiate cheerleading, the inclusion of the Texas Tech Spirit Program in the docuseries is not much of a surprise. Neither is the fact that three of the cheerleaders featured on the show are now Red Raiders โ€“ Austin Bayles, Brooke Dumas and Mackenzie “Sherbs” Sherburn all made the jump to Lubbock after helping the Navarro squad earn its 14th national championship last April.

“Since Bruce Bills and I have been here, almost 18 years, we’ve been getting students from these two junior colleges,” said Stephanie Rhode, director of the Spirit Program. “I think one of the biggest reasons is because a lot of these students want to have a Power Five college experience after they attend and compete at a junior college. In collegiate cheerleading, the university in Texas that competes at the highest level, Division IA, is Texas Tech. For students coming out of one of these junior colleges, they win there, and then they would like to win at a higher level. That’s us.”

If you haven’t watched the Netflix documentary Cheer, I’d highly recommend watching. This is a series of some really incredible athletes who work incredibly hard to be the best in the nation. Incredibly dedicated athletes.

Texas Tech Volleyball

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Lady Raider Basketball

Texas Tech Baseball

Southern vs. Texas Tech. I don’t have time to do mid-week series thread, so just check back in the Morning Stake for updates. Your starters are LHP Mason Montgomery today and RHP Hunter Dobbins on Wednesday.

Rankings.

Texas Tech Basketball

Texas Tech vs. Oklahoma. The preview and game thread is going up at 10:00 a.m. this morning.

Newcomer of the Week. Jahmi’us Ramsey is the Big 12 Newcomer of the Week!

#22.

Texas Tech Football

Early Power Rankings. LandGrant Gauntlet’s Josh Cowan has way too early Big 12 power rankings and it is probably warranted, but he has Texas Tech 9th:

Are there reasons to see progress in Matt Wellsโ€™ second season in Lubbock? The staff will have its share of veterans to work with, but there are significant obstacles facing the Red Raiders as we head into 2020. Poor performances on defense allowed Texas Tech to give up 538.3 yards per game in Big 12 play, which was worst in the conference last season. A couple of the bright spots on that squad are gone, so Keith Pattersonโ€™s defense will have to improve with standouts like Eli Howard and Adrian Frye coming back.

Quarterback is a bit more of a question mark for the Red Raiders heading into 2020. Alan Bowman has played like a program-changing signal caller at times, but questions about his consistency and his health abound. In addition, Texas Tech is losing a combined 119 career starts among three offensive lineman. Skill players like T.J. Vasher and Taโ€™Zhawn Henry will return, and they should help make the offensive explosive again next season, but the overall question is whether Wellsโ€™ squad can bring it all together for more wins.

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