The Morning Stake | 2020.03.11

Leading Off

HEY YA!
Email me! Let’s Discuss Advertising Too!
Follow us on Twitter!
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.

5,000 Year-Old Anatolian Sword Discovered On Venetian Island. Via Ancient Origins:

A historian has discovered one of the oldest Anatolian swords in existence in a monastery’s cabinet of ancient curiosities.

San Lazzaro degli Armeni, or Saint Lazarus Island, is a small islet in the Venetian Lagoon located 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) to the southeast of Venice and it covers an area of about 7.4 acres (3 hectares). First settled in the 9th century, the island was a leper colony during the Middle Ages and in 1717 AD Venice signed the island over to Mkhitar Sebastatsi, an Armenian Catholic monk who opened the Mekhitarist Monastery.

Now recognized as the most important site of the Armenian diaspora , communities of Armenians outside Armenia where they are considered an indigenous population , the monastery holds 3,000 Armenian manuscripts representing the third largest collection in the world. The monastery also contains a large collection of books, journals, and artifacts, and it was in this collection that Dr. Vittoria Dall ’Armellina, of the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice , discovered the deeply-ancient sword in a cabinet of medieval artifacts.

Texas Tech Volleyball

Texas Tech Tennis

Texas Tech Softball

Lady Raider Basketball

Texas Tech Baseball

Mississippi State 6, Texas Tech 3. The series thread has been updated with the loss. The offense only managed 3 hits for the game. I didn’t get to follow the game very closely (really at all) so I’m sure you all will have more comments than myself.

Texas Tech Basketball

Texas Tech Football

Media Availability.

RedRaiderSports’ Brandon Soliz and Avalanche-Journal’s Don Williams recap the media availability embedded above and the main portion of the video focuses on the T.J. Vasher getting back on track and then also discusses the early enrollees. Here are some highlights (quotes are from the Soliz article):

  • On T.J. Vasher maturing over the past three months:

    “Really proud of TJ the last three months. He has I think just you know he’s changed focus in terms of his priorities,” Wells said. “When I say that I mean my daily routine my habits matching up with my goals and my dreams. What you got now is he’s gained 15 pounds. He weighs 216 right now. Coach thinks he’ll have him up over 220 by the summer. The way he comes into the building – he’s ready to go. This is a TJ Vasher I think at this point right now just say at this point that we all want right now and he’s really working on his game. I think he has a chance to if he stays focused and does what he needs to do he’ll have a really good senior year.”

  • Wells also commented heavily on the new enrollees, which includes Devin Drew, Krishon Merriweather, Brandon Randle-Bouyer, and Ja’Lynn Polk:

    “Devin Drew, still you know he’s big and strong,” Wells said. “He’s going to add depth to our d-line. Has a long ways to go. Krishon Merriweather has hit the ground running, literally and figuratively. The guy can flat run. You know the first two days, he took two steps forward, he took two steps back and he didn’t even move out of that spot and he still outran guys to the ball now. He’s really cleared his cleats and you can tell he’s really taking coaching and he made a couple of really nice plays late in this practice today. Krishon is going to be a really, really good addition. Brandon Randle is limited right now and I mentioned that because of a shoulder surgery he had last fall. Ja’Lynn Polk, I’ve talked about him. Came in 180 pounds January 15th and weighs 196 today and he’s really done a lot of good work. He’s bought into the nutrition plan and eating right, lifting. It’s important to him. He flashes. He’s going with the twos at times – twos and threes kind of mixed there but when he gets out there he doesn’t stand out like a freshman that doesn’t know what he’s doing. I think he’s got, obviously, a very bright future.”

  • Wells also said that offensive lineman Ethan Carde is not as far along as Merriweather.
  • Wells is also asked about recruiting to Lubbock and the handful of precruits that were in Lubbock over the weekend. Wells is a proponent of getting players on campus as much as possible and he feels like that’s happening (I don’t follow enough to know if this is true, but it did appear that there werea lot of recruits that were on campus).
  • Tight end Simon Gonzalez is suspended indefinitely, still in school and there’s a chance for him to return, but right now he’s suspended indefinitely. That means that there is just one tight end on the team, Travis Koontz.
  • Linebacker Brayden Stringer is no longer on the team and it would not surprise me if he’s a graduate transfer and enters the transfer portal to play immediately.
  • This Thursday’s practice will be a scrimmage.
Back To Top