Admin Stuff

Hey gang! I’ll try to make this short and sweet. For the next week, I’m hanging out my “Buy Me a Coffee” badge to help defray some of the costs to running Staking the Plains. Just to give you an idea, there’s an annual fee to keep the website name, maybe $20, it’s $35 per month for hosting and for you all not to have ads on the Disqus comments. It’s an additional $325 a year to run this security thing called Sucuri to make sure you are safe on this site and then there is the early mornings, late evenings, and other times to keep this going. The question why I’m keeping this going is one that I ask myself, maybe I like the early mornings and this is more productive than reading the news and maybe this site (sometimes) is better for everyone’s mental health.

If you can give, that’s great and it is greatly appreciated. If you cannot, that’s fine too. I’ll still be around for the next year and maybe more. I hate to extend myself beyond a year from now because things change. Staking the Plains won’t ever charge for you to read my grammatical mistakes and errors when I post the wrong times to games, but I also won’t charge for the previews to games, post-game thoughts, and so much more. We’re all just having fun and this is my hobby. As an aside, I have signed Youssouf up for the 7th grade camp at Texas Tech so I’ll be able to give you all an exclusive look at what that looks like. The camp is on June 19th and maybe I’ll see you all there.

I hope you all continue to enjoy Staking the Plains (including yesterday’s post where Big 12 coaches dish on each other, including Texas Tech) and I appreciate and love each and every one of you. No cap.

Rest In Peace Jim Reed

Former Texas Tech basketballer Jim Reed passed away at the age of 90. Reed averaged a double-double for his career, 16 points and 14 boards a game for Texas Tech, becoming Texas Tech’s first AP All-American:

Reed averaged a double-double in all four seasons he played at Texas Tech, is the all-time program leader in total rebounds, was named Tech’s first Associated Press All-America selection and earned Border Conference Player of the Year (1955-56) during his career. A Pine Bluff, Arkansas native, he helped lead Tech to Border Conference championships in 1954, 1955 and 1956 and is a member of the Texas Tech Hall of Fame.

Reed averaged 14.03 rebounds per game which ranks second all-time in program history, including securing a career-high 16.28 as a junior for the Red Raiders. He owns the single-game record with 27 rebounds in games against Texas and Eastern New Mexico and would have six games with 20 or more rebounds in his career. A 6-foot-4 forward, Reed averaged 22.3 points per game as a junior and 20.9 in his senior season. He averaged 17.8 points per game in his career which is 10th in program history in scoring after leading the team all four years he was with the program. He would average 13.46 rebounds per game as a freshman in the 1952-53 season and had 22.3 points and 16.28 rebounds per game as a junior.

Big 12

CBS Sports’ Shehan Jeyarajah recaps the Big 12 Spring Meetings as the Big 12 members (and the rest of college football) figure out what will be happening with the House vs. NCAA settlement. You can read the whole thing, but this was maybe the key for me, which is the SEC is attempting to perhaps skirt (pun intended) Title IX obligations to give 90% of the settlement to football and basketball:

Yahoo Sports reports that some SEC presidents believe they could use the payout terms of the settlement as a guideline to skirt Title IX. Early reports claim that as much as 90% of the settlement payouts could go to football and men’s basketball players.

Livingstone pushed back on the idea that the settlement could clarify Title IX obligations. For one, the settlement may only be finalized next year, giving schools little time to build a model. Additionally, it’s unclear whether Title IX even applies to settlement back pay in any meaningful way. Ultimately, schools will be unable to fully clarify their revenue-sharing models until all the guidelines are finalized.

“I look at this as a bit of a reset for our industry,” Yormark said. “And we’re prepared for that. The ADs, myself, the board, we’ve been discussing that reset for quite some time, so it’s not coming as a surprise.”

I too would think that to do anything without Title IX consideration would be problematic.

On the Gridiron

Texas Tech announced the times for the first three games:

8/31 vs. Abilene Christian @ 6:30 pm (ESPN+)
9/7 @ Washington State @ 9:00 pm (FOX Sports)
9/14 vs. North Texas @ 11:00 am (FOX Sports 1)

Via Red Raider Sports’ Ben Golan, Texas Tech received a commitment for the 2025 class from Missouri City cornerback Gil Jackson (Rivals | 24/7 Sports | On3). Gil had offers from UTSA, Arkansas State, Vanderbilt, and Army to name a few.

“It really just felt right. Like how I said they made me feel like family, they made me feel included and like they showed their interest. So why wait when they showed their interest and they’re showing that they want me. That’s the school that I would wanna go to so there’s no reason to wait.”

Legs for days. Much like the article quoted below, Texas Tech appears to be out in front of everyone else or on a completely different path. He’s got the physical attributes.

The Athletic ($) takes a look at Big 12 recruiting and here’s Texas Tech:

Texas Tech
National rank: 21
Conference rank: 3
Number of commits: 11
Average player rating: 87.57
The Red Raiders have recruited well in the Joey McGuire era, signing the top Big 12 class in 2024 and the second-highest among remaining Big 12 schools in 2023 (fourth overall behind Texas, Oklahoma and TCU). This year’s strategy is no different from their previous one: find raw athletes with great track metrics and bet on developing them. Even though Tech’s three highest-rated commits — four-star quarterback Lloyd Jones, four-star wide receiver Tristian Gentry and three-star athlete Preztynn Harrison — have only one combined Power 5 offer among them, the Red Raiders still rank fifth in the conference in average player rating. Texas Tech has a handful of four-stars visiting in June: cornerback Micah Strickland, athlete Kelshaun Johnson and defensive lineman Smith Orogbo.

On the Diamond

Lubbock Avalanche-Journal’s Don Williams wrote about the idea of a new stadium, but the quotes from this article are from February and not current, so this is a bit difficult. Texas Tech baseball head coach Tim Tadlock says that a new stadium isn’t necessary and when the time is right, the time will be right. Again, this was from February, not after the season and I’d guess that Tadlock’s thoughts are still the same. This is a difficult situation and one where I am hopeful that changes are made, whether that be a talent infusion or taking a look at the coaching staff. I’m never in favor of people losing their jobs, but things do need to change and this program needs to get back to Omaha or at the very least the College World Series field. I also think that this hits no one harder than Tadlock himself.