On the Court (Volleyball)
Texas Tech volleyball fell to No. 8 Kansas 1-3 last night and to even get a set is pretty good. They’ll play UCF on Saturday.
On the Course
Texas Tech cross-country is set for the Big 12 Championships for Friday in Waco at Cottonwood Creek Golf Course.
On the Diamond
Team Black took down Team Red 12-10 yesterday and I liked the recap from Jamie Lent:
Freshman Will Jordan came on in relief in the 7th inning and recorded the final eight outs to pick up the win in his first public appearance as a Red Raider. The right hander from from Weatherford faced the minimum eight batters to finish off the final two and a third innings. In a very offensive game, Jordan was the only one of nine pitchers used that did not allow a run.
The game featured many offensive stars from both teams. Outfielder Logan Hughes had the biggest day at the plate going 3 for 5 with a Grand Slam and a pair of doubles. The Sophomore transfer from Stetson drove in six runs paced by his bases loaded round tripper in the 4th. Also on the Red team, 1st baseman Hudson Parker picked up three hits including a double, 2nd baseman Damian Bravo recorded two singles in six ABs, and 3rd baseman T.J. Pompey homered and tripled while driving in a couple of runs. For the Black team, catcher Dylan Maxcey racked up three singles and drove in three, 2nd baseman Antonelli Savattere had a double and a triple as a part of his three hit day, right fielder Garet Boehm doubled and singled twice, and left fielder Dominic Archilla singled twice and knocked in a pair.
On the Court (Basketball)
CBS Sports’ Isaac Trotter groups teams into tiers who are national championship contenders with Texas Tech in the 2nd tier (fair):
Texas Tech
The scoop: Texas Tech can play so many different ways offensively and defensively. Elijah Hawkins is a dynamic, set-the-table point guard who can throw pinpoint lobs to leapers or snipers. Texas Tech has both of them in spades. Chance McMillian, Darrion Williams and Kerwin Walton are catch-and-shoot, net-shredders. JT Toppin, Federiko Federiko and Devan Cambridge can go up and get ’em.
Texas Tech freshman Christian Anderson Jr. has also impressed in preseason workouts, and Drake transfer Kevin Overton is a nasty point-of-attack defender who can help insulate some of Hawkins’ limitations on that end. Texas Tech can play big or play small and that’s invaluable when you sometimes need six different gameplans to win six different games in March. The Big 12 is loaded but Texas Tech is stacked.
CBS Sports’ Isaac Trotter also ranks the top 101 transfers and TJ Toppin and Elijah Hawkins both make the list.
On the Gridiron
ESPN’s Max Olson on the controversy regarding Texas Tech’s helmet communications not being encrypted and being available to anyone with a scanner:
Texas Tech has requested a report from the Big 12 on its recent games against TCU and Baylor to ensure the integrity of the games were not compromised, and the conference is accommodating that request.
“We’ve got to have a game whose integrity is not questionable in any way on a Saturday afternoon,” Hocutt told ESPN. “We owe it to the 120 young men on our football team to ensure that happens, that it’s a game of fair competition and the same set of rules are enforced.”
/snip/
The frequency does not broadcast all headset communications between coaches, which would be invaluable, but merely what one coach says to one player on the field — typically a quarterback on offense and a linebacker on defense — and only when the coach is holding the button to speak to them before communication is cut off 15 seconds before the snap.
An opponent tuned into that frequency would also need to know how to decode their playcalls and effectively communicate adjustments to their own team before the snap, a much more challenging task than sideline signal stealing.
“There’s no real advantage,” one Big 12 chief of staff argued. “One, you’re speaking a different language. Two, if you think you’d be able to enact in real time what they say and try to do it on the field, you’re delusional. You’re just being your stereotypical paranoid football coach. You can’t relay it to the kids fast enough.”
Lubbock Avalanche-Journal’s Don Williams has quotes:
“Us requesting this is part of the league’s sportsmanship policy,” Giovannetti said. “If you bring a concern to the league, they’ll do a review and provide a report of their findings. …
“I think finding out when schools knew about it, when they knew about the vulnerability would be important to know. We’re not making any charges. Again, Kirby has stressed he just wants to make sure the integrity of the games was not compromised.”
According to ESPN, the GSC system vulnerability was discovered by a frequency coordinator setting up for the Sept. 28 Texas A&M-Arkansas game at AT&T Stadium in Arlington. The coordinator notified the Southeastern Conference of his findings, as well as Baylor and TCU, who forwarded the information to the conference.
“The vulnerability,” Giovannetti said, “is not a new vulnerability.”
I don’t know what to necessarily make of this. The quotes from Gio seem to indicate that they aren’t necessarily saying anything, but they are saying something was possibly happening and I know that the thought is that TCU and Baylor have never been above cheating, but I don’t know.