Basketball
Beard on Being a Coach. This video from USA Basketball in Houston, Coach Chris Beard delivered a speech about how he relates to players, how he talks to players and how he develops players. This is terrific stuff (@ChrisLevel).
Trae Young Talks Top Six. Texas Tech legacy, Trae Young, son of Rayford Young, talked about his top six teams, which include Kansas, Kentucky, Washington, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech. I think this would be a long-shot for Texas Tech, Trae talks about how he grew up an Oklahoma State fan, but that’s good that Chris Beard and the staff still have a chance.
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Football
All-Time AP College Football Poll. The Associated Press released their all-time AP College Football Poll, essentially an all-time ranking. Ohio State tops the list with Oklahoma second overall (remember, this goes way back, not just recent history). Texas Tech is 58th overall.
Top Offenses. Sports on Earth’s Matt Brown ranks the top offenses and has Texas Tech 8th overall, one spot behind Baylor:
8. Texas Tech. The trend continues in Lubbock: top-25 offense, bottom-25 defense. The Red Raiders do lose three of their four best players on offense — RB DeAndre Washington, WR Jakeem Grant, OT Le’Raven Clark — but Kliff Kingsbury has his quarterback in Patrick Mahomes, a 4,653-yard passer who can also run and is the perfect trigger man for Kingsbury’s spin on the Air Raid offense. Grant’s big-play ability will be missed, but Devin Lauderdale, Ian Sadler and Reginald Davis give Mahomes proven targets, Derrick Willies is a touted juco transfer and Justin Stockton is ready for a breakout at running back. The Red Raiders will be one of the nation’s top scorers again.
We’ve Got to Slow Him Down. Via the Miami Dolphins official site, former Texas Tech footballer Jakeem Grant is making an impact with the Dolphins, with head coach Adam Gase saying that they love his quickness:
“I see a guy that has a skill set that obviously for a slot player we love,” Head Coach Adam Gase said. “We love the quickness, we love the speed. Obviously, he has unique speed. But we’ve just got to keep growing his route tree. He’s got to understand how to use the defender’s leverage against him. I know that’s a new thing for him. He’s got to understand when he can go inside, when he can go outside, versus the guy’s leverage. We’ve got some steps to take with him, but he’s heading in the right direction.”
But this is the money quote:
“I think he’s trying, but at the end of the day the guy’s fast,” Gase said. “We’ve got to slow him down a little bit.”
Miscellaneous. The ESPN Big 12 Blog Bros are ranking the top 25 players and here areplayers 25-21, which don’t have any Red Raiders and neither does 20-16 . . . via the WacoTribune, Baylor OL Rami Hammad has been arrested on felony stalking charges and suspended, if you read the story, it appears that Hammad has some mental and emotional issues he may need to work through . . . in other Baylor news that should not surprise anyone, also via the WacoTribune, no assistant coaches will be made available for the media this fall other than Jim Grobe, not a single one of them other than the head coach.