The Morning Stake | 2017.11.10

Texas Tech Cross Country

Texas Tech Volleyball

Lady Raider Basketball

Texas Tech Baseball

Texas Tech Basketball

A-J Media’s Carlos Silva, Jr. writes about hwo Teas Tech is wary of a talented South Alabama team (they really aren’t that talented tbh, but the Texas Tech players and coaches are being really nice):

“South Alabama has got really good players,” Beard said. “They’ve got returners, they’ve got experienced players, they’ve got transfers and they’ve got some great perimeter players. The three-point shot is a concern of ours, containing their penetration is a concern of ours, they’ve also got a great frontline this year with some real size including a 6-10, 300-pound transfer from Pittsburgh. We have all sorts of concerns defensively.”

Texas Tech Football

I wasn’t sure where to put this, so I’ve put it under football. A-J Media’s Don Williams writes about the many capital improvements being made to the athletic department, the Campaign for Fearless Champions has raised $140 million and funded 22 of 25 projects with the last project being the south end zone project that does not have a date.

Taking on the debt’s not a bad thing. Tech’s reward for all that money spent and all that building is a sports program in much better position to compete and contend across the board. As I pointed out a while back, Tech had four teams this spring ranked in the top 10 nationally. And the investment’s put Tech in the best position possible to remain a viable player for the next round of conference shakeups.

“It is what it is, and there’s no second-guessing at all,” Kirby Hocutt said in an interview last year. “We’re fortunate to have the athletic facilities we have, and if we didn’t have them today, we would be taking on the debt to build them today. The fact that we really start seeing significant relief from our debt in 2026, the day’s coming that a lot of those facilities are going to be paid off.”

Some 20-plus years ago, around the time the university joined the Big 12 as a charter member, Tech had stayed in the big time but the work was just beginning. The university faced a choice: To make the investment necessary to stay in one of the nation’s marquee conferences or risk slipping back somewhere down the road.

I don’t think that Don’s complaining here, in fact I think he’s acknowleding that the Campaign for Fearless Champions is a good thing because it is not adding to the debt service of $11 million per year, all projects must be paid for before breaking ground.

Miscellaneous . . . Waco Tribune’s John Werner looks at the match-ups between Baylor and Texas Tech, while Werner also writes about Baylor will have trouble stopping Texas Tech’s offense . . . Heartland College Sports Pete Mundo previews Baylor vs. Texas Tech and predicts a Baylor win . . . the ESPN Big 12 blog picks this week’s games as Jake Trotter picks Texas Tech and Sam Khan, Jr. picks Baylor . . .

Back To Top