Texas Tech Tennis

Women’s Tennis earns No. 7 USTA Ranking, No. 8 #OracleITARanking in the latest polls

📝⬇️ https://t.co/er2ktMe5Pl

— Texas Tech Tennis (@TexasTechTennis) January 31, 2018

Your Red Raiders stay at No. 25 for this week’s @ITA_Tennis rankings. #WreckEm pic.twitter.com/17S3oOC1DZ

— Texas Tech Tennis (@TexasTechTennis) January 31, 2018

Lady Raider Basketball

Lady Raider Basketball extends our deepest sympathies to all who loved Briella. We are grateful for her beautiful life and how she impacted all of us. #RIPBriella #BriellaStrong pic.twitter.com/bqa4o9ZeyO

— Lady Raider WBB (@LadyRaiderWBB) January 31, 2018

Texas Tech Baseball

Big 12 Preview. Baseball America’s Kegan Lowe previews the Big 12 and writes that Texas Tech is the team ot beat, with Steven Gingery the preseason pitcher of the year:

Led by one of the top starting pitching duos in the country in Preseason All-American lefthander Steven Gingery (10-1, 1.58) and righthander Davis Martin (4-2, 3.07), the Red Raiders will look to win their third straight Big 12 Conference title in 2018, just one year after earning a national seed for the second consecutive season. Texas Tech has some holes to fill in its lineup after the departure of veterans such as Big 12 player of the year Hunter Hargrove and Tanner Gardner. But the return of All-Freshmen Grant Little (.335/.405/.476) and Josh Jung (.306/.395/.485) ensures it will still have plenty of offensive firepower.

Make sure and check it out if you’re a fan of the Big 12.

Texas Tech Basketball

Power Rankings. SI has their power rankings and your Red Raiders (before last night’s game) was at #12:

The only Big 12 team to win on the road during the Big 12/SEC Challenge, the Red Raiders are still in the thick of the conference race. The big question though might be whether this team has enough offense to actually win the Big 12. Per kenpom.com, Tech boasts the nation’s third most adjusted efficient defense, but its offense is 55th nationally and ranks ninth out of 10 teams in conference play. The Red Raiders have been held under 1.0 PPP in all three of their Big 12 losses, including by an Iowa State defense that ranks last in the conference in efficiency and 138th nationally. Keenan Evans is a legitimate talent, and sometimes he’s enough to carry the team, but when he’s struggling (like in losses to the Cyclones and Texas) there’s often not a lot of reason for optimism.

Texas Tech Football

South End Zone Plans. A-J Media’s Don Williams talked with Texas Tech athletic director Kirby Hocutt about the plans for the south end zone. Read the whole thing, I can’t summarize all of it. The key takeaway is that Texas Tech is in the beginning sages of a south end zone design and the prior thought that businesses would go there have seemingly gone away. I’ll let you chew on this:

Months ago, Tech determined that the football coaches’ offices located in the Football Training Facility will remain where they are. However, Hocutt floated one new idea.

“We’ve talked about a recruiting space,” he said, “what could be a unique facet of this end zone project that would be used for recruiting meals on Friday nights for football, but also all other sports could utilize. Although our football coaches’ offices would stay at the Football Training Facility building, we’ve talked about some type of recruiting closing room or some type of recruiting space that coach Kingsbury could use over here in this end zone facility. We’ve talked about space that we could use for fundraising purposes.

“All those ideas are on the table.”

I think not utilizing the space for commercial use is a the best news of all and I appreciate how they’ve backed off that initial concept.

Miscellaneous. The Ringer’s Rodger Sherman has a fun article on what we think will be the Patrick Mahomes’ Era in Kansas City, filled with fun highlights from Mahomes short NFL career . . . KC Star’s Blair Kerkhoff on how the Chiefs gave the keys to Patrick Mahomes . . .