Leading Off
Sports Illustrated Sold. Via AwfulAnnouncing’s Ben Koo details the sale of Sports Illustrated to Authenticated Brands Group, which is a group of companies that highlights certain brands that ABG owns, which means that the Sports Illustrated that I grew up absolutely loving may not be long for this world. There was a point in time where I would rip out college football and basketball stories and putting them in a notebook so I could go back and look at them. I still think there’s a ton of very talented writers for SI that I enjoy reading so it will be interesting to see how things change.
Texas Tech Tennis
🏆 ITA All-American
🏆 Big 12 Player of the Year
🏆 ITA Texas Region Senior of the Year
🏆ITA Texas Region Most Improved Senior
🏆 All-Big 12 First Team
🏆 First Lady Raider to advance to the Elite 8 in school historyThat’s one way to end your collegiate career, @city_maltby pic.twitter.com/0Ao2WkuPU2
— Texas Tech Women’s Tennis (@TexasTechWTEN) May 28, 2019
Texas Tech Baseball
Sold Out. Completely sold out and I don’t know if non-donor folks had an opportunity to even buy tickets.
The best fans in the country!
Head to the link for info on student tickets & more.
đź“°: https://t.co/LBk6BAo434
🔴#WreckEm⚫️ pic.twitter.com/4Z0iQXOgdN
— Texas Tech Baseball (@TTU_Baseball) May 29, 2019
Texas Tech Basketball
Right There. Dallas Morning News’ Chuck Carlton has a nice article on Chris Beard, who have started their Big 12 meetings in Irving, and Beard said that it’s not good enough to just get there:
“I think I may have screwed myself over the years,” Beard said after the first day of Big 12 spring meetings in Irving. “I always talked about trying to get to that Monday night game. I should have been saying I wanted to win it.”
Doing What He Does. Rivals’ Eric Bossi writes about the addition of Joel Ntambwe, and there may be more to the story:
Sure, the level of success that the Red Raiders have been achieving has allowed Beard and his staff to jump on more highly-regarded high school players. Five-star Jahmius Ramsey and a top-15 class filled with nationally-ranked players is illustrative of that. But, at the core are defense, tough athletes, player development and making excellent use of the transfer market.
Beard was true to his roots again over the weekend when he landed a potential big-time transfer in UNLV freshman Joel Ntambwe. Ntambwe is athletic, tough and can be played as a big wing or a small ball four man. After sitting out a transfer year, he figures to be a major part of what is going on in Lubbock. An added bonus of landing Ntambwe that can’t be overlooked? His younger brother Jonathan Kuminga is a top three prospect in the class of 2021 who is making a strong case to move to No. 1. Think he won’t take notice of the Red Raiders if his older brother has a good experience?
Mock. As the NBA Draft gets closer we continue to mock. CBS Sports’ Gary Parrish thinks that Jarrett Culver goes to Cavs:
Culver projects as the second straight sub-100 high school prospect to develop into a top-20 pick within two years of enrolling at Texas Tech, which speaks volumes about the development happening inside Chris Beard’s program. The 6-6 sophomore averaged 18.5 points, 6.4 rebounds and 3.7 assists in 32.5 minutes per game this season while leading Texas Tech to the title game of the NCAA Tournament. Yes, he was outplayed by De’Andre Hunter in that title game — but that shouldn’t keep Culver from dropping too far below Hunter in this draft.
Texas Tech Football
Underrated. Texas Football’s Shehan Jeyarajah writes about five Texas college players who are probably underrated and DE Eli Howard gets a nod:
Howard’s 3.5 sacks and 37 tackles are a respectable number, but neither does much to show just how impactful he is in the Texas Tech front seven. He was credited with a quarterback hurry in seven games, but made his presence felt in all 12. It’s fitting that the walk-on – who started graduate work at Tech with three years of eligibility remaining – continues to change games in ways that don’t appear in the box score.