The Morning Stake | 2020.05.26

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Rest in peace Eddie Sutton. As you may recall, before the game this past year in Stillwater, Texas Tech wore warm-up shirts that said, “Hall of Fame” on the front and head coach Chris Beard was clear that for Sutton not to be in the Basketball Hall of Fame was not the correct outcome (via The Oklahoman):

“One thing’s important is that the forefathers, the ambassadors of our game, the best people that have ever coached our game should be in the Hall of Fame,” Beard said following OSU’s 73-70 upset Saturday afternoon in Gallagher-Iba Arena.

But Beard did not stop there. He delivered a passionate plea for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame to induct Sutton this year, his seventh as a finalist.

“I’m not on that panel and I don’t really have much of a voice,” Beard said, “but you asked the question and I’ll proudly answer it. You know, I think it’s one of the worst things about our game. It’s just wrong that Coach Eddie Sutton’s not in the Basketball Hall of Fame.

“He’s won everywhere he’s been, he’s a gentleman, he’s a coach’s coach, his players went on to graduate and be productive people. Just simply stated, he’s one of the classiest guys I’ve ever known, and he’s a damn-good basketball coach.”

Sutton was announced as a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame on April 4, 2020. Sutton was 84 when he passed away.

SI’s Ross Dellenger has the timeline of when player are set to return to essentially practice:

For example, Oversight Committee members are discussing the potential to grant programs in early July the freedom to resume normal summer activities, referred to as “required” training in which coaches can interact with players. That would lead into a six-week program starting in mid-to-late July that would incorporate two weeks of NFL-style OTA practices before a four-week camp in August. Teams kicking off on Week 0, Aug. 29, would begin OTA practices July 18. For those kicking off on Labor Day, they’d start July 25. OTA-style practices—glorified walk-throughs with a football—would give coaches time with players outside of the film room, at least partially making up for the loss of spring practice. A whopping 52 of 130 FBS programs never started spring practice before the virus froze the nation.

The camp in August is the most essential part of the six-week plan. The proposal requires schools to practice four weeks before their first game. “Six weeks could be optimal, but four could be the minimum,” says Lyons. “Some might just do four, but can’t get back in time to do six. If somebody is not allowed to practice until Aug. 15 and their first game is Sept. 5, they might miss the first two weeks because their state might not allow them to return in time.”

And what happens then? “There is a feeling that we can’t wait for everybody,” Lyons says. “What’s the percentage? That may be left up to conference to conference. If 80% are ready to go, are we going to delay two weeks? The feeling I’m getting out there is, ‘Sorry, we’re starting without you.’ Now, if it’s 40%, I see conferences saying we’re delaying the start of the season by two weeks.”

For reference purposed, the Lyons referenced in the article is Shane Lyons, the athletic director at West Virginia.

I should mention that this all sounds pretty reasonable. With each passing day, I think things progress to the point where a six-week practice period starts in mid-July with a full month of workouts in August. I also think that it will be beneficial for the team to be together that time period. Where they can deal with out-breaks and some of the issues that are inevitable with coming back.

This fits within the timeframe of how the Big 12 has released information regarding allowing student-athletes back on campus. Via NBC Sports, student-athletes will return for voluntary workouts on June 15th.

ZagsBlog’s Adam Zagoria writes about how Texas Tech signee Nimari Burnett is helping recruit 5-star forward Jonathan Kuminga to Texas Tech:

“I’m definitely trying to stay in contact with [Kuminga], knowing that I love to play with good players,” Burnett added. “It has shown over the few years I’ve been on the team. Definitely, if we get him it would be really good for Texas Tech and really good for us as a team to make an even better, longer run in March Madness.”

RedRaiderSports’ Ben Golan talked to former Red Raider footballer Terrence Bullit about his Rowlett 7v7 football program, from 10U to 18U. It’s good that he’s coaching, but in a different and maybe non-traditional way and wants to make his way out to West Texas. I did like how Texas Tech head coach Matt Wells has reached out to Bullitt about coming back on campus:

“I have talked to Matt Wells via social media but not on the phone or in-person yet. He also reached out to me through Twitter and messaged me when to come back, to always come back and they want the alumni to go back. To me that was big because I was thinking ‘who even remembers me?’ and they’re a new coaching staff.”

There’s more there, but Bullitt is also friends with Aaron Burks, who is Texas Tech’s director of player personnel.

NBC Sports’ Rob Dauster has his mock draft, which it is really more of a big board, and he has Jahmi’us Ramsey as the 21st best player in this year’s draft:

I’ve gone through stages with Ramsey. I loved him in high school. I was frustrated by him early on in his college career, as Texas Tech worked through figuring out what the best way to use him is. What they’ve settled on is as a scorer and an elite shot-maker. The big red flag for me is that I expected Ramsey to play the Jarrett Culver-Keenan Evans role for Texas Tech, but he’s not that guy because he is not on their level at creating out of ball-screens or as a passer. Since he is only 6-foot-4, that’s something to monitor in the longterm.

I think there is a lot of room for improvement for Ramsey and he could develop into that player. We might tend to forget that Jarrett Culver averaged 1.8 assists a game as a freshman and more than doubled that to 3.6 as a sophomore where his game rounded out a bit more. I think that Ramsey would do the same if he were to return because Beard doesn’t let you just do one thing. That’s now how his system works.

CollegeHoopsToday’s Jon Rothstein writes about how Texas Tech has not returned his top 2 scorers from the previous season at Texas Tech:

Kyler Edwards and Terrance Shannon Jr. are the only returning players in Texas Tech’s program who averaged more than 20 minutes last season with burgeoning wing Kevin McCullar also set to take on a bigger role after a strong finish. McCullar reached double-figures in three of the Red Raiders’ final four games of last season.

Beard also brings in three newcomers who could be potential starters in VCU grad transfer Marcus Santos-Silva, UNLV transfer Joel Ntambwe, and five-star freshman Nimari Burnett. Another incoming freshman — Micah Peavy — is expected to play a major role.

Here are some tweets.

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