Soccer

Texas Tech and Tom Stone received the commitment from Southlake Carroll forward Ally Griffin. Griffin scored 49 goals all by herself last year and was the Dallas Morning News offensive player of the year. Griffin was previously committed to Texas A&M, but will apparently sign with the good guys. Texas Tech and Stone could use some offense after struggling a bit last year to score with a very young team.

I’m blessed to say I’ve made my final decision to further my academic and soccer career at Texas Tech University!!! #wreckem #gunsup⚫️🔴⚽️ pic.twitter.com/IHFpWdb7Sr

— Ally G⚽️ (@_allygriffin) January 2, 2017

Red Raider Basketball

If you’re in Lubbock, get to the game tonight. Tip is at 8:15 and you get to see the #7 West Virginia Mountaineers.

LAJ’s Krista Pirtle writes about how PG Devon Thomas is the heart and soul of Texas Tech’s basketball program:

“He quickly earned our respect the way he embraces basketball, embraces life,” Beard said. “He’s a winner. He’s the kind of guy who fits into our culture completely. We went from, ‘Yeah, you’re going to have an opportunity here,’ to ‘You’re going to really be an impact player.’”

As a senior, Thomas’s minuted have doubled.

He’s had some breakout games — including a 17-point outburst at Richmond and a near triple-double against UTSA — as he’s currently second in the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio.

“The process is different than last year,” Thomas said. “This year’s process demands a lot more out of me. My team demands a lot more out of me. I think that’s a big thing. The team holds each other accountable. It’s like I’ve got your back and you’ve got mine. I can’t let these guys down. We’ve been through too much. I can’t let them down.”

This is a good story to get to know Thomas so make sure adn check it out.

LAJ’s Krista Pirtle writes about the West Virginia Mountaineers and their unrelenting press:

Yet despite their best efforts, Bob Huggins’ team still scores more than a third of its total points off turnovers alone.

“It’s very difficult to duplicate West Virginia’s pressure,” Tech coach Chris Beard said as Tech tips off against West Virginia at 8:15 p.m. Tuesday. “Every coach would tell you that. The common things that people do is you can play with six defensive players or seven defensive players in practice. You can tell your guys to play very physical and trap and stuff. We’ve done all these things. Really, what I think is important, is poise and composure and organization of how you’re going to try and break the press.”

All but one opponent —Virginia —has had at least 19 turnovers against the Mountaineers as they lead the country with 25.69 turnovers forced per game.

Football

Patrick Mahomes will hold a press conference at 10:00 am this morning to announces his intentions for next year. My gut says that he’s going to make the plunge to the NFL partly because this isn’t a particularly strong draft for quarterbacks. If you want to check out a two-round mock draft, SB Nation’s Dan Kader has Mahomes going in the second round, #36 overall to Chicago.

I’ve written two posts, one where he announces and one where he stays. Either one is a good situation, in one instance Mahomes gets to chase his dream and in the other we get to watch him one more year.

You can check out Texas Tech commit Jack Anderson at the Under Armour practice, fast forward to the 2:20 mark.

RRS’s Drew Kohnle has his Q&A with QB McLane Carter. As always, there are a lot of questions there here’s just a bit:

WHAT IS ONE THING THAT YOU NEED TO WORK ON IN ORDER TO PLAY AT THE NEXT LEVEL?

“The process of going through reads. I need to go through my first, second, and third reads, and then run. Now, I’m one read and then run. I need to learn to sit in the pocket more and way for things to develop.”