Staking The Plains

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The Morning Stake: July 24th

The Morning Stake
Seth C

The Morning Stake: July 24th

Texas Tech Tennis

 Congrats to coach Todd Petty for agreeing to an extension and to his continued success!

Big 12 Athlete of the Year Nominees

Lady Raider Basketball

Texas Tech Football

 Get to know linebacker Riko Jeffers and Adrian Frye.

 This is coaches Brandon Jones, Jabbar Juluke, Karl Scott, Emmett Jones and Terrance Jamison at the Texas High School Coaches Association convention.

Buy your very own Staking The Plains t-shirt at the Staking The Plains Threadless Shop. Click on that danged shirt (or the link).

 RedRaiderSports’ Will McKay writes about what Nic Shimonek’s teammates thing about Shimonek and his edge, according to Cameron Batson, is pushing his teammates and opponents:

“Nic is definitely a different guy,” said Cam Batson. “Nic is a guy that’s going to push you. He’s a guy who works hard. He’s always like, ‘Cam, you don’t want to be great?’ I’m like, man, you’re always giving it to me, and this is unnecessary,” he laughed. “But this is a guy who stays on you, and that’s what you want. He’s pushing himself to be great, and he wants you to be great. He wants guys to push him, and all our teammates do. He talks smack, lets you know what you’re doing wrong, we let him know what he’s doing wrong, and that’s how you build that brotherhood amongst each other. That’s really how you build that great team.”

I really do think that this sort of thing can be great . . . if you win, but Dylan Cantrell says that he knows how and when to approach people:

“He’s a different guy for sure in the way he approaches every single day and prepares each and every single day. One thing I think is important for a leader, and one thing I think he knows how to do is to approach people. If it takes getting into someone’s face to get them fired up, he’ll do it. If it takes a more laid back approach, if you need to sit down and have a talk, he’ll do that, too. He just does what’s best for reaching people and motivating them. That’s what he’s done and we’ve done as a group this offseason.”

 Lubbock Avalanche Journal’s Don Williams has snapshots on four players from this past weekend: offensive lineman Travis Bruffy, who’s ascent to left tackle has been impressive; cornerback Desmon Smith, who just needs to work on his confidence after getting beat on a play; linebacker Tony Jones, who has been moved to rush end to start the preseason camp so he would have a chance to make plays this year (he’d be behind Jordyn Brooks and Dakota Allen otherwise); and safety Kevin Moore, who the coaches say is making progress and will continue to play safety. Here’s Kingsbury on Bruffy:

Bruffy has an ideal frame for a pass protector, but he can be more than that. Kingsbury said guard Jack Anderson and Bruffy are the line’s two best run blockers, based on what he observed this spring.

Kingsbury said Bruffy’s development might let coaches consider using Steele as a guard, because he has a guard’s strength and skill set, if another tackle were to emerge. That’s probably more of a longer-term possibility than something imminent.

“Travis’ improvement has given us that flexibility,” Kingsbury said.

 RedRaiderSports’ Maitland Rutledge writes about Hakeem White’s decision to commit to Texas Tech:

“When I went down there yesterday, they really made me feel like I was at home, I really liked the campus and the way they work with you with the academics and all. It’s just a really good place so that’s what really made me decide on them.”

“The coaches were all cool, they were excited and everything was laid out and planned,” he added. “I told the coaches two days before and when I got there everything was just in order, it just felt good.”

 Interesting stuff from Pistols Firing Blog, the average attendance for all Big 12 schools and of all things, Texas Tech is 3rd in average attendance in 2016 at 58,250 per game, which is far behind conference leaders, Texas at 97,881 and Oklahoma at 86,857. this lags behind the SEC and the Big 10, the SEC averaging nearly 80,000 for all of their teams, and the Big Ten averaging a little over 65,000. The Big 12 averages a shade under 60,000.

 Dr. Saturday has the win totals for every program and the best “bet” in each conference and says that the best bet in the Big 12 is to take the under for Texas Tech’s 4.5 wins:

Best bet: Texas Tech (UNDER) – I don’t see much reason to think this Texas Tech team will be any better than last year. The defense might improve, but it’s still bad. And Patrick Mahomes is gone. This looks like another 5-7 year, which could spell the end of the Kliff Kingsbury era.

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