The Morning Stake | 2017.11.21

Lady Raider Basketball

Texas Tech Basketball

CBS Sports’ Gary Parrish always highlights one wacky poll from the release of the new poll each week and this week, he’s featuring the poll of one Carlos Silva, Jr., the Texas Tech beat writer. Despite Texas Tech demolishing Northwestern on Sunday, Silva voted Northwestern 16th and Texas Tech 23rd. Silva said that he dropped the Wildcats a few spots as he previously had them 12th, so his adjustment was made. I think this is one of those things where Silva should probably just admit that he got this week wrong (i.e. do you believe that Northwestern is a better team than Texas Tech, if the answer is no, then Northwestern should be behind Texas Tech, if the answer is yes, well, then ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ )and move on and I find this more entertaining than anything else, not upset at anyone’s opinion. It’s the reason why there are so many voters to help balance these things out.

Meanwhile, FanRag Sports’ Jon Rothstein is a pretty big believer in Texas Tech:

Beard has a star in senior guard Keenan Evans (25 points versus Northwestern) and a potential pro in fellow senior Zach Smith, whose two-handed blocked shot on Sunday was one of the best plays of the young season.

Buy stock in this team now.

Rothstein also has the Red Raiders ranked #24 n his top 25, while ESPN power-ranked the teams and had Texas Tech ranked #25.

Texas Tech Football

A-J Media’s Don Williams reports that Eli Howard had applied to have his year of eligibility reviewed and he ended up gaining an extra year and is now classified as a redshirt freshman. Additionally, Williams is reporting that Tre King should be good to go against Texas, while Kingsbury decided not to give any updates on Jaylon Lane and Willie Sykes, who haven’t really played over the past three years.

A-J Media’s Don Williams writes about how Kingsbury wants to send the seniors off on the right foot, with a win against Texas:

Kingsbury feels it’s his obligation, though, to direct the focus elsewhere, in particular to the Red Raiders’ seniors who might be ending their college careers with the regular-season finale at Texas. That’ll be the case unless they win and qualify for a bowl game.

“No question, that’s all our focus is on,” Kingsbury said Monday. “You put all personal agendas and priorities behind yourself and worry about those guys and making sure they play one more game.”

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