The Morning Stake | 2018.06.15

Lady Raider Basketball

Marlene Stollings added another transfer, this time from 6’5″ Long Beach State, Emma Merriweather, who will sit out the 2018 season as a transfer after averaging 8.6 points on 50% shooting, and grabbing 6.4 rebounds as a freshman last year (TexasTech):

“Emma is an incredible signee for the future of Lady Raider basketball. She is a versatile post who can run the floor, score around the basket and from the outside,” Stollings said. “Her instincts to block shots and rebound are elite. Emma’s ceiling is very high and she has the potential to be a dominant force in the Big 12. We are ecstatic to have her join the Lady Raider movement.”

Texas Tech Baseball

You would think that this is somewhat of a repeat, but it’s not. Gabe Holt was named a Perfect Game/Rawlings First Team Freshman All-American (TexasTech), Holt’s third All-American designation. Additionally, Josh Jung and Grant Little picked up their fifth All-American designation from the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (TexasTech).

Texas Tech doesn’t start their College World Series run until Sunday, but the other four teams will play on Saturday. I’ll have my preview and open thread up on Saturday.

The team arrived in Omaha yesterday afternoon:

And Sports Illustrated’s Eric Single ranks the teams with the best chance to win the whole thing and has the Red Raiders at 8:

The biggest problem facing Tim Tadlock’s team is the bracket. The Red Raiders open against defending national champion Florida and will follow that with either Texas or Arkansas, two teams that went a combined 1–4 against in the regular season. If the Gators send them to the brink of elimination on Sunday night, they will be hard-pressed to prevent another short stay.

I’m not at all worried about playing Texas or Arkansas, Florida on the other hand . . . they’re going to be a tough out.

If you are a baseball junkie, then you need to check out this deep dive into all four teams from D1Baseball’s Kendall Rogers.

Texas Tech Basketball

This was an interesting read, from CBS Sports’ Matt Norlander writes about how 7 unheralded high school players ended up as likely first round draft picks and one of those potential picks is Zhaire Smith:

Smith is the only one-and-done college player on this list, which makes sense. It’s rare for a one-and-done talent to be ranked below 30th, let alone hovering near the 200 line in high school. Smith wound up slipping so far because he was a “side gym guy,” according to Chris Ogden, who recruited him to Texas Tech and won out over Texas, Oregon, Kansas State and Georgia Tech.

“First thing I saw with him was freak athleticism,” Ogden said. “When I see freak athleticism, I always try to say, ‘OK, what other boxes does he check? Why isn’t this guy a high-major player?’ You go through it and watching him in high school. He did make catch-and-shoot shots, and was a good passer, and the only thing he didn’t have was the ball handling.”

And the articles written about Smith’s draft prospects, from the Charlotte Observer’s Brendan Marks and how he coudl fit with last year’s pick Malik Monk for the Hornets, or from the Express-News’ Jeff McDonald for the Spurs who are picking at #18

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