Leading Off

HEY YA!

Email me! Let’s Discuss Advertising Too! Follow us on Twitter! Lubbock In The Loop. Check out Lubbock In The Loop for a list of Lubbock restaurants that offer curbside delivery. Podcasts. Check out your guys, Spencer and Michael, on 23 Personnel Podcast, a Texas Tech athletics podcast where food and sports clash at the goal line, as well as Keith Patrick and Dinger Derby, the only, yes only, podcast about Texas Tech baseball.

I Had A Tooth Problem. On Wednesday eating my lunch, I chipped a tooth, or something like that, and found myself in need of a dentist. Believe it or not, one of our very own, Seth Harris i.e. TTUVault, is a real life dentist and his practice is called Mansfield Dental Associates. Seth helped me more than you’ll ever know and if you are in the need of a dentist, who also happens to be a Red Raider, and will be your dentist for a long time (he’s not old) then I can’t recommend his practice enough.

As we were talking about other things after we were done, we were talking about owning a small business and how things are becoming increasingly difficult with the current situation. We talked about how we can all help each other. Seth helped me. I’m trying to help him here (this is not a paid advertisement). And you can help him too if you need a dentist in the Mansfield or mid-cities area.

Marble Race Friday. Well, it is Friday and if you’d like to have a friendly bet on a race, I’ll post the actual race at noon. Think of this as our version of the dot race made famous at the old Rangers Stadium. This works a lot better if you don’t go to try to find the video on YouTube. Here are your participants.

1. Summer Sky
2. Marbly McMarbleface
3. Phoenix
4. Cool Moody
5. Dragon’s Egg
6. H2 Blue
7. Reflektor
8. Comet
9. Slimer
10. Silver Bolt
11. Superball
12. Quicksilver
13. Ghost Plasma
14. El Capitan
15. Cobra
16. Pollo Loco
17. Black Knight
18. Crazy Cat’s Eye
19. Blizzard Blaster
20. Red Number 3

Remember that this is intended to be a friendly bet and a distraction for a Friday.

Brittany Brewer is named an All-American. What a top for Brittany Brewer’s career. Yesterday Brittany received word that she has been named an honorable metion All-American by the Associated Press:

Brewer becomes the first Lady Raider All-American in 14 years, and the recognition marks 26th All-America accolade in program history.

Brewer is coming off an outstanding senior season in which she was the only player in the country to average 15 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks per game. Brewer was named a First Team All-Big 12 recipient for the first time in her career and also made the Big 12 All-Defensive Team.

The Abilene, Texas, native is one of five finalists for the Lisa Leslie Award, given annually to the best center in the country. She was also named a top-10 semifinalist for the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year award.

Chasing Down Rhino Poachers. Via National Geographic (very cool little story):

Two years ago, Joe Braman was living a regular family life with his wife and two daughters on his remote ranch in southern Texas. A part time cop, businessman, and cowboy, he’d never given a thought to the rhino poaching crisis in South Africa. But in May 2018, Braman and his free-running hounds were sprinting across the acacia plains close to Kruger National Park chasing armed rhino poachers.

To date since then, according to authorities, his hounds have helped law enforcement teams in the greater Kruger region catch an unprecedented 145 poachers and confiscate 53 guns, boosting the overall rate of successful arrests and providing a new strategy to fight poaching in Africa.

“Just think about it,” Braman says. “If you spun a globe and threw a dart and it stuck, what’s the odds you’ll find a low-key guy in southern Texas’s coastal bend gettin’ picked to stop the extinction of a species?”

Ezukanma Ready. Avalanche-Journal’s Don Williams writes about wide receiver Erik Ezukanma and how he’s ready to be a significant contributor for Texas Tech:

“Being more aggressive as a receiver,” Ezukanma said recently. “DBs, they’re going to grab you, they’re going to hold you, but you’ve got to be aggressive. You’ve got to knock them off you. You’ve got to be a dog on the field. I gain all this weight; I’ve got to use it.”

The 6-foot-3 sophomore from Keller Timber Creek is up to 213 pounds, more than 30 pounds heavier than when he first arrived on campus in 2018. That’s after what Wells recently called the Red Raiders’ “first real off-season of real lifting and conditioning and things that we do” under strength and conditioning coach Dave Scholz.