The Morning Stake | 2022.12.15

Basketball

It was reported by Jeff Goodman that Fardaws Aimiq, the center who transferred in over the fall, has decided that he will enter the transfer portal and transfer to a different program.

I obviously also included the tweet where Goodman explains why Aimiq apparently wants to transfer. You and I have no idea and I’m absolutely okay with not knowing. Aimiq was out of his cast recently and my thought is that he’d have to strengthen his leg to the point where he wouldn’t favorite it or that it wouldn’t be a detriment.

I also understand that some of you are upset and part of Mark Adams job is to keep players happy or communicate, so it seems strange that this issue that Goodman mentioned wasn’t something that was discussed or something that couldn’t have easily been discussed. It has also seemed that Adams was pretty cautious about players playing with injuries, holding Batcho out for an ankle tweak and same thing with Jaylon Tyson. It should also be noted that Sadaar Calhoun transferred out at this time last year and no one said a peep other than good luck.

Lubbock Avalanche-Journal’s Don Williams also reported last week that student-athletes would need to stick around until December 14th in order to receive an extra $2,990 for meeting certain academic and community service markers. This is money that was earned for the past semester, not for future performance. I’ve seen some people ask that Aimiq pay this back if he received it and that’s not how this works.

Football

I’m going to do my best to keep track of all of this, but since I last updated this S Reggie Pearson, OL Ethan Carde, DL Philip Blidi, OL Michael Shanahan, and OL Larry Moore have all entered the transfer portal. Don’t forget that Weston Wright has declared for the NFL Draft, so the offensive line room has taken a bit of a hit. And with both DL’s Jaylon Hutchings and Tony Bradford, Jr. returning, that doesn’t give Blidi much time for playing, so I get that.

For a full list, you can google “2023 transfer portal” and come up with numerous options. This is the one for 24/7 Sports, On3, and Rivals. I think I like the On3 the best.

Lubbock Avalanche-Journal’s Don Williams has the details for James Blanchard, the director of player personnel for Texas Tech as he’s received a raise from $185,000 to $220,000 for two years. Blanchard was on the plane with Joey McGuire when he arrived in Lubbock and is considered one of the biggest cogs in Texas Tech’s recruiting machine. Williams mentions that Texas A&M and Nebraska recently tried to hire Blanchard away from Texas Tech.

Texas Tech added DB CJ Baskerville (6-2/210) from San Diego State, who had 36 tackles in 8 games last year.

Hell yeah. Swing that sword.

Congrats to Eric Morris!

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