The Morning Stake | 2023.06.05

Texas Tech started the Gainesville Regional with a 3-2 win over UConn on Friday night. Saturday was capped by a 5-4 win over Florida which put Florida in the loser’s bracket and they’d beat UConn 8-2 to play Texas Tech yesterday afternoon. Florida would end up beating Texas Tech 7-1 last night which means that these two teams face off in a win-or-go-home game with first pitch at 11:00 a.m. and will be on ESPN+. If you’d like a look at each regional, the NCAA has a good interactive page.

Since this is behind a paywall, I’ll just tell you that Lubbock Avalanche-Journal’s Don Williams writes that Braylyn Lux received one of two remaining scholarship spots with the other likely going to a walk-on who earned it in the summer workouts. Quotes from head coach Joey McGuire are at the article if you’d like to read.

Lubbock Avalanche Journal’s Don Williams and CBS Sports’ Shehan Jeyarajah both report on how Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark is committed to expansion, preferably a national conference and not ruling out expansion. From the Williams article:

“We have a plan,” Yormark said. “As I’ve said all along, we have an appetite to be a national conference in our makeup from coast to coast. And we do believe in the upside of basketball moving forward as a collective group.

“That being said, we love our current composition, love the four new schools that are coming in next month. However, if the opportunity presents itself to create value, we will pursue it.”

And:

Yormark was asked if future expansion candidates would have to be full members, or could there be potential additions without football, such as a school like Gonzaga.

“We see the upside in basketball moving forward for all the right reasons,” Yormark said. “We think it’s undervalued and there’s a chance for us to double down as the No. 1 basketball conference in America.”

“There have been conversations, obviously, about what would happen in that next TV cycle. Certainly nothing can be done now, nor should it in fact,” he said. “But as we think about the future and ways to create value, there is always that option to decouple basketball from football, to see if there is further value we can create for the conference. And we have positioned ourselves to do so at that point in time, if the opportunity presents itself and it makes sense.”

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