Lady Raider Basketball

The Lady Raiders fell to Oklahoma State on Wednesday, a very depleted squad (players are out I think because of injury), the effort was there, but shooting just 13% from 3’s and 30% overall isn’t going to cut it. To make matters worse, they will play Baylor in Waco on Sunday.

Texas Tech Baseball

Texas Tech baseball is in Arlington at Globe Life Field for the Shriners Children’s College Baseball Showdown and will battle Tennessee, Nebraska, and Oregon over the course of the weekend. Your starters are listed below:

MATCHUP: No. 21 Texas Tech (0-0) vs. No. 9 Tennessee (0-0)
DATE: Friday, Feb. 16, 2024
TIME: 7 p.m.
LOCATION: Globe Life Field (Arlington, Texas)
PITCHING MATCHUP: RHP Kyle Robinson (1-1, 5.36 ERA) vs. RHP AJ Russell (2-0, 0.89 ERA)

MATCHUP: No. 21 Texas Tech (0-0) vs. Nebraska (0-0)
DATE: Saturday, Feb. 17, 2024
TIME: 3 p.m.
LOCATION: Globe Life Field (Arlington, Texas)
PITCHING MATCHUP: RHP Zane Petty (3-2, 5.68 ERA) vs. LHP Will Walsh (5-3, 4.24 ERA)

MATCHUP: No. 21 Texas Tech (0-0) vs. Oregon (0-0)
DATE: Sunday, Feb. 18, 2024
TIME: 2:30 p.m.
LOCATION: Globe Life Field (Arlington, Texas)
PITCHING MATCHUP: RHP Jack Washburn (injured) vs. TBA

Lubbock Avalanche-Journal’s Don Williams has a lengthy preview of the series and what’s expected to happen position-wise for the Red Raiders. Here’s a bit on the starting rotation:

Texas Tech will start righthanders Kyle Robinson (1-1, 5.36 earned-run average), Zane Petty (3-2, 5.68) and Jack Washburn in the first three games. Robinson, the opening-day starter for the second year in a row, is coming off strong postseason outings against Oklahoma State and Florida.

Washburn, 5-2 with a 3.39 ERA for Mississippi’s College World Series champion in 2022, is returning from a back injury that sidelined him last year after he transferred to Tech.

“He’s got a lot of confidence,” Tadlock said. “His command’s been good. His breaking ball’s always been good. Changeup’s good. There’s a lot of skins on the wall there. … He’s a winner.”

Texas Tech Football

Lubbock Avalanche-Journal’s Don Williams and Red Raider Sports’ Justin Apodaca both reported on the hiring of Washington State offensive line coach Clay McGuire as the new offensive line coach to replace Stephen Hamby, who was fired without cause last week. McGuire is a former Red Raider player and coach and has bounced around a bit since leaving Texas Tech, at East Carolina with Ruffin McNeill, then in Washington State with Mike Leach, USC, and then back again at Washington State. If you are curious, Sharp College Football had the Washington State offense as the 15th best unit passing the ball and 121st rushing the ball in 2023, and 87th rushing the ball and 34th passing the ball in 2022. At USC in 2021, 80th rushing the ball and 14th passing. I’m not going to claim that I know what kind of coach he is at this point of his career and although he’s a former Red Raider footballer and coach, that doesn’t mean as much to me as it used to. He’s got a big job in front of him

Mike Farrell Sports ranks the most important receivers to sign in the 2024 class and Micah Hudson is the most important (don’t know that I agree with the first part, but whatever):

— The Red Raiders are struggling on the field but landing a 5-star in-state WR has the fan base excited. Joey McGuire’s Texas HS ties are already paying huge dividends for the third-year headman in Lubbock.

ProFootballFocus has the top 10 returning running backs in college football and at #5 is Tahj Brooks:

Brooks possesses a stocky build at 5-foot-10, 230 pounds that defenders routinely bounce off of. The senior led the nation this past season with 96 forced missed tackles and was fourth in the country in both yards after contact (998) and rushing yards (1,547). He also moved the chains more than anyone else in the country in 2023, with 96 of his carries going for a first down or touchdown. Brooks will once again be the bell-cow for Texas Tech’s offense in 2024.

24/7 Sports’ Cody Nagel has the win totals for the Big 12 heading into spring practices and the over/under for Texas Tech is . . . 8.5:

Texas Tech was the preseason dark-horse contender in the Big 12 a year ago, but barely reached a bowl game. Maybe those predictions were too soon? The Red Raiders could be set to make a jump in Year 3 under Joey McGuire. However, Texas Tech has not won more than eight games since 2009 — its final season under the late Mike Leach. A recent uptick in recruiting under McGuire has the Red Raiders in position to potentially end that streak.

I was not expecting 8.5 wins at all.