Texas Tech Morning Links | Soccer in Semifinals; Volleyball, Women's Basketball and Football Links

LINKS

The men's basketball links are going to be in a separate post, so look out for that. Also on tap is the weekly conversation, and the prediction thread. So hold off on those predictions.

• Soccer | Kickoff is tonight at 8:00 pm against Oklahoma St. in Kansas City in the Big 12 Championships as Texas Tech and OSU are in the semi-finals. Lots of information at the link, including how to watch.
• Volleyball | Congrats to the volleyball team for getting a 3-1 win against K-State and notched their second Big 12 win of the year! They get back into action on Wednesday against Baylor.
• Women's Basketball | The LAJ writes about how the Lady Raiders are going to be a fast-paced and guard oriented team. There are 8 guards and 3 forwards on this team! Lots of good information and detail about the Lady Raiders there. The DT previews the Lady Raider game against UT-Pan Am at the United Spirit Arena on Saturday.
• Football
  • Much thanks to Bring On The Cats for the Q&A and you can find my answers there, while I was also podcasting with Grant on EMAWdio.com. Go check them out!
  • The LAJ has an article about how the defense is looking to re-group after giving up so many yards on the ground, here's Co-DC Matt Wallerstedt:

    "That menu was put on tape," defensive coordinator Matt Wallerstedt said. "Anytime you have a performance like that, you better strap it on a little tighter because people are going to look at what we’ve had a hard time with and give you a little more. Oklahoma State for instance ran the ball on first-and-10, possession-and-10 type scenarios, a lot more than what their numbers showed or their tendencies showed going into the ball game and forcing us to stop their run game before they went on to the next part of their menu."

  • The LAJ also profiles senior RB Josh Talbot and I just love reading about these guys that never got to play, but are still a part of the team. Hat tip to them:

    "You only get so many chances to do what you love," Talbot said. "I have this five-year window where I get to strap it up every day. I know I haven’t really played that much and been a part, as some people would see it, but I’ve been able to contribute and do what I love during my college career and you can’t really ask for much more than that."

  • The LAJ reported on the tweet from TE Jace Amaro where he hinted at that this might be his last home game and stuff like that. I don't really have an opinion on this other than if he goes, I do wish him the best of luck. I think he's ready. I think the intent of the tweet was good, but then it really takes the focus off of the seniors and made it about himself. That grates me a bit.
  • The DT writes about this being the last home game for the seniors.
  • There is a handful of K-State links. KansasCity has a nice preview. The CJOnline writes about how both young and experience will be on the sideline on Saturday. I'll let you figure out which coach is which. Also from the CJOnline is a notebook about how cumulatively, the K-State quarterbacks combine for some great statistics. Jugs Of Snyder predicts that K-State will dominate Texas Tech.
  • There are lots of folks picking games: CBS Sports' Bruce Feldman, Bleacher Report's Big 12 writer Ben Kercheval (Ben is a former writer for College Football Talk), and Athlon Sports.
  • The USA Today released their coaches salaries and stuff (which has been available on Coaches Hot Seat for years) and the USA Today also re-hashed something that we've somewhat known about for a while, which is that Kingsbury has some control over uniform design.

ACTION

Awesome stuff from Brandon Rawe and the rest of the video crew on Kliff Kingsbury and Tubby Smith and how both of their fathers were recipients of the Purple Heart. Just great. Please watch.