Check out the weekend's Texas Tech and NCAA news.
This is the second time in history that the Texas Tech men's athletic program has won a national championship. On Saturday in Boston, Massachusetts, the Red Raider indoor track and field team defeated Arkansas to win its first indoor national championship.
This is the second national title for head coach Wes Kitley, who also won the 2019 outdoor national championship. And what a great job he's done since he took over.
When he arrived in 2000, the Red Raider track program was as irrelevant and unimportant as any other program on campus. We didn't have a lot of money for a facility, we didn't have a recruiting base, we didn't have fan interest, we just didn't have any momentum.
Since then, all Kitley has done is build the best athletic program on campus. This is like taking a downtrodden program like Kansas football from 2010 to 2020 and turning it into a national championship program.
Tech won the title Saturday with 50.5 points to Arkansas' 41. However, the title was in jeopardy until the final event, the 4×400 final. Tech finished in 4th place and the University of Arkansas finished in 8th place, giving the Red Raiders the national championship. Congratulations to Coach Kitley and his team on a great indoor season and winning the National Championship.
After defeating Baylor 78-68 on Saturday, the Texas Tech basketball team earned the No. 4 seed in this week's Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City. That's quite an accomplishment for a show that was voted 8th in the preseason poll.
In fact, Tech and Baylor finished tied for third in the league with the same conference record of 11-7. This season also split the two head-to-head games between the two schools, with each winning on their home court. Still, Baylor was recognized as the No. 3 seed in the tournament. The Big 12 has not yet disclosed how the tiebreaker was determined.
Grant McCasland's team next plays Thursday at 11:30 a.m. Their opponents will be BYU, Oklahoma State, or Central Florida. The game will be broadcast on ESPN or ESPN2.
The Texas Tech Lady Raiders appeared to end their season Friday afternoon in Kansas City. When he lost 71-60 to No. 17 Baylor in the second round of the Big 12 Tournament, Tech fought hard but didn't have the firepower to pull off the upset.
Jasmine Shavers scored 20 points and Tech outscored Baylor 22-12 in the third quarter, making for an interesting final frame. However, Baylor held off the reeling Lady Raiders and won 19-10 in the fourth quarter. Now, it looks like Tech is heading into the offseason without any postseason play, considering the Lady Raiders are just 17-16 overall on the season. However, we won't know until the women's NIT berths are announced on Sunday night.
The Texas Tech softball team played a great weekend series in Provo, Utah. He took 2 of 3 games from the BYU Cougars and his Raiders started the Big 12 game on a positive note.
Tech won Thursday's opener 10-5 and took Friday's second game 15-0. On Saturday, the Cougars won 10-8, leaving one game in the series. The Red Raiders will return to action on Tuesday, March 12th against New Mexico.
