Raider Awakening
When I was a student at Texas Tech, basketball wasn’t much of a thing.
In West Texas, football is religion as some T-shirts would say, but Tech has been pretty mediocre at the sport for the past decade.
Being known as “The Dancing Ginger” for my antics at all the football, basketball and many baseball games during my college years there, basketball was the one that was hard to get people’s spirits up. The men’s team went a combined 33–61 during the regular season in my three years out there with many empty seats. (Of course during my senior year in 2013–14, the head coach at the time, Tubby Smith, started filling those empty seats after buying students lunch.)
But now things have changed. While Smith certainly deserves credit for getting Tech out of the cellar, getting them to their first NCAA tournament in nine years as he did in 2016, the current head coach and Naismith Coach of the Year, Chris Beard, is making history as the Red Raiders will play in their first national championship game tonight at 8:20 CT on CBS against Virginia after beating Michigan State, 61–51, in the national semifinal on Saturday.
While I’ve always been admirable of Tech, growing up seeing Mike Leach bring the football program to national prominence, people tend to show a lack of respect to their athletics.
Historically, Tech has had some good years in football, but they’ve never been a national powerhouse. Leach, a former head coach, took them to a school-record 11–1 season in 2008. They ended up having to settle for the Cotton Bowl that year when they should have been in a BCS game because, well, I guess the national experts didn’t think they were that great.
Outside of football, people still don’t show respect. While the men’s basketball team has never been to or won a national championship, it’s forgotten that the women’s basketball team won the national championship in 1993, but most people don’t pay attention to women’s sports. The baseball team has been to the World Series three times the past five years, but college baseball uses metal bats and isn’t something you see on the front page of ESPN much.
The same could certainly be said for the men’s basketball program.
A perfect example is when they played Oklahoma last year at home. The Red Raiders were a force in the Big 12 and nationally, yet ESPN chose to show then-Oklahoma star Trae Young, who was having a bad game, considerably more than Tech’s best player, Keenan Evans, who was having a great game and was being given consideration for the Wooden Award. Basically, Young was featured for 7.2 percent of the broadcast while Evans had 47 seconds in a 88–78 Tech victory.
It’s important to know that Tech has a hard time recruiting in athletics because they’re so far away from the big cities and have to compete against schools like UT and A&M that have more money. But Beard doesn’t try to get the most talent. He gets grinders who work extremely hard and play tough defense along with transfer students who have experience and are more mature.
Don’t forget to give credit to Kirby Hocutt, who won Under Armour’s National Athletic Director of the Year during 2017–18. He’s helped turn the baseball and men’s basketball programs into elite status, which he says will happen with football’s new head coach, Matt Wells, but we’ll see how that goes in a much more competitive sport.
That Red Raider team last year went to their first-ever Elite Eight before losing to the national champion, Villanova, but apparently that was forgotten this season when Tech was picked to finish seventh in the Big 12 since they lost six of their top eight scorers.
Never mind that some of those newcomers included graduate transfers Matt Mooney and Tariq Owens were already well respected. Last year, Mooney was a finalist for the Lou Henson Award, which is presented to the best player in mid-major schools. Owens had the second-most blocks in a season in St. John’s history last season.
Jarrett Culver had a wonderful freshman year and this season was awarded as the Big 12 Player of the Year as he’ll be a top NBA prospect come summer time. David Moretti, the Italian straight-shooter, was one of the best international guards in the class of 2017 and made All-Big 12 third team. Mooney is second-team All-Big 12 and on the first defensive team. Owens was second in blocks this season, and in recent tournament games, has been a complete shot-swatter as he is also on the first defensive team along with some honorable mentions.
And for those that don’t know Tech that well, this offense runs on more than just Culver, who only had 10 points against Michigan State, two of his three buckets coming in the final minutes. They got Mooney, who not only is crafty in getting his hands on the ball on defense, but can be an offensive threat as he tied a career-high with 22 points Saturday night. Moretti made clutch shots against Gonzaga. Owens, who got three blocks in just 23 minutes against Michigan State before rolling his ankle, is very efficient in field-goal percentage. Just because your star player has an off night doesn’t mean you won’t win, which is a misconception that even the analysts get wrong.
But what makes this team great is the defense. Statistically, they’re great. They rank first in defensive efficiency, shooting and floor percentage, and third in points allowed. What makes them even more great is how they play defense. They clog the paint, contest everything, harass you, and make you shoot from the perimeter. This results in lots of errors, especially turnovers.
The reason they’ve been so good in the tournament is because these teams have never seen something like this before. Northern Kentucky only scored 57 points. Buffalo came in scoring the sixth most points in the nation, but couldn’t score a basket for over 11 minutes. Michigan only hit one three-pointer, scoring a school tournament-low 44 points and was left clueless. Gonzaga, the №1 offense, was held under 70 points for just the second time this season. Michigan State, ranked 13th in offensive efficiency, scored a season-low 51 points and shot just 32 percent.
As they continue to do this, experts still pick against Tech game-after-game and they still are against Virginia tonight. Did people forget that this Red Raider team won a share of the Big 12 regular season title with Kansas State, ending Kansas’s 14-year streak?
Don’t get me wrong Virginia is much better on offense than last year where they were the first №1 seed to get upset by a 16. They rank seventh in efficiency, ninth in three-point shooting and are excellent at controlling the pace, but Tech doesn’t care.
Their pack line defense, which packs the middle of the paint, making it difficult to score inside, has made them №1 in scoring, but it’s no secret as it’s been around since the 80s when Virginia’s head coach, Tony Bennett’s dad, Dick, used it.
They certainly have some height as they had quite a size advantage against Auburn. Kyle Guy and Ty Jerome are very dangerous shooting the ball.
One difference I see in these two teams is that Virginia has had some luck at the end of their last two games whereas Tech has effectively had the game decided within the last minute. In the closing seconds against Auburn, the Cavaliers got away with a double-dribble that wasn’t called and got fouled on a three-pointer with 0.6 seconds left before Guy calmly hit all three free throws, giving Virginia the win, 63–62.
Sounds like that no-call in this year’s NFC Championship Game, huh? And no, the Los Angeles Rams didn’t get away with another victory in their next game, the Super Bowl.
Both teams get the pleasure to play on Monday Night for the first time in what is being projected as the lowest-scoring national championship game in 20 years with an over/under of 120 points. And while the ratings could be worse since it might certainly be less scoring, appreciate the defense unlike the NBA who abandoned such. Remember that offense wins games, but defense wins championships.
As Tech fans, let’s just hope Lubbock isn’t burned down like some attempted to do so on Saturday night. For those that don’t know, our fan base can be a bit rowdy, using profanity in the fight song and towards opponents and referees. A lot of this is because Tech is known state-wide as the biggest party school, attracting students who want to go down that path, but there are many fans who cheer and celebrate responsibly. And Beard is all about showing class and grace as his team regularly prays after games.
Seeing this defense play makes me think Tech doesn’t care who they play. They came into this tournament to win it all with their goal going back to the summer in a gym. The fans went crazy celebrating after Saturday’s win, but the team calmly walked to the locker room, knowing they’re in Minneapolis to play 80 minutes of basketball.
The only concern I have for Tech is the health of Owens, who is expected to play despite barely getting on the floor again after his injury. His size and defense is important, but they still won when he initially left the game with under 15 minutes to play. If that doesn’t become a factor, I expect the Red Raiders to take home that trophy, winning 62–56. The biggest game in Texas Tech history starts tonight. Time to shut those doubters up.
