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Burning Rokas Ulvydas’ redshirt was a mistake for Texas Tech basketball

By Matthew Conner

Jan 6, 2016; Ames, IA, USA; Texas Tech Red Raiders head coach Tubby Smith coaches his team against the Iowa State Cyclones at James H. Hilton Coliseum. The Cyclones beat the Red Raiders 76-69. Mandatory Credit: Reese Strickland-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 6, 2016; Ames, IA, USA; Texas Tech Red Raiders head coach Tubby Smith coaches his team against the Iowa State Cyclones at James H. Hilton Coliseum. The Cyclones beat the Red Raiders 76-69. Mandatory Credit: Reese Strickland-USA TODAY Sports /
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Sometimes the fog of war causes one to lose sight of the big picture and make mistakes based on immediate gratification rather than long-term vision. Texas Tech head coach Tubby Smith made one such mistake on Saturday when he decided to burn the redshirt of forward Rokas Ulvydas.

This decision is a knee-jerk reaction to the loss of starting center Norense Odiase to a broken foot suffered in Ft. Worth on Monday night. Granted, Odiase’s injury left Texas Tech with only three post players, Matt Temple, Zach Smith and Aaron Ross.

But to burn Ulvydas’ redshirt is likely going to bring little help to this year’s team. In his first game as a Red Raider, the 6-foot-11 forward from Lithuania contributed only two points and no rebounds in six forgettable minutes of action.

In fairness, the type of full-court game West Virginia plays is not suited for Ulvydas’ skill set but it is reasonable to ask just how much help the redshirt sophomore will bring to the team at any point this season.

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When he signed to play for Texas Tech, Rokas Ulvydas had not resided in the United States for a full year meaning that he would not be eligible to play until after the start of 2016. Therefore, the decision was made to place a redshirt on him instead of burning a year of his eligibility for only half of a season.

But after seeing action against the Mountaineers on Saturday, Ulvydas has essentially lost a half a year off of his collegiate career. And for what?

Saturday’s loss to West Virginia puts Texas Tech at 2-5 in the Big 12 race and 12-6 overall. With each loss that Tubby Smith’s team suffers, it becomes more apparent that the 2016 Red Raiders are a long shot to earn an NCAA birth.

Unfortunately, the immediate future for this team is not encouraging. Texas Tech is now just one game out of last place and tied for 8th in the conference race with two games against Oklahoma and road matchups with Kansas, Baylor, Texas and West Virginia remaining on the schedule.

The presence of Ulvydas is not going to change the direction of the 2016 season. Having played only one semester of high school basketball in Maryland prior to coming to Texas Tech (while he did play in Lithuania he is learning a new style of play in the U.S.) means that the forward is still raw and is not ready to be an important cog for the Red Raiders.

In reality, Ulvydas is going to be nothing more than five more personal fouls Texas Tech can throw at opposing big men. The scouting report on him mentions a strong outside shot and skill with the ball common among European big men that have played at Texas Tech in the past so he does have talent.

But throwing the kid into the middle of Big 12 action with no prior college basketball experience to rely upon is just short of absurd. Texas Tech would be better served to change its style of play to make up for the loss of Odiase.

The versatility of players like Zach Smith, Justin Gray, Toddrick Gotcher and Aaron Ross should allow Tubby Smith to play a smaller lineup for stretches of the game when one of the Texas Tech big men is in foul trouble or needs a rest. Sure, this strategy leaves the team defensively vulnerable in the paint but college basketball is not make-it-take-it.

Playing a smaller lineup with numerous athletic ball handlers could help Texas Tech score on teams that employ larger lineups. Furthermore, the players that have hurt Texas Tech in Big 12 play have more often than not been guards, not post players.

But the Red Raiders have made the shortsighted decision to burn Ulvydas’ redshirt for 13 regular season games. Another way of looking at it is to say that the team forfeited 17 games of Ulvydas’ career in an attempt to salvage a season that was already starting to slip away.

While improved, Texas Tech is not yet ready to compete with the elite of the Big 12. If this program is to reach that level, it probably will not happen until 2017-18 when the team’s talented sophomores are seniors.

With the decision to play Ulvydas, Texas Tech now stands to lose Justin Gray, Zach Smith, Keenan Evans, Norense Odiase, Ulvydas and potentially Matt Temple (who is listed as a junior academically but could likely earn one final year of athletic eligibility from the NCAA should he chose to petition for one) in the same season.

Ulvydas was supposed to help bridge the gap from the loss of the 2018 seniors to the next group of Texas Tech basketball players but because the program is focused more on this year than the future health of Red Raider basketball, we could be in for another rebuilding cycle.

Next: Why the TTU offense improved by two TDs per game in 2015

Starting in the fall of 2018, Texas Tech fans may be asked to once again watch a group of young players take their lumps as the core of the team because a poor decision from the 2017 coaching staff, desperate to finally reach the postseason (regardless of the cost), left the roster depleted of veteran depth.

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