Coaching job by Tubby Smith in 2015-16 is the greatest in Texas Tech history

On Sunday, the Big 12 named Texas Tech basketball coach Tubby Smith the conference coach of the year. After improving Texas Tech’s season win total from 13 to 19 and conference win total from 3 to 9 from a year ago, virtually the same roster, Smith was the obvious choice for the honor. But what Smith did this season is the greatest single-season coaching job in Texas Tech history.

When Tubby Smith took over at Texas Tech he was the 4^th head coach in the programs last four years. That lack of continuity left the Texas Tech basketball program in shambles.

The previous three head coaches (Pat Knight, Billie Gillespie and interim head coach Chris Walker) combined to go 32-62 in the three seasons prior to Smith’s arrival. The Red Raiders had not had a winning season since 2009-10 and had gone six consecutive years with a losing conference record.

The lack of futility that plagued the Texas Tech program resulted in an absence of talent on the roster forcing Tubby Smith to rebuild his team around four 2014 true freshman signees. In other words, Smith inherited nothing and was forced to rebuild the program from scratch while playing in arguably to toughest conference in the country.

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What Tubby Smith did this year is beyond remarkable; it is down right miraculous. No other coach in Texas Tech history has authored as masterful of a comeback story as has Smith.

Consider the challenges he faced. Texas Tech had the toughest schedule in the NCAA this year and four true sophomores started a significant number of those games.

Then, just as the season started sophomore center Isaiah Manderson left the team meaning that Smith had to rely on a walk on (Matt Temple…hey, by the way, did you know he was part of the fraternity league championship team at the rec center last year? Didn’t know if you’d heard that little nugget or not) to play a meaningful role.

Furthermore, Smith’s team lost starting center Norense Odiase for 12 games on January 18^th. After that, the Red Raiders were reeling until mid February with a 3-7 conference record.

On the verge of losing his young team, Tubby Smith found a way to change Texas Tech’s style of play and save the season. Smith inserted sophomore forward Justin Gray into the starting lineup and went to junior forward Aaron Ross to close out games. The result was a five game winning streak that put Texas Tech squarely in the mix for an NCAA tournament birth, which the team in all likelihood secured with Saturday’s win over Kansas State.

There have been a number of coaches that have had terrific seasons at Texas Tech but none top what Smith has done.

The job Texas Tech baseball coach Tim Tadlock did in 2014 when he took the Red Raiders to the College Baseball World Series for the first time is on the same level as what Smith has done in 2016. However, Tadlock was coming off of a 2013 season that saw his team finish just four games below .500 with a 26-30 record and a 0.37 winning percentage in conference play.

Last season, Tubby Smith’s team was six games below .500 (two games worse than Tadlock’s 2013 team despite playing 24 fewer games). The 2014-15 basketball team had an overall winning percentage of 0.40 and a conference winning percentage of just 0.16.