Playing Duke Shows How Far Texas Tech Basketball Has Come

Texas Tech will play Duke at Madison Square Garden in New York next season, a clear indication that Red Raider basketball has earned national respect.

Wednesday, Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports revealed that Texas Tech has agreed to face Duke next season.  The date for the game is not set but Rothstein reports that the game will take place at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

The opportunity to face off with the Bluedevils is one virtually every program in the country would relish.  That Duke now deems Texas Tech a worthy opponent is another indication of the respect Chris Beard and his program have earned on a national level.

Duke  expects to be in contention for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament every season.  Therefore, Coach K is extremely strategic in developing his non-conference schedule.  The fact that Duke now feels scheduling Texas Tech will boost its overall resume speaks volumes about how the nation perceives the Red Raiders.

Last season, Duke faced top 10 power-5 teams in No. 2 Michigan State and No. 7 Florida along with Texas and Indiana in its non-conference schedule. The Bluedevils also like to play at least one game a season in New York where the media attention is at its apex and Coach K would not waste that opportunity on an opponent that will not garner national interest.

The game will have obvious ramifications for Texas Tech.  Chris Beard has spoken openly about wanting to face tougher competition out of conference.  In Beard’s first season, Tech played only one true non-Big 12 road game (at Richmond) and there were no unranked foes on the pre-Big 12 slate of games.

This season, Beard made it a point to step up the competition his team faced.  Tech played ranked teams in No. 20 Northwestern and No. 22 Nevada as well as taking on a Seaton Hall team that was ranked for the majority of the season.

The opportunity for the players to face a premier program in college basketball at the most famous arena in the world will be a memory they will tell their children and grandchildren about.  And it is likely that Tech will see a number of future NBA stars on the opposite bench.

In fact, the top three high school recruits in the class of 2018 have signed with Duke.  All-American Forwards R.J. Barrett, Cameron Reddish and Zion Williamson will likely have Duke at the top of the preseason top 25 rankings.

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By squaring off with Duke, Texas Tech has another opportunity to prove that it belongs at the same party as the elite programs in the nation.  This matchup is yet another affirmation that Beard and the Red Raiders are a program on the rise.