Brandone Francis Season In Review

A closer look at the 2017-18 season of Texas Tech forward Brandone Francis reveals a player that showed enough potential that fans can expect him to be a huge factor moving forward.

Though the 2017-18 Texas Tech basketball season is a month-and-a-half gone, Red Raider fans are still talking about what a great ride it was.  One of the reasons for the unexpected Elite 8 run was that Chris Beard received contributions from a number of newcomers.

One such player, Brandone Francis, had made as much progress off the court as on it since arriving at Texas Tech.  In the process, he may have put himself in the conversation for a staring role on next year’s squad.

Francis’ journey from 4-star high school recruit in the Dominican Republic to Texas Tech Red Raider has been full of twists and turns.  After red-shirting as a true freshman at Florida, he left Gainesville following his red-shirt freshman season due, in part, to the departure of head coach Billy Donovan, who recruited Francis out of high school.  Francis played one season under current UF coach Mike White but felt a change was necessary.

But it is hard to imagine Francis knew was get was getting into when he came to Lubbock to play for Chris Beard.  Having to sit out the 2016-17 campaign, due to NCAA transfer rules, Francis almost did  not make it in Beard’s program because of an admitted lack of maturity and somewhat of a prima-donna attitude that seems to come with so many high school basketball stars.

But to his credit, Francis acknowledged his shortcomings and did what Beard asked him to do, which included being the only Texas Tech basketball player to live in an on-campus dorm.  And as a result, Francis and Beard were both rewarded on the court this season.

One of the first reserves off the bench, the 6-foot-5 Francis proved to be a nice fit in the Beard’s “position-less” system by adding versatilely on both ends of the floor.  Averaging 15.3 minutes per game, Francis was seventh on the team in playing time and third among bench players.

He averaged 5.1 points, 1.9 rebounds and 0.8 assists per game providing much-needed energy and shooting off the bench.  And though most fans will never know how much Brandone Francis matured as a man during his year away from the court, the statistics show how much he grew as a basketball player.

After shooting a dreadful 20% from the field and 16% from three as a freshman at Florida, Francis improved dramatically this season.  He was a 43.6% shooter overall and he hit over 38% of his three-point attempts, a testament to the hard work he has put in with the current coaching staff.

Early in Big 12 play, Francis put together his best game of the season with 17 points (including 3-4 from deep) in 26 minutes against then No. 2 West Virginia in Lubbock.  And while the one-point win over the Mountaineers was his best performance of the season, Francis’ biggest individual moment came in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

With Texas Tech struggling to put away N0. 14 seed Stephen F. Austin, Francis hit a huge three from the corner to give Tech its biggest lead to that point at 64-58.  The shot was a true dagger that finally put the Lumberjacks away and set up an opportunity for Francis to come full circle by facing his former team in the second round.

Against the Gators, Francis scored only 2 points in 11 minutes of action, something that might have mattered to him before he came to Lubbock.  But his reaction in the tunnel after the win showed that Francis has truly grasped what it means to be a team player.

Now, Texas Tech will need Francis to step forward as a leader on the 2018-19 team.  With the loss of five seniors from last year’s team, Beard will likely ask Francis to utilize his experiences as a college basketball player to help guide a young group of players that will be thrown into the fire immediately for a team that expects to be playing deep into March again.

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Stepping into a leadership role could be the most important role Brandone Francis is ever asked to do at Texas Tech.  Assuming that he does so next season, it will complete his transformation both on and off the court.