Five biggest Texas Tech athletics stories of 2018

No. 2: Texas Tech basketball reaches Elite 8 for first time

In 2018, Texas Tech basketball head coach Chris Beard could have run for mayor of Lubbock and won in a landslide.  That’s because he did something that no coach in program history ever had in guiding the Red Raiders to the Elite 8 of the NCAA Tournament, knocking off No. 2 seeded Purdue 78-65 in Boston on March 23rd.

In his second season, he led Tech to a 27-10 record including an 11-7 Big 12 mark to finish second in the conference regular season race.  And had it not been for a broken toe suffered by star point guard Keenan Evans in February, the Red Raiders would likely have ended Kansas’ 13-year streak of conference titles.

It is hard to believe that in just three years Beard has turned what was once one of the most futile Big 12 programs into a national contender taking them to within one win of the Final Four.  As recently as the 2014-15 season, Tech was one of the worst Power 5 programs in the nation going 13-19 under then head coach Tubby Smith.

Now, they are arguably the second-best team in the Big 12 and many consider the Red Raiders a legitimate Final Four threat.  This is remarkable considering that in 2018, Tech lost five seniors and an NBA first round draft pick.

Though the high point of the season was the win over the Boilermakers, the first two games of the Big Dance were arguably the most special games in Texas Tech basketball history.   Playing virtual home games in Dallas in front of sell-out crowds at the American Airlines Center, Tech defeated Stephen F. Austin and Florida in two tense and exciting contests that sent the Raiders to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2005.

Those nights in Dallas turned into a celebration of what Beard has built in Lubbock as nearly 20,000 Red Raiders packed the AAC turning Dallas into Lubbock East.  And when Florida’s desperation three-point attempts missed the mark in the final seconds of the second round game, it was obvious that Red Raider basketball had fully returned from the dead as was poised to become something special.

Texas Tech basketball is the hottest ticket in Lubbock right now.  Ranked No. 11 in the nation and sitting at 11-1, Beard has his team primed for another strong run in 2019.  But we will forever point back to 2018 as the season that Texas Tech basketball became the pride of Red Raider fans like never before.