Texas Tech basketball: Chris Beard continues domination of Kansas State

Saturday’s win over Kansas State helped Texas Tech basketball head coach Chris Beard continue his domination of the Wildcats against whom he has had more success than any Big 12 team.

No coach in Texas Tech basketball history has had the type of success to start their tenure that Chris Beard has in his first two-and-a-half seasons. With Saturday’s 63-57 win over Kansas State, Beard moved to 58-25 overall giving him a winning percentage of 69.8%, the best of any coach in program history.

And no team in the Big 12 has suffered Beard’s wrath more than Kansas State. Having won three-consecutive against the Cats, Beard is now 4-1 against KSU head coach Bruce Weber which has been important as the two programs have been in the same relative place in the Big 12 hierarchy in recent seasons.

Since the 2015-16 season when Tech’s resurgence began in the final year of Tubby Smith’s tenure, the Red Raiders’ average finish in the Big 12 regular season has been 5th while Kansas State’s average finish has been 6th.

In other words, both Tech and KSU have been trying to break into the top echelon of the conference for quite some time. Therefore, the matchups between the Wildcats and Red Raiders have been important in terms of not only the overall league standings but in the ever-important world of program perception.

The first time Beard faced KSU, on January 10, 2017, Keenan Evans converted a layup with just :15 to play to give the Red Raiders a 66-65 win over the No. 25 Wildcats in Lubbock. Later that season, KSU dominated the Red Raiders in Manhattan in an important early March game that saw the teams enter the contest separated by only one game in the standings.

Last year, Tech throttled KSU twice winning by 16 points in Lubbock and 19 in Manhattan. No one at the time knew how big those games would turn out to be as both teams made surprise runs to the Elite 8 last season.

Interestingly, both teams had to overcome key injuries last year. Tech saw Zach Smith and Keenan Evans miss significant time with foot injuries while KSU lost two of their most important players, Dean Wade and Kamau Stokes, as well last year.

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This year, the teams have gone in opposite directions with KSU struggling to an 0-2 start after being picked second in the Big 12 preseason poll. Meanwhile, Tech is once again off to a great conference start as one of three undefeated teams in league play despite being placed just seventh in the preseason rankings.

Not surprisingly, Tech’s defense has been its greatest asset against the Wildcats. In five games, KSU is averaging just 57.6 points per game and they have been held below 60 points in the last three meetings. What’s more, Kansas State has yet to score at least 70 points against Chris Beard.

Against the rest of the Big 12, Beard actually has a losing record going just 15-18 and losing to every other team at least twice. But Beard has figured out how to come away with key wins over the program that has most resembled his own.

In each of the previous two seasons, Tech and Kansas State finished next to each other in terms of total defense rankings in the Big 12. Two years ago, Tech was ranked third wile Kansas State was ranked fourth and last year Tech finished first and Kansas State second.

And once again, the two programs sit atop the Big 12 defensive rankings this year with Tech holding the top spot. When these teams meet, points are certain to be at a premium as was the case Saturday. With only one exception, Tech has been able to beat the Wildcats at their own game which has been a huge reason for their rise in the Big 12’s class system.

There is not any bad blood between Texas Tech and Kansas State. The two schools have largely flown in different orbits despite being in the same conference as they spent the majority of the Big 12’s history in different divisions.

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Also, their geographic distance helps keep the feelings amicable as Red Raiders do not interact with a ton of KSU alums very often in the work place or in other areas of daily life. But when Tech and KSU meet on the court later this month, do not underestimate the importance of that meeting because if Tech wants to continue their ascension towards the summit of the Big 12, they will need to keep beating Kansas State as they have in the Chris Beard era.

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