The Texas Tech basketball team blew out Kansas Saturday in Lubbock. Here are three reasons the Red Raiders were able to come up with this key victory.
The hottest team in the Big 12 currently resides in Lubbock. And after the Texas Tech basketball team’s 91-62 win over Kansas, the Red Raiders are now garnering national praise.
Chuck Carlton of the Dallas Morning News writes that Tech is the best team in the Big 12. Meanwhile, college hoops analytics expert Eric Haslam Tweeted that the Red Raiders have over-delivered this year more than virtually any team in the nation.
With the exception of maybe Houston, I don't think there's a team we expected less from that has delivered more like Texas Tech has this season.
— Erik Haslam (@haslametrics) February 24, 2019
And as expected, there was plenty of love being shown to Chris Beard after Saturday’s blow-out. In fact, the dominant win on national television seems to be vaulting his name to the top of the coaching ranks.
ESPN analyst Fran Fraschilla compared Beard’s ability to prepare his team to that of New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick. Meanwhile, Dan Wolken of CBS Sports said that Chris Beard is one of the top five coaches in the country.
Chris Beard is one of the five best coaches in college basketball and you will not convince me otherwise
— Dan Wolken (@DanWolken) February 24, 2019
It was as thorough of a victory over a top-25 opponent as we have ever seen in Lubbock. Tech was never challenged and a game that most expected to be a war turned into a huge party as the 15,098 fans in attendance knew the outcome had virtually been decided before the final five minutes of the first half and spent the remainder of the game reveling in the moment.
The 29-point win over the No. 12 team in the nation was the best win of the season for the Red Raiders. It was just the second win of the year over a ranked opponent after a victory over No. 23 Oklahoma in Lubbock on January 8th and it will go down as the only regular season win over a team ranked above the Red Raiders.
So while we are still riding the high from Saturday’s triumph and before we turn our attention to tomorrow’s home game with Oklahoma State, let’s take one final look at the KU game and examine three reasons the Red Raiders were able to beat the Jayhawks.