Texas Tech basketball: Why Chris Beard was no-brainer Coach of the Year

The seamless integration of Tariq Owens and Matt Mooney

Two of the biggest successes stories from this year’s Final Four run have been grad transfers Matt Mooney and Tariq Owens.  And do not underestimate how difficult it can be to work new players into a new scheme, especially considering that both transfers were not with the Red Raiders until late summer.

What’s more, both Mooney and Owens had to change the way they play because of Tech’s unique schemes on both ends of the court.  Mooney spent the previous two seasons as the primary scoring option at South Dakota where he had to only focus on putting the ball into the basket and not as much on running the offense and creating opportunities for his teammates.

Meanwhile, Owens came from a completely different system at St. John’s where the offense was more of an NBA isolation style and the defense required far less switching on screens and did not have the same points of emphasis as Tech’s exotic and unusual defensive scheme.

Though the Big 12 was heavily populated with impact graduate transfers this year, Tech was the only team that put two grad transfers on one of the All-Big 12 teams.  Mooney was a second-team All-Conference player and both he and Owens were All-Defensive teams selections.

Certainly, both Mooney and Owens were two of the most valued grad transfers available last summer meaning they were already excellent players.  But Beard was table to get them to buy into his demanding system and turn them into two of the best players in the Big 12.