Wreck'Em Red
Fansided

Texas Tech basketball: 5 turning points in the 2018-19 season

By Matthew Conner

ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA - MARCH 30: Head coach Chris Beard of the Texas Tech Red Raiders cuts the net after defeating the Gonzaga Bulldogs during the 2019 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament West Regional at Honda Center on March 30, 2019 in Anaheim, California. (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)
ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA - MARCH 30: Head coach Chris Beard of the Texas Tech Red Raiders cuts the net after defeating the Gonzaga Bulldogs during the 2019 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament West Regional at Honda Center on March 30, 2019 in Anaheim, California. (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
1 of 6
Next
(Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images)
(Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images) /

As we continue to look back on the unbelievable 2018-19 Texas Tech basketball season, let’s examine five turning points that helped shape the Red Raiders on their improbable run.

If the Texas Tech basketball program is able to evolve into a perennial factor on the national scene, as so many in the fan base are predicting, we will look back on the 2018-19 as the turning point.  And within any season, there are defining moments that forever alter the trajectory of a team and potentially a program.

For instance, in the 2017-18 season, when the Red Raiders reached the Elite 8 for the first time, there were a number of turning points.  There was the 82-76 OT comeback win over Nevada in Lubbock, the first ever win for Tech basketball in Lawrence, Kansas, Keenan Evans’ buzzer beater to beat Texas in Lubbock and of course, the toe injury he suffered in Waco five games later.

Likewise, any Red Raider football fan could easily point to the two times when QB Alan Bowman sustained a collapsed lung as turning points in both the 2018 season and the history of Red Raider football.  Had those moments not occurred, Tech almost certainly does not go on a 5-game losing streak to end the year and the Kliff Kingsbury era would be headed into year seven with plenty of optimism.

As for this year’s baseball team, Tim Tadlock’s mid-season decision to move All-American third baseman Josh Jung to shortstop was a gamble that paid off in spades.  With Tech sitting at just .500 in Big 12 play despite playing the three bottom teams in the league, Tadlock moved his best player to a new position to help sure up some defensive liabilities and get sophomore Parker Kelly’s bat into the lineup.

Since that move, Tech has gone 13-4 on its way to claiming the Big 12 regular season title.  Other moves such as inserting Micah Dallas into the weekend rotation have also helped vault the Red Raiders back into consideration as a national contender but it all began with Jung’s move to shortstop.

But the recently completed Texas Tech basketball season, for all its drama and excitement on the court, was lacking such obvious turning points.  There were no key mid-season injuries (until the Tariq Owens sprained ankle in the Final Four), no significant roster or rotation adjustments (in fact, the starting five remained the same virtually all season) and no dramatic singular coaching moves that would appear to be obvious turning points.

However, there are a number of moments that we can point to as times when this season could have swung in either direction.  Let’s look back at five turning points and how they helped shape the best season in program history.

Home/Texas Tech Red Raiders News