How Texas Tech fared against Big 12 rivals in 2018-19 academic year
5-2 vs. Kansas
In 2018-19, Texas Tech continued to dominate Kansas in football and baseball wile knocking the Jayhawks off the throne in their signature sport, basketball. For the second-straight year, the Red Raiders managed to go 5-2 against Kansas in the three major men’s sports proving once again to be the better athletic program by a considerable margin.
Tech dominated the Jayhawks back in October at Jones Stadium. In the 48-16 win, Alan Bowman returned to the field after missing the second half of the West Virginia game and all of the TCU game after suffering a collapsed lung at the end of the first half against West Virginia.
Bowman threw for 408 yards and three touchdowns as Tech extended its winning streak over Kansas to 12 games. But this would prove to be the Red Raiders last win of the season as they ended the year with five-straight losses, ultimately spelling the end of the Kingsbury era.
Like the football game, the basketball season series was also lacking in drama. The two games between two of the Big 12’s top three teams were decided by an average of 22.5 points with each being put to bed by halftime.
In Lawrence, KU put an end to a two-game losing streak by thumping Tech 79-63. It was arguably the worst performance of the season for Tech leading to some soul-searching for the Red Raiders as they dropped their fourth of five Big 12 games.
But Beard’s team would not lose another conference game for the remainder of the regular season and by the time Kansas came to Lubbock, the Red Raiders had righted their ship and were mounting a charge to the top of the Big 12 standings after 4-straight wins. The 91-62 Red Raider win was the largest conference loss by Kansas in the Bill Self era as Tech drilled a program-record 16 three-point shots.
The game also put a damper on KU’s hopes of winning their 15th-consecutive regular season conference title. Though it was inevitable for that streak to come to an end at some time, almost no one thought that Texas Tech’s 2018-19 team would be one of the teams (along with Kansas St.) to bring down the Big 12’s version of Goliath.
Moving to the diamond, Tech went 3-1 against Kansas by taking two of three games in Lubbock and another meeting in the Big 12 Tournament. Tech outscored KU by a combined score of 40-26 including a 19-4 shellacking in game-two of the series in Lubbock.
This was a key season for Texas Tech in regards to reaffirming its place above Kansas as an overall athletic program. By keeping its foot on the Jayhawks’ throat in football and baseball and taking away KU’s only source of pride, it’s Big 12 basketball dominance, Tech exerted its dominance over this conference foe in 2018-19.