Texas Tech basketball: Ranking the all-time Red Raider point guards
No. 4: Sean Gay 1986-89
The No. 4 player on this list certainly could fit into either the shooting guard or point guard role. Ranking No. 3 in program history with 432 career assists and No. 12 with 1,597 points, Sean Gay remains one of the best guards to ever come through Lubbock.
A three-time All-Southwest Conference selection, including first-team honors in 1988-89, the 6-foot-3 guard was the first player in program history to amass at least 1,500 points, 350 rebounds, 325 assists, and 125 steals during his career. To this day, only three other players have reached those totals.
A double-digit scorer every year of his career, he averaged 15 points or more in each of his last three seasons. In his senior season, 1988-89, he averaged 15.7 points, 4.9 rebounds, 4.6 assists, and 1.5 steals per game.
In addition, he was one of the top defensive point guards in program history. The 3-time all-conference defensive team selection ranks second in Texas Tech history with 196 career steals.
A member of the 1986 NCAA tournament team as a freshman, Gay ranked second on that year’s team in points (10.2) and third in assists (2.5) per game. And as a tough, hard-nosed player, Gay twice led Tech in rebounding (1986-87,1988-89).
What’s more, in both his freshman and senior seasons, he led the Red Raiders in blocks. With those types of defensive stats, there’s no doubt he would have been a perfect fit in Chris Beard’s system.
Starting all but eight of his career 115 games, Gay is all over the Texas Tech career leader boards. He is 9th in career field goals with 611, 9th in assists per game with 3.7, third in steals per game with 1.7, and he owns two of the top ten seasons in program history in terms of total steals.
It is such a huge luxury to have your best player be your point guard, especially at the collegiate level. And in the late 1980s that was the case for Texas Tech as Sean Gay was one of the best players in the Southwest Conference.