Texas Tech basketball: What the showdown with Kentucky means for Red Raiders
The biggest weekend of the Lubbock sports year will be a basketball game
For decades, football has dominated the West Texas sports landscape. For generations of fans, Tech’s home game with either Texas or Texas A&M was the biggest weekend of the year in Lubbock.
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Even since the Aggies jumped to the SEC, the top football game of the year, whether that be against TCU, OK State, or Oklahoma has been the event that has drawn thousands of alumni and fans back to town. But this year, people who may only be able to make one trip to Lubbock each year will likely decide to return for a basketball game. It is hard to remember that ever being the case.
Given that the basketball program is the hottest thing going in Lubbock these days, this was bound to happen. With Red Raider hoops now the pride and joy of the university and football scuffling, it is fitting that the university’s showcase weekend be centered around Chris Beard’s team.
What’s more, this comes in a year when the 2019 home football schedule is atrocious. With neither Texas or Oklahoma set to visit Lubbock, the only team on Tech’s home slate that will be ranked to begin the year is Iowa State and the Cyclones do not incite much emotion from the Red Raider fan base.
What’s more, the only non-conference teams coming to Jones Stadium this year are Montana State and UTEP. It would have been nice for this year’s mandatory out of conference game to be at home but that is not the case as Tech travels to Tempe to take on Arizona in week-3.
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That all means that the Red Raider basketball team will be the focal point of the biggest weekend we will see for the entirety of the upcoming school year. Tech has always brought life to the West Texas plains but never has a Red Raider basketball game been what the entire community has pointed towards as the most special weekend of the year. However, that will be the case when Kentucky comes to town.