Texas Tech basketball: Ramifications of Deshawn Corprew’s departure

Now that Texas Tech basketball coach Chris Beard has confirmed that junior Deshawn Corprew has left the program, let’s look at how this news will impact the 2019-20 team.

For weeks, it has been rumored that junior forward Deshawn Corprew’s time with the Texas Tech basketball program was likely over following his indefinite suspension in the wake of Title IX allegations back in June.  This week, Chris Beard confirmed those rumors by revealing on Jon Rothstein’s College Hoops Today podcast that the former JUCO transfer is no longer with the program.

The Virginia native spent just one season with the Red Raider after helping lead South Plains Junior College to the 2017-18 JUCO national title.  He arrived in Lubbock as the No. 1 ranked JUCO small forward in the nation according to 247Sports and with three years of eligibility remaining.

Prior to heading to South Plains, Corprew was a highly-regarded high school prospect.  He held offers from Missouri, Florida State, Kansas, Louisville, and Texas A&M as a 4-star prospect.  In fact, he was at one time committed to the Aggies in addition to being briefly committed to Arkansas-Little Rock, which was at the time coached by Chris Beard.

Last season, the rugged 6-foot-5 210-pounder was a key reserve for the Red Raiders as they made their run to the National Title game.  He averaged 5 points, 3.3 rebounds, 0.4 assists, and 0.4 steals per game in 13.5 minutes of action.

Corprew had seven double-digit games at Tech twice reaching his career-high of 13.  Both of those outings came in non-conference play as he hung a baker’s dozen on both UT-Rio Grande Valley and Northern Colorado.

In Big 12 play, his best game was 10-point 3-rebound showing against West Virginia in Lubbock.  In the Red Raiders’ massive blowout, he was 3-3 from the field with two 3-pointers.

But so much of what Corprew brought to the court could not be measured in the box score.  His junkyard dog mentality allowed him to play bigger than his stature and he often gave Beard valuable minutes as a player capable of guarding other team’s big forwards.

He was also a dogged rebounder who was unafraid to stick his nose in the middle of the fight to come away with key boards.  Not every contributor has to be a prolific scorer or stuff the stat sheet on a nightly basis and Corprew exemplified that sentiment by helping provide his team with a physicality and intensity that was a perfect fit for the nation’s best defensive team.

According to Sportsreference.com, he was sixth on the team in defensive rating (an estimate of the number of points he would have surrendered per 100 possessions) at 87.8.   And given that two of the players ahead of him, Avery Benson and Parker Hicks, were not regular rotation members, you could argue that Corprew was Tech’s 4-best defender behind Norense Odiase, Tariq Owens, and Jarrett Culver.

His mental and physical toughness would have been a nice asset on the 2019-20 team which will feature seven freshmen.  Corprew would have been looked to as an example of how the Red Raiders handle themselves in practice and on the court.

But because he appears not to have been able to handle himself off the court, Beard will not have Corprew to lean on in that regard.   Though it may seem like a player with his stats could be replaced rather easily, he will still be missed for the intangibles he brought to the program.  Let’s take a deeper look at the ramifications of his departure.