Texas Tech basketball: Kyler Edwards needs to build off strong NCAA Tournament

Kyler Edwards finished last season strong for the Texas Tech basketball team and now he needs to build on his showing in the NCAA Tournament and take his game to a new level.

We learn the most about people when the stage is the biggest and the lights are the brightest.  When everything is on the line, we find out who possesses the strength and poise to take their performance to the next level.  In April, that’s what Texas Tech basketball fans saw from guard Kyler Edwards, who had his best game of the year at the most important of times.

In the National Title Game, Edwards capped off his freshman season with 12 points, three rebounds, and an assist in Tech’s 85-77 overtime loss and had it not been for his impact, the Red Raiders likely wouldn’t have made it to the extra five-minute period.

Coming off the bench, Edwards set up Davide Moretti for Tech’s first made field goal of the game to help the Red Raiders finally find their footing on that end of the court.  Previously, Tech had gone 0-8 from the floor in the first seven-plus minutes of the game to fall into a 9-3 hole but Edwards’ brought a much-needed spark to his team.

Later in the first half, he scored five points in a four-minute span, the last two of which came at the free-throw line and gave the Red Raiders their first lead of the game at 23-21.  After the break, he became even more vital to the team when forward Tariq Owens could not play due to a sprained ankle.

Seeing more minutes as the Tech rotation shrank without Owens, Edwards was poised and confident while scoring seven points after the break.  In fact, it could be argued that he was Tech’s second-best player that night after Brandone Francis, who had a team-high 17 points.

Though both Davide Moretti and Jarrett Culver had 15 points, it took each at least ten shots to get their points while Edwards was an efficient 4-5 from the field including 2-3 from 3-point range.  It was a continuation of his strong play in the NCAA Tournament as the Arlington native saved his best play for the most important game of his life.

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In the first three games of the tournament, Edwards scored just nine total points and he was even held off the scoreboard in the opening round against Northern Kentucky.  But when the Elite 8 rolled around, his game took flight.

Against Gonzaga, Edwards scored 8 points and pulled down three rebounds to help the No. 3 seeded Red Raiders take down No. 1 seed Gonzaga to move to the Final Four.   In the National Semifinal, he scored six points and came up with four rebounds in a rugged game against Michigan State in which points were extremely tough to come by.  In fact, the freshman single-handedly outscored the Michigan State bench by a point in Tech’s 61-51 win.

Averaging 8.6 points in his final three games, Edwards raised his scoring over three points per contest in the three biggest games of the season.  His 26 points in the final three games of last season were the most he’d scored in a three-game span since December when he had 27 combined points against Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Northwestern State, and Abilene Christian.

That gave Tech fans some confidence in Edwards’ ability to be more of a consistent and impactful offensive threat as a sophomore.  With 79.3% of the scoring from last year’s team no longer with the program, Edwards has to be a bigger factor with the ball in his hands this season.

Red Raider fans are hoping that Edwards has the type of jump from his freshman to sophomore seasons that two of his 2018-19 teammates did.  Last year, Culver raised his scoring from 11.2 points per game in 2017-18 to 18.5 points per game while Moretti saw his jump from 3.5 to 11.5.

If Edwards can be a player that averages double digits this year, he will help assuage some of the concerns that exist about where this team’s offense is going to come from.  Outside of Moretti, no player on the roster has proven to be a go-to offensive option while wearing the Double-T leaving fans to wonder where the offense for this team will come from, especially in the clutch.

There is enough individual talent on paper for Chris Beard to feel confident that his motion offense will remain effective.  But in the most high-pressure of moments, he will need to figure out which players he can rely on to take the big shots with the game on the line.

Kyler Edwards may be one of Beard’s best options this year.  After all, based on what we saw in April, he seems to enjoy those moments when everyone is watching.