Texas Tech basketball: Factors that led to Red Raiders’ loss at DePaul
As we look inside the box score of the Texas Tech basketball team’s 65-60 overtime loss to DePaul, we can easily see why the Red Raiders lost their third-straight game.
The past week has been a harsh lesson for Texas Tech basketball fans as we’ve learned how challenging it is to enter the season as the hunted rather than the hunter. After last year’s run to the National Title Game, the Red Raiders are now a marquee opponent for virtually every team on the schedule and that was evident Wednesday night in Chicago when the DePaul fans rushed the court after their 9-0 team beat a 5-3 team.
It’s a bit of a compliment to be a team that is worth court-storming but it is also a reality check. Tech is now a trophy. Wins over the Red Raiders are what programs like Iowa, Creighton, and DePaul will point to on Selection Sunday in March as validations of their worthiness for bids to the Big Dance.
In fact, many people are now saying that beating Tech was a validation of DePaul’s quality despite the fact that the Blue Demons already held wins over Minnesota and Iowa. It’s a new role for the Red Raiders and one that isn’t necessarily a great fit for a roster that is working six freshmen into its rotation.
Even veteran teams may struggle with the extra burden of wearing a target on their backs every night. There simply aren’t that many programs in the nation that are accustomed to be the Super Bowl for 85% or more of their opponents.
Tech isn’t quite at that level yet but for every team Chris Beard’s squad will face outside of Louisville, Kentucky, and Kansas, beating the Red Raiders will be quite the feather in the cap. No longer will the fans in places such as Stillwater or Morgantown see the little ole Red Raiders on the schedule and view that game with relative indifference.
Such is the reality for a program that aspires to join the ranks of the elite. It’s a reality that this team had better start to embrace in a hurry.
There are only four games remaining before Big 12 play opens when Oklahoma State comes calling on January 4th. After that comes a critical visit from Baylor, a team most expect to be a conference contender.
Though those games are going to be held in the cozy confines of the U.S.A., we know that Tech had best be prepared for the Cowboys’ and Bears’ best shots. What’s more, now that this year’s version of the Red Raiders has shown some early vulnerability, there will be less of an intimidation factor for opponents as they may smell blood in the water.
But learning how to carry the weight of being a big boy program is something the has to happen if we are going to see Tech hoops ascend to where we all envision. Despite the fact that it is still early in the process of remaking this program into a blue-blood caliber program, we are already seeing how difficult it can be to go from the spunky little underdogs to the prized big game trophy that everyone wants to hang on their wall.
Like most fans, when DePaul popped up as Tech’s opponent in the first Big 12 / Big East Battle…Showdown…Challenge…whatever you want to call it, I was less than amped for a game with the Blue Demons. It seemed below a program that had just come within a whisper of winning it all to have to go on the road to face a program that hasn’t been in the NCAA Tournament since 2004.
But we had better start to view every game this year as a potential underground cage fight, the old school kind where the match has no time limit and the only way it ends is when one combatant can’t get back to his feet. It feels like this year is going to be a gauntlet with Tech now sitting on top of the mountain trying to fend off hungry challengers at every turn.
Wednesday, this young and incomplete team failed to prevent DePaul from claiming a Double-T trophy to put on its resume. And when we look at the box score, just why Tech couldn’t come away with the much-needed win becomes easy to ascertain.