Texas Tech basketball all-decade team: The point guards

Third Team: Robert Turner

By the time Robert Turner arrived from New Mexico Junior College in 2013, most Texas Tech fans had completely thrown in the towel on the program given the chaos of the two previous years that included the Gillespie debacle and the Chris Walker interim year.

But Turner was a steady point guard for new head coach Tubby Smith and that duo helped to stabilize the program both on and off the court.  Though most fans likely didn’t tune back into Red Raider hoops until after Turner’s career ended in 2015, those that did pay attention appreciated his contributions.

Starting 61 of his 64 games at Tech, the 6-foot-3 native of Georgia averaged 8.8 points, 2.8 rebounds, and 2.2 assists per game.  Not a great shooter (29% from 3-point range and 66.4% from the free-throw line), he was adept at getting into the lane and scoring in traffic as well as creating open looks for teammates.

Ending his time in Lubbock with 21 double-digit scoring games, he had a career-high 21 against Northern Arizona in 2013 and 19 at Texas later that same season.

Unfortunately, his teams managed to go just 27-37 in his two years on campus and he never got the glory that other players of his caliber enjoyed because he came around just before Red Raider hoops became cool again. Still, Turner was the type of point guard teams could win with.  Maybe not properly cast in a starting role, he would have been a nice piece for a good team to bring off the bench and he would make a nice No. 3 point guard on the 2010s all-decade team.