Continuing our look at the best Texas Tech basketball players of this decade, we look at the top small forwards to lace ’em up for the Scarlet and Black.
The small forward position is the Swiss Army knife of the game of basketball. And never has that position been more important to the Texas Tech basketball program that it is during the Chris Beard era.
Wanting a team that is as close to positionless as possible, the Red Raider head coach has placed a premium on finding and developing players that would fit best into the small forward role and one has to believe that if he had his way, he might play five small forwards at once. Between 6-foot-6 and 6-foot-8. capable of handling the ball, shooting the ball and passing the ball all as well as any player on the floor, these players are also asked to defend virtually any spot on the court and battle for rebounds.
Tech runs a unique defensive system these days in which every ball screen is switched. Therefore, the more players in the mold of the small forward that Beard can put on the floor, the better his team can execute that scheme, which is the brainchild of assistant coach Mark Adams.
The 2019-20 team features such players as T.J. Shannon, Chris Clarke, Andrei Savrasov, and Tyreek Smith (who has not played yet because of a foot injury) who would be considered small forwards. And UNLV transfer Joel Ntambwe is also a player who will bring to the court what a 3-man would but we will have to wait until next year to see him in action.
But even before Beard arrived, Tech had seen its share of fantastic small forwards. For instance, the program’s all-time leading scorer, Andre Emmett was a small forward. From 2001-04, the Dallas native scored 2,256 points (a Big 12 record at the time) while pulling down an average of 5.8 rebounds per game.
Right after Emmett’s career ended Martin Zeno (2005-08) showed up in Lubbock. The Louisiana lefty is fifth in program history with 1,913 points and he averaged 4.8 rebounds per game.
Hopefully, Beard has found the next great Texas Tech small forward in the class of 2020. 6-foot-7 forward Micah Peavy from Duncanville, Texas has signed with the Red Raiders. He is the No. 43 player in the nation according to 247Sports and he is everything that a coach could want in a 3-man.
But before we look ahead, let’s appreciate the small forwards we saw come through Lubbock in the past 10 years because there have been some great ones. So here are the Texas Tech basketball all-decade small forwards, starting with some who just missed the cut.