Texas Tech basketball: Why this year’s roster is so undersized

As the Texas Tech basketball team continues to struggle in the post, it’s worth looking at the factors that led to this year’s roster being so undersized.

Tuesday night’s 65-54 loss to TCU was yet another frustrating game for Texas Tech basketball fans because once again, the Red Raiders were thoroughly dominated in the post. That has left a significant portion of the fan base wondering just why this year’s team is so undersized.

Putting together this roster was never going to be easy. Chris Beard had to replace six players from the eight-man rotation that carried his team to last season’s National Championship Game.

But still, we all had faith in his ability to reconstruct his team on the fly. After all, given that he’s spent the majority of his head coaching career moving from stop to stop on nearly an annual basis, this isn’t the first rebuild he’s had to oversee.

The difference though is that he’s never had to endure such a difficult task while competing in arguably the most competitive and rugged conference in the nation. Additionally, he’s never had to rely on seven freshmen and nine overall newcomers.

Regardless, didn’t he realize that he would have to add more size to this year’s team, many will rightfully ask. Without question. The problem is that many of the ways he tried to address this issue didn’t pan out the way he had hoped.

First, there were two big men that simply didn’t develop as Beard had hoped. If they had, they would both be playing significant roles on this year’s team.

The first was Malik Ondigo, a 2017 signee. Many forget that the 6-foot-11 product was rated the No. 167 player in the nation by 247Sports when he signed with Tech. In other words, he was not just a project that Tech took a flyer on. Rather, he was a player that this program expected to become a contributor.

In his two years as a Red Raider though, he averaged just 5.7 minutes per game during which he scored only 1.2 points and pulled down 1 rebound per game. He was never able to develop into a consistent player on either end of the floor as it seemed like the mental aspect of the game was where he lagged most severely.

Last offseason, he and Beard mutually agreed that he needed a fresh start and he transferred to Rice. But he wasn’t the only big man that left the program last year after not proving capable of playing at the Big 12 level.

Josh Mballa, a native of France, was with the Red Raiders last season as a true freshman. The 6-foot-7, 215-pounder saw action in just 17 games a season ago. He averaged 0.8 points and 0.3 rebounds per game and looked absolutely lost when he was on the floor.

But perhaps Tech should have held on to him for another year. After transferring to Buffalo, he’s blossomed into a nice player. Having started all 19 games this year for the Bulls, he’s averaging 10.8 points and 8.8 rebounds per game. Those numbers would be lower in the Big 12 but there’s no doubt that he would be able to help this year’s Red Raider team.

When those two post players left, Beard knew his roster needed a boost in the paint so he turned to a familiar source for reinforcements, the grad transfer market. While that’s where he landed forward T.J. Holyfield, he did miss out on another big man who had experience in a major conference.

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6-foot-10 forward Yanni Wetzell was down to Tech or San Diego State this summer and he picked the Aztecs. After three years at Vanderbilt, he’s now averaging 12.3 points and 6.4 rebounds per game for the No. 4 team in the nation and he’s a huge reason they are 20-0 on the year.

Of course, Beard also spent significant time trying to add more size in the form of high school recruits. In fact, 247Sports shows that he extended 19 offers to power forwards and centers in the class of 2019.

Among that group were 6-foot-10 Drew Timme from Richardson, Texas (9.4 points, 5.7 rebounds for Gonzaga this year), 6-foot-9 Akok Akok (6.5 points and 6.2 rebounds for UCONN), and 6-foot-10 Jonathan Aku (1.2 points 2.4 rebounds for Texas A&M). While he missed on those players, he did bring 7-foot Russel Tchewa into the fold and in upcoming contests gainst against Kentucky, West Virginia, and Kansas, all of which have elite size inside, we might see more of the freshman.

To say that Tchewa is a frightening experience for Red Raider fans to endure on the offensive end of the floor might be an understatement. He’s averaging just 1.6 points per game and has shown a limited ability to make even the most simple of plays with the ball.

But you just can’t coach size like that and it might be time to take the training wheels off and give him more than the 5.9 minutes per game that he’s averaged. That’s because it isn’t likely that any reinforcements are coming.

We learned Wednesday that the NCAA had denied the reconsideration waiver filed by 6-foot-8 forward Joel Ntambwe meaning that for the second time since November, the UNLV transfer has been told by the NCAA that he can’t play this year. If the four or five-person panel that will next hear his appeal doesn’t grant him eligibility, he’s going to have exhausted all of his options for getting on the floor this season.

Meanwhile, 6-foot-7 forward Tyreek Smith continues to slowly work his way back from a broken foot suffered in November. Even if he is eventually healthy enough to return to action this year, it’s worth wondering if a true freshman who has never played a college basketball game will be much of a help if thrust into Big 12 play immediately, especially given how much practice time he’s missed due to his injury.

That’s how we got to the current situation. It has been a combination of recruiting misses, players that didn’t develop as planned, injuries, and NCAA nonsense that all combined to put the Red Raiders in their current bind. Whether or not they figure out how to overcome the roster’s most glaring flaw will be the biggest key to this season.