Texas Tech basketball: Red Raiders show improvement during 3-game gauntlet

During the just-completed three-game gauntlet against Kentucky, West Virginia, and Kansas, the Texas Tech basketball team showed encouraging signs of progress in some key areas.

From the outside, the past week of games for the Texas Tech basketball team hasn’t been all that successful.  Going just 1-2 during any three-game stretch is less than ideal for a program with aspirations as lofty as this one has.

But like everything else in sports (and life in general) some context is required.  This was the only stretch on the regular-season schedule that will feature three-straight ranked opponents.

What’s more, two of those opponents are in the top 10 of the NET rankings with Kansas at No. 4 and West Virginia at No. 9.  Additionally, Kentucky is a top 30 team in that regard sitting at No. 27 after losing to Auburn on Saturday.

Also, consider the three head coaches that Chris Beard just matched wits with.  Between Kentucky’s John Calipari, West Virginia’s Bob Huggins, and Kansas’ Bill Self, Tech just face a trio of coaches that have between them  2,281 career wins (an average of 760 per person) and an average winning percentage of .746 (all three coaches have career winning percentages above .700).

That’s life in the Big 12 and it’s why fans of major conference opponents have the right to claim that our programs have a much more difficult road to March than mid-major programs.  Certainly, there are some fantastic mid-major programs throughout the nation but by not playing in a major conference, they see their season records inflate to the point that they earn higher NCAA Tournament seeds than they might have if they were to have played the type of schedule that a Big 12, SEC, or ACC team will have to fight through.

Of course, the most notable is Gonzaga.  Currently No. 2 in the nation, the Bulldogs have wins against the likes of No. 11 Oregon, No. 22 Arizona, and No. 15 Washington as well as North Carolina.

But it’s worth pointing out that of those teams, only Oregon is currently still ranked.  And in their conference schedule, the Zags will not play a single team that is currently ranked. Just consider the fact that over the past week, the three teams Gonzaga has played have been Pacific, Santa Clara, and San Francisco and you can see why it is far easier the Mark Few’s team to earn a top seed in the Big Dance than it is for Chris Beard’s.

Let’s not just pick the Zags though.  Think about No. 4 San Diego State’s road to March.   If you peruse the Aztecs’ schedule, you will not find a single ranked opponent.

Again, it’s not to suggest that they don’t have a very good team.  After all, they have wins against two teams that have beaten Tech; Creighton and Iowa.  But while Tech has spent the last week facing three of the sports giants, SDSU has been toying with UNLV, New Mexico, and Utah State.  Each of those teams has already accrued at least five losses this year despite not playing a major conference type of schedule.

The point is that we should appreciate how tough the last three games have been for Texas Tech and it would tough for any team to come out of that stretch unscathed.  When you then consider that Tech still has to face No. 1 Baylor on the road and No. 3 KU in Lubbock as well as having already played No. 1 Louisville back in December, it underscores just how challenging of a schedule Beard put together to fortify his extremely young team.

Now though, the schedule presents some opportunities for Tech to pick up some momentum against teams that are not considered elite.  Fortunately, this team is starting to play its best collective basketball of the year and is showing some improvement in critical areas of the game, which could lead to a string of success after a few weeks of inconsistent play and up and down performances.  Let’s take a look at where the Red Raiders have shown some signs of exciting progress during their last three games.