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Texas Tech basketball: Other seasons that didn’t live up to the hype

By Matthew Conner

LUBBOCK, TEXAS - NOVEMBER 05: The Texas Tech Red Raiders play against the Eastern Illinois Panthers during the second half of the college basketball game at United Supermarkets Arena on November 05, 2019 in Lubbock, Texas. (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images)
LUBBOCK, TEXAS - NOVEMBER 05: The Texas Tech Red Raiders play against the Eastern Illinois Panthers during the second half of the college basketball game at United Supermarkets Arena on November 05, 2019 in Lubbock, Texas. (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images) /
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LUBBOCK, TX – NOVEMBER 19: Head coach Chris Beard of the Texas Tech Red Raiders talks to his team at a time out during the game against the Eastern Kentucky Colonels on November 19, 2016 at United Supermarkets Arena in Lubbock, Texas. Texas Tech won the game 90-71. (Photo by John Weast/Getty Images)
LUBBOCK, TX – NOVEMBER 19: Head coach Chris Beard of the Texas Tech Red Raiders talks to his team at a time out during the game against the Eastern Kentucky Colonels on November 19, 2016 at United Supermarkets Arena in Lubbock, Texas. Texas Tech won the game 90-71. (Photo by John Weast/Getty Images) /

Tech takes a step back in Beard’s first year, 2016-17

Admittedly, expectations were rather inflated for Chris Beard’s first season as head coach in 2016-17.  After all, the program was coming off its first NCAA Tournament bid in nine years and returned most of the key principles from that run including Keenan Evans, Norense Odiase, Zach Smith, and Justin Gray.

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Additionally, there was plenty of excitement about Beard after he had helped engineer an upset of No. 4 seed Purdue in the previous season’s Tournament while at Arkansas-Little Rock.  It seemed like a perfect recipe for a big season.  But ultimately, an 18-14 overall record was not good enough to get into the Big Dance as the Red Raiders missed out on the postseason.

As we now know, learning how to play the Chris Beard way isn’t easy.  And much like the 2019-20 Red Raiders, a team that is also chalked full of players in their first year of the Beard system, that team struggled to close out close games.

Beard’s first team in Lubbock caught a bad break (no pun intended) early in the season when Odiase broke his foot prior to the start of the regular season.  He would ultimately be limited to just three games as he was forced to take a medical redshirt.

Still, the presence of grad transfer Anthony Livingston gave Tech some extra size and scoring from its collection of big men.  The transfer who followed Beard from UALR would go on to average 9.9 points and 3.7 rebounds that year, his only season as a Red Raider.

Dropping six games that were decided by fewer than five points and another game that went to double-OT, Beard’s first team in Lubbock experienced the same growing pains as this year’s team did.  Struggling to find a closer while learning how to fill new roles and do the little things that Beard demands, the ’16-’17 Red Raiders were a team that frustrated fans as they gave us little more than moral victories to celebrate.

There was the 83-74 double-OT loss at No. 9 West Virginia that saw Tech have shots to win the game at the end of regulation and the first OT.  In an 82-80 loss at home to Iowa State in Lubbock, the Red Raiders failed to even get a shot off as they dribbled out the clock on the final possession of the game.

The most heartbreaking defeat was a one-point home loss to No. 3 Kansas.  In the 80-79 contest, Tech allowed KU to score the winning point on a free throw with just under three seconds to play.

But that season set the tone for the next season’s run to the Elite Eight as it hardened the Red Raiders.  Evans became a go-to scorer and closer, Odiase returned to provide leadership, and Justin Gray embraced his role as the team’s glue-guy and all three were critical a season later as part of a team that made program history.

The all-decade Texas Tech point guards. dark. Next

Hopefully, that same fortification process plays out for the current roster this season.  If players like Terrence Shannon Jr., Kyler Edwards, and Kevin McCullar all take what they learned this season and become better for the struggle, we could look back on 2019-20 the same way we do 2016-17…as a season that was the foundation of something special for Beard and his program.

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