Texas Tech basketball: What we learned in 2019-20
Relying too heavily on freshmen is tough
It was fascinating this year to see one of the nation’s best coaches work with a roster that featured six freshmen. That’s not ideal for what Beard wants as he has said more than a few times over the last few years that age and experience are critical for success, especially in March.
While the trio of Jahmi’us Ramsey, Kevin McCullar, and Terrence Shannon Jr. all played very well in their freshman seasons, it was evident that one huge difference between this year’s team and previous Texas Tech teams that had deep runs in the NCAA Tournament was how much of the load freshmen had to carry.
The six freshmen on the roster this year (not counting Tyreke Smith who redshirted because of a foot injury) averaged 89.1 combined minutes per game. That’s 44.5% of the 200 minutes available for each game.
Last year, true freshmen averaged just 21.2 minutes per game with almost all of that coming from Kyler Edwards‘ 17.8. Even two years ago, Jarrett Culver, Zhaire Smith, and Davide Moretti averaged just 66.9 minutes per game as freshmen.
What’s more, the only seniors on this year’s roster were two grad transfers who were also learning the Chris Beard system and Red Raider culture along with the freshmen. In two previous seasons, Tech had seniors such as Keenan Evans, Zach Smith, and Justin Gray in 2018 and Norense Odiase and Brandone Francis last season who had been part of the program for multiple years and were able to lead the way both on and off the floor.
It is fair to surmise that part of this team’s struggles in close games this year were due to the Red Raiders’ lack of senior leadership. As games closed, Tech typically had only two upperclassmen on the court in senior T.J. Holyfield and junior Davide Moretti with the rest of the lineup usually being sophomore Kyler Edwards and freshmen Ramsey and McCullar or Shannon and time and again, we saw key mistakes in the final minutes doom Beard’s team.
It is a reminder that relying too heavily on freshmen is always a dicey proposition. Regardless of how talented these first-year players are, and this year’s freshmen could be the best we’ve ever seen in Lubbock, there is still a huge learning curve at the Big 12 level and that makes life tough when freshmen are playing nearly half of the minutes for your team.