Texas Tech basketball: What we learned in 2019-20

Staying atop the Big 12 is tough for everyone but KU

Another lesson we learned this year is the fact that staying in the Big 12 title fight on a yearly basis is brutally tough for every team other than Kansas.  Tech fans were reminded of that thanks to a disappointing sixth-place finish which followed last year’s regular-season co-championship.

In fact, Tech was rather fortunate to have been in the top three of the league standings over the past two years.  After all, the program had never managed to accomplish such a feat in consecutive years in the history of Big 12 hoops.

But it wasn’t just Tech that learned this lesson.  Consider how Kansas State was humbled in 2019-20.

After sharing last year’s regular-season crown with the Red Raiders, the Wildcats finished last in the conference this season with just a 3-15 record in league play.  That makes Tech’s sixth-place finish seem a little easier to swallow.

Last year, it was West Virginia that was reminded how tough life in the Big 12 can be.  After finishing tied with Tech for second place in 2018, the Mountaineers were last in the league standings last year with a record of 4-14 record.

How about Oklahoma?  This year, they finished third in the Big 12 in a bit of a surprise season.  But when you consider that it was their first top-3 finish in the league since 2015-16 you can see that it is more than tough to get a program to the top of the conference on a yearly basis unless that program is housed in Lawrence, Kansas where waves of 5-star prospects and McDonald’s All-Americans flock every year.

Thus, Red Raider fans should not lose heart in the fact that Tech was in the middle of the Big 12 gaggle this year.  Considering how much turnover the program went through after last year, that’s a much better finish than other programs would have been able to manage in a similar situation.