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Texas Tech basketball: New G-League program won’t hurt Red Raiders

By Matthew Conner

FORT WAYNE, IN - OCTOBER 22: General view of the NBA Development League logo on the floor during a preseason game between the Indiana Pacers and the Charlotte Hornets at Allen County War Memorial Coliseum on October 22, 2015 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The Pacers defeated the Hornets 98-86. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using the photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)
FORT WAYNE, IN - OCTOBER 22: General view of the NBA Development League logo on the floor during a preseason game between the Indiana Pacers and the Charlotte Hornets at Allen County War Memorial Coliseum on October 22, 2015 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The Pacers defeated the Hornets 98-86. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using the photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /
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Zion Williamson #1 of the Duke Blue Devils (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
Zion Williamson #1 of the Duke Blue Devils (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images) /

One-and-done players don’t typically win titles

Texas Tech fans may not want to hear this given that our program is now producing one-and-done draft picks but it is actually rather rare for those players to win national titles.  That’s especially true when you look at the number of players in recent years that have clearly carried their teams to the promised land as the unquestioned alpha-male on the roster.

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For instance, last year’s Final Four featured no one-and-done players.  The closest to that were Jarrett Culver and Virginia’s De’Andre Hunter, both of whom were lottery picks as sophomores.

In fact, that year Duke had three of the top five recruits in the nation playing as freshmen and the Blue Devils failed to get past the Elite Eight.  Of course, the team that knocked them off was Michigan State, which Texas Tech beat in Minneapolis.

The last time the No. 1 recruit won a national title as a freshman was in 2015 when Jhalil Okafor helped Duke win it all.  What’s more, he is the only top-10 recruit in the nation to cut down the nets at the Final Four since then.

Instead, teams like Villanova, Virginia, and UCONN have won titles in the last six years by relying heavily on veteran rosters that play as a team and which have been through the wars together. That sounds much more like a Chris Beard team.

Beard often talks about the importance of having age on his team.  He believes that juniors, and especially seniors, bring intangibles to the mix that freshmen simply can’t.

Texas Tech basketball fans understand that idea because we’ve seen what seniors have done for our programs during the last four years.  Thus, we are perhaps more interested in Beard’s recruitment of grad transfers than freshmen these days.

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The fact that the NBA G League’s revamped development system is going to bring about a new era in college hoops is undeniable and what’s more, many believe that the NBA will soon start to accept players straight from high school again.  But regardless of the fact that Tech is recruiting at a level that we’ve never before seen for the program, there’s no reason to believe that Beard won’t find a way to have his team in the mix more often than not and there’s no one better suited to lead Tech into this new era of the game than arguably the best coach in the game today.

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