Wednesday, the Texas Tech basketball program picked up a commitment from grad transfer Marcus Santos-Silva from Virginia Commonwealth.
The 2020-21 Texas Tech basketball team added a huge piece to the puzzle on Wednesday when Marcus Santos-Silva announced his intention to finish out his college career in Lubbock. Anytime you can add the best player from a program as stout as Virginia Commonwealth, it’s a huge boost and that’s what the Red Raiders are going to receive from their newest big man.
The 6-foot-7, 250-pounder plays much bigger than his height might make one believe. (We will break down his game in just a moment to see what makes him so effective.)
Last year, he averaged 12.8 points and 8.9 rebounds per game to lead VCU in both categories. He started all 31 games of the season and was without question the most important player on his team.
https://twitter.com/Marcus7345/status/1255550991816101888?s=20
As a recruit in the class of 2017, he was just the No. 77 power forward in the nation and the No. 3 player in the state of Vermont according to 247Sports. He held offers from Temple and Kansas State in addition to VCU.
Texas Tech fans don’t spend much time watching Atlantic 10 basketball so this is not a name that was as familiar as that of a guy like Purdue’s Matt Haarms, a 7-foot-3 center who picked BYU over Tech and Kentucky just last week. Fortunately, at just about the same time that Haarms was off the board, Santos-Silva put his name in the transfer portal and Beard was quick to extend an offer.
Thus, it was only logical to go back and watch the game from this past November when Virginia Commonwealth and Purdue faced off in the semifinals of the Emerald Coast Classic. It was a frenetic, sloppy, rock fight of a game that looked just like a typical Big 12 contest making it a perfect study for Texas Tech fans who want to see how Santos-Silva might fare in his new conference.
In the end, Haarms and Purdue were able to prevail 59-56 but the best player on the floor for either team was Santos-Silva. If you have extra time during this period of social isolation, you can watch the game at this link and as we move throughout this look at the newest Red Raider, we will refer back to this contest quite a bit.
Though his team came up short, Santos-Silva was a force with a game-high 19 points. No other player on his team had more than nine. He also had two rebounds and two steals.
Meanwhile, Haarms mustered a mere six points and four rebounds before fouling out. Additionally, Purdue’s other big man, 6-foot-9 Travion Williams, also fouled out but he was more of a factor with 10 points and 7 rebounds off the bench. What’s most interesting is the fact that the vast majority of the ten fouls the two Purdue big men picked up were a result of Santos-Silva’s physical play on both ends of the floor.
After watching that game, I couldn’t be more excited about what he will bring to the table next season because his skill set and size are perfect additions to what Chris Beard already had on the roster. So let’s go inside Marcus Santos-Silva’s game and see what we might be able to expect from the latest big-time grad transfer to decide to call Lubbock home.