Wreck'Em Red
Fansided

Texas Tech basketball: Chris Beard’s most important regular-season wins

By Matthew Conner

LUBBOCK, TEXAS - NOVEMBER 24: Head coach Chris Beard of the Texas Tech Red Raiders invites students onto the court after the college basketball game against the LIU Sharks on November 24, 2019 at United Supermarkets Arena in Lubbock, Texas. (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images)
LUBBOCK, TEXAS - NOVEMBER 24: Head coach Chris Beard of the Texas Tech Red Raiders invites students onto the court after the college basketball game against the LIU Sharks on November 24, 2019 at United Supermarkets Arena in Lubbock, Texas. (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images) /
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Blowing out KU in Lubbock

To be a legitimate Big 12 powerhouse, Chris Beard’s program has to start beating the only blue-blood in the conference, Kansas, with regularity.  Having already taken down KU on their home floor in 2018, the Red Raiders did the same in 2019 in Lubbock in one of the biggest blowouts in program history.

The 91-62 depantsing was the worst Big 12 humiliation KU head coach Bill Self had ever experienced.  It was also one of the most prolific offensive showings in Texas Tech basketball history.

Against the No. 12 team in the nation, Tech shot 16-26 (61.5%) from 3-point range and 60.7% overall from the field.  In all, six Red Raiders connected more than once from behind the arc.

The only time the game was close was after KU scored four quick points in the opening minutes to trim Tech’s lead to 5-4.  Then, Culver had his own 8-0 rally to incite the capacity crowd and start the avalanche that would eventually bury Kansas.

The Lubbock native finished with 26 points.  Meanwhile, Matt Mooney, Davide Moretti, and Tariq Owens also reached double-digits to give Tech four starters with ten points or more.  Conversely, only one Jayhawk got to the double-digit plateau.

KU fans are quick to point out that the 2018-19 version of the Jayhawks was arguably the worst of the Bill Self era.  That doesn’t change the fact that Tech was able to knock KU off of their 14-year-long perch atop the Big 12 that season and this game was the moment when the rest of the nation started to believe that someone other than the team from Lawrence, Kansas was going to finally claim the conference regular-season crown.

It would be foolish to believe that Tech will beat Kansas like a rented mule every year.  (We learned that in 2019-20.)  But what isn’t absurd is the idea that Beard’s program can now expect to compete with KU on a level surface when it comes to talent and that’s a huge improvement.

This game was a celebration of Texas Tech basketball.  The outcome never in doubt, Tech fans got to release years of pent up frustration on the biggest bully in the Big 12.  Meanwhile, Beard proved to the nation that his program had arrived in the fanciest neighborhood in the conference and that it intended to keep residence there for the foreseeable future.

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