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Texas Tech basketball: Why the Red Raiders will be much better in 2020-21

By Matthew Conner

LUBBOCK, TEXAS - JANUARY 25: Head coach Chris Beard of the Texas Tech Red Raiders gestures during the first half of the college basketball game against the Kentucky Wildcats on January 25, 2020 at United Supermarkets Arena in Lubbock, Texas. (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images)
LUBBOCK, TEXAS - JANUARY 25: Head coach Chris Beard of the Texas Tech Red Raiders gestures during the first half of the college basketball game against the Kentucky Wildcats on January 25, 2020 at United Supermarkets Arena in Lubbock, Texas. (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images) /
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Head coach Chris Beard of the Texas Tech Red Raiders coaches Kyler Edwards #0 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders  (Photo by David K Purdy/Getty Images)
Head coach Chris Beard of the Texas Tech Red Raiders coaches Kyler Edwards #0 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders  (Photo by David K Purdy/Getty Images) /

Though the season is still far off on the horizon, let’s look at why the Texas Tech basketball team should be much better in 2020-21.

For many Texas Tech basketball fans, the 2019-20 team was a disappointment.  But then again, so too was the entire college basketball season.

Thanks to the coronavirus shutdown that hit right when the postseason was about to get underway, the latest version of the Red Raiders never got a chance to turn their fortunes around in March after a frustrating four-game losing streak closed out the regular season.   So it is a tad unfair to label the season a complete bust.

After all, we’ve learned that Chris Beard can work miracles in March and the 2019-20 Red Raiders proved capable of beating any team in the nation when the took down No. 1 Louisville back in December.  Thus, with no March Madness, we will forever be left wondering what this season would have held for us when the games mattered most.

Still, for all the hype that surrounded the season when it began, what transpired simply never lived up to our expectations.  Tech struggled to an 18-13 record and just a 9-9 mark in Big 12 play, which was a far cry from what we experienced a season ago.

In a way, it was going to be next to impossible for Tech to do what we all were hoping in the wake of the run to the 2019 National Championship Game and give us an equally magical sequel.  And in hindsight, we should have known there would be bumps in the road.

First of all, the program was having to rely far too heavily on freshmen.  Though Jahmi’us Ramsey, Kevin McCullar, and Terrence Shannon all played well, their inexperience was evident in key moments and was one of the reasons Tech struggled so mightily in close games.

Also, we should have been more concerned about the lack of size on the roster.  With only one player in the regular rotation, T.J. Holyfield, over 6-foot-8, it should have been obvious that the Red Raiders were going to struggle on the glass and that proved to be one of the season’s biggest struggles.

But such is the nature of sports fans.  Blind hope and unbridled optimism are good for the soul and given the current state of the Texas Tech football program, we have had to turn to Tech basketball and baseball to give us those feelings.

So now we turn our attention to the 2020-21 season and again, it is hard not to be optimistic.  Beard will bring the Big 12’s best recruiting class into the mix along with two of the nation’s most coveted transfers(Mac McClung and Marcus Santos-Silva) and add them to a roster that brings back plenty of talent, including forwards Joel Ntambwe and Tyreek Smith, both of whom had to miss last season.

Therefore, it’s likely to be another offseason of heightened expectations among the Texas Tech basketball fandom.  So let’s jump headfirst into that pool and look at reasons why the 2020-21 season should be a more enjoyable experience.

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