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Texas Tech basketball: 5 questions to be answered as practice begins

By Matthew Conner

Apr 8, 2019; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Texas Tech Red Raiders head coach Chris Beard during the first half against the Virginia Cavaliers in the championship game of the 2019 men's Final Four at US Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 8, 2019; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Texas Tech Red Raiders head coach Chris Beard during the first half against the Virginia Cavaliers in the championship game of the 2019 men's Final Four at US Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports /
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Nov 13, 2019; Richmond, VA, USA; Virginia Commonwealth Rams forward Marcus Santos-Silva (14) gestures to the crowd during a stoppage in play against the LSU Tigers in the second half at Stuart C. Siegel Center. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 13, 2019; Richmond, VA, USA; Virginia Commonwealth Rams forward Marcus Santos-Silva (14) gestures to the crowd during a stoppage in play against the LSU Tigers in the second half at Stuart C. Siegel Center. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports /

Will the transfers perform better than last year’s?

Speaking of the transfers that Beard has brought into the program, there’s reason to wonder if they will be better fits this season than Holyfield and Clarke were in 2019-20.  That will be perhaps the key to the entire season.

Now, to be fair, both Holyfield and Clarke were a bit miscast last year due to the deficiencies of that roster.  They were each asked to play roles that they may not have been perfectly suited for and that was evident in the way both were at times passive and timid, especially on the offensive end of the court.

Still, neither quite lived up to expectations, especially Clarke.  After sitting out the previous season for disciplinary reasons at Virginia Tech, he saw his productivity drop in his lone season as a Red Raider.

Clarke’s scoring dipped from 8.2 points per game in 2017-18 to just 5.6 last year and it wasn’t because Tech wasn’t asking him to shoot the ball.  In fact, at times Beard practically begged Clarke to be more selfish when it came to finding his offense.

As for Holyfield, his dip might be attributed to a step up in competition after he transferred in from Stephen F. Austin.  But keep in mind that he too sat out the 2018-19 season (but because of a shoulder injury rather than a suspension), and he spent a significant portion of the year playing with an apparatus on that shoulder.  In all, his scoring fell four points from where it was in 2017-18 and he grabbed just under two fewer rebounds per game.

The fact is that Tech needs more from its transfers this year.  But can we simply assume that they will be perfect fits?

After Matt Mooney and Tariq Owens had such tremendous success as grad transfers in 2018-19, we might have foolishly assumed that it would be that easy for every transfer that Beard landed to come in and make a similar impact.  We learned last year that isn’t going to always be the case so this year, we enter the season wondering just how well the transfers will fit into the equation for the Red Raiders.

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