Texas Tech basketball: 3 players that will be x-factors this season

Kyler Edwards

It is hard to believe that Kyler Edwards is already this team’s most grizzled veteran, at least in terms of Big 12 play.  With the offseason departure of Davide Moretti, Edwards now enters this year as the player on the team with the most experience playing under Beard and he will have to embrace a leadership role.

"“One of the most experienced players in college basketball,” Beard said of Edwards. “He’s played in six NCAA Tournament games and an overtime.  He played big minutes as a freshman….I have a lot of confidence in Kyler this year as our most experienced returner and a guy I think could be one of the best guards in college basketball.”"

But aside from taking on the yoke of leadership, Edwards also has to be better than he was last year.  That’s most especially true when it comes to his outside shot.

What type of a 3-point shooter is Kyler Edwards?  It’s a fair question to ask.

As a freshman, he was a 44.9% marksman from deep.  But that came in a year when he was his team’s last man in the regular rotation and as such, his primary role was to be a sharpshooter from the moment he came into the game.  Not asked to facilitate the offense and not the focus of other teams’ defensive gameplans, he was able to get tons of open looks off of catch-and-shoot opportunities.

But last year, he struggled with his 3-point shooting.  As he had to be a focal point of Tech’s offense and as his usage rate skyrocketed, his stroke from outside often failed him as he hit only 32.2% of his shots from behind the arc.

So what type of shooter is he?  The answer to that question is going to be key this year for a Red Raider team that lost its two top outside threats from last year in Moretti and Jahmi’us Ramsey.  If Edwards can prove to be a consistent 3-point weapon again, it’s going to make this team extremely tough to beat.