Texas Tech basketball: Joel Ntambwe makes long-awaited debut

In Wednesday’s Texas Tech basketball season opener, we finally got to see forward Joel Ntambwe in a Red Raider uniform.

It’s interesting to think about the difference a year can make. For instance, consider the Joel Ntambwe story.

On Wednesday, the 6-foot-8 sophomore forward made his Red Raider debut to much less fanfare than what would have been the case had that debut come twelve months prior. Such is life in the cycle of college athletics.

Still, it was exciting for Red Raider fans to see Ntambwe on the court in scarlet and black. After all, it took quite the journey for the former UNLV transfer to earn the opportunity to play for the Red Raiders.

Prior to the 2019-20 season, Ntambwe was one of five UNLV players to leave that program after the firing of former head coach Marvin Menzies. However, he was the only one out of that group who did not receive a waiver from the NCAA to be able to play last season.

The reason? Pettiness on the part of the folks at UNLV.

Remember that in the spring of 2016, Chris Beard was the head coach of the Running Rebels for less than a month before leaving to take the job in Lubbock. Obviously, that left a sour taste in the mouths of the powers that be in Vegas and when they got an opportunity to stick it to Beard and Tech, they took it.

One of the factors the NCAA supposedly takes into consideration when deciding whether or not to grant a player an eligibility waiver is the cooperation of the university that the player is leaving. In other words, if that university is willing to put in a good word for that player and show support of their transfer, it carries a ton of weight with the eligibility committee.

We saw that happen several times on the part of the Red Raiders as Tech helped players like Khavon Moore, Josh Mballa, and Russell Tchewa all receive waivers after leaving Lubbock. But the same can’t be said of UNLV and Ntambwe.

Granted, the Running Rebels certainly hated to see a player who averaged 11.8 points and 5.5 rebounds per game as a true freshman jump ship. But they probably didn’t want to lose the other four players that transferred that offseason either and yet they did not stand in the way of those waivers.

It was pettiness that led UNLV to act in the manner that they did and it was Ntambwe, who was in high school when Beard spurned the people in Vegas, that suffered most.

In all, Tech exhausted every option to try to get Ntambwe on the floor last season. They filed two subsequent appeals after the initial denial and both were unsuccessful forcing Ntambwe to sit out the entire season.

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But even after Ntambwe had served his mandatory redshirt season, the drama surrounding his status as a Red Raider was not over. That’s because for a period of time this summer, as the rest of the team had convened in Lubbock for team workouts, Ntambwe did not report on time while he weighed his professional basketball options. Thus, it looked for a moment like he would never actually take the floor for the Red Raiders.

However, Ntambwe came back and on Wednesday, he finally made his debut. In 21 minutes played, he scored 9 points, all of which came on 3-pointers as he went 3-4 from behind the arc. He also collected seven rebounds and handed out a pair of assists.

But though his unveiling was overshadowed by the performances of other first-game Red Raiders such as Mac McClung, Marcos Santos-Silva, and Micah Peavy, we must stop and appreciate what Ntambwe brought to the floor because he could be a key cog for this year’s team on both ends of the floor.

Offensively, his ability to hit 3-pointers is going to be needed. A career 39.8% shooter from deep, he has the best career percentage of any Red Raider on this year’s team.

Meanwhile, his seven rebounds were also important to note. Though he’s not known as a defensive ace, he’s going to have to play tough in the post being as he and Santos-Silva are the only players in the regular rotation that would be considered power forwards. What’s more, for the time being, 7-foot-1 center Vlad Goldin is out for an unknown period of time with a hand injury meaning that Ntambwe’s size will be all the more important to the Red Raiders.

At times last year, the fan base may have been guilty of looking at Ntambwe like some type of savior, especially in periods when Tech struggled. In reality, he was never going to be that but he is a useful piece that can be part of a championship roster, as he showed on Wednesday night.

So while his long-delayed debut may have been overshadowed by those of more recent additions, Tech fans certainly were happy to finally see Ntambwe representing the Double T. And after what he showed in his first game as a Red Raider, it’s safe to believe that he will play an important role for this year’s team.

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