Texas Tech basketball: 3 players that may benefit from Ntambwe’s departure

Now that forward Joel Ntambwe is no longer part of the Texas Tech basketball program, let’s look at three Red Raiders who could benefit as a result.

Sometimes, that which we obsess over turns out to be as insignificant as flatulence in a wind storm.  Such has proven to be the case with the Red Raider saga of Joel Ntambwe, whose departure from the program was announced on Tuesday.

At times during the 2019-20 season, Tech fans were as obsessed with Ntambwe’s battle with the NCAA as we were with the games that were taking place on the court.  That’s because most of us saw the 6-foot-8 forward as a potential savior for a roster that we could clearly see was lacking.

The thought of adding a player who scored 11.8 points and pulled down 5.5 rebounds per game as a true freshman at UNLV was exciting.  And who knows, had Ntambwe been granted immediate eligibility last season, he may have made a difference given that Tech had only one real “big man” in the regular rotation last year, T.J. Holyfield.  But it wasn’t meant to be as three different appeals on Ntambwe’s behalf were denied.

Then, the cancelation of the college basketball postseason happened and Tech fans immediately changed the way we viewed the Ntambwe drama.  The collective narrative quickly became that it was a blessing for Ntambwe not to have played last year given that the last season was essentially worthless.

Remember, it was thought that Ntambwe might be just a one-and-done player at Tech given that he had already tested the NBA waters after his freshman year at UNLV. Thus, we convinced ourselves that it all worked out for the Red Raiders’ benefit in the end.

Of course, now we know that Ntambwe’s status was never worth worrying over in the first place.  It’s yet another instance of college sports reminding us that focusing too much on what 18 to 22-year old people might do is often a waste of time.

Remember the Khavon Moore kerfuffle during the 2018-19 season?  At one time the highest-ranked player to ever sign with the Texas Tech basketball program, he suffered a nasty broken leg during his senior year of high school and that injury caused him to miss all of his true freshman season (except for one two-minute cameo appearance) with the Red Raiders.

As the season progressed and the divide between Beard and Moore over the player’s lack of playing time grew, so too did our fascination over Moore’s status with the program.  He would transfer to Clemson after that year where he would never make an impact.  In fact, after averaging 1.8 points per game for the Tigers, he’s now transferred to the basketball powerhouse known as South Carolina Upstate.  Thus, he was never worth our worry or attention after all.

There are certainly other examples we could point to but the point is that we often become overly concerned with college players and their futures even before they’ve done enough on the court to warrant our concern.

While Ntambwe had proven to be a solid player prior to coming to Tech, it turns out that we should not have been near as fascinated with him as we were.  But what’s almost certain is that when the next high-profile transfer or recruit comes along, we’ll give him the same level of attention because we are college sports fans and that makes us, by definition, illogical creatures.

What we should focus on though are the players we know are going to be a part of the here and now and since Ntambwe is no longer among that group, we should look at who may be asked to fill the hole he leaves.  Here are three Red Raiders who may stand to gain some extra playing time in Ntambwe’s place.