Texas Tech basketball: The top 25 Red Raiders in the Big 12 era

No.18. Zhaire Smith

Next comes a player who couldn’t have played the game more differently than Voskuil and who, unlike his predecessor on this list, was not a Red Raider for very long.  But in his lone season in the Scarlet and Black, Zhaire Smith made quite an impact on the program.

Giving his team 11.3 points, 5.0 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 1.1 blocks, and 1.1 steals per game, he was one of the most versatile players in program history.  And despite being only 6-foot-5, he was utilized as a pseudo power forward thanks to his insane leaping ability, which might have been as great as any player to have ever come through the program.

Scoring 417 points that year, he set a Red Raider freshman record.  And along the way, he gave us two of the greatest moments in Tech basketball history with both coming in the NCAA Tournament.

In the first round of the 2018 tournament, Smith completed a 360-degree alley-oop from Keenan Evans against Stephen F. Austin to sen the partisan Red Raider crowd in Dallas that night into hysterics.  Two nights later, in the second-round victory over Florida, Smith completed another alley-oop from Evans in the final minute of regulation to give Tech a much-needed 5-point cushion.

Smith’s career was fascinating in that he went from being the no. 194 recruiting his recruiting class to the first one-and-done NBA draft pick in Texas Tech basketball history.  And his development during his one year under Chris Beard’s tutelage was a critical selling point for the current head coach on the recruiting trail and we can likely credit the signings of players like Ramsey, Nimari Burnett, and Micah Peavy to the strides Zhaire Smith made during his brief time as a Red Raider.

Still, it is a shame that Tech fans didn’t get to see what Smith would have become had he remained with the program for multiple years.  And given the way his NBA career has gone, one has to believe that he would have been better off staying at Tech in hindsight.

But the one season he gave us was a glorious one.  Smith was a huge part of the Elite 8 run in 2018 and his development from under-the-radar recruit to the no. 16 pick in the 2018 draft was one of the most important steps in the resurrection of Tech hoops over the last five seasons.