Texas Tech basketball: Kyler Edwards has to be better against elite teams

If the Texas Tech basketball team is going to be a Final Four contender, junior guard Kyler Edwards has to play better against elite teams.

Life in the Big 12 is as tough this year as it has ever been.  After all, in this week’s top 25 poll you will find five teams from this league in the top 15, including Texas Tech at No. 12.

Thus, every member of the Texas Tech basketball team has to be ready to step up against elite competition.  But one critical Red Raider has thus far been unable to prove capable of doing that on a consistent basis during his career.

Just two years ago, after he scored 12 points in the National Title game, we all thought that guard Kyler Edwards might be embued with the clutch gene that some players seem to naturally have.  That night, as a true freshman, he hit four of his five shots including a pair of three-pointers on the biggest stage in the game.

But since then, Edwards has failed to build a reputation for coming up big against top teams.  In fact, more often than not, he’s been a no-show against ranked opponents.

That was again an issue in Saturday’s 68-60 loss to No. 2 Baylor.  Despite playing a team-high 36 minutes, the junior was just 3-8 from the floor for seven points.

It marked the fourth time this year that he has failed to play well against a ranked team.  In those games, he’s scored a total of just 19 points (an average of 4.7 points per game).

Last week, against both No. 4 Texas and Baylor, Edwards managed just seven points.  What’s more, he had just one assist in each contest.

But matters were worse against then-No. 6 Kansas prior to Christmas.  That day, he was shut out in Tech’s one-point loss while also handing out just a single assist.

Earlier this year, when Tech faced then-No. 17 Houston, Edwards also struggled.  Shooting just 2-7 from the field, he gave his team a meager five points as Tech fell to the Cougars.

Unfortunately, this is a problem that dates back to last season.  Against No. 1 Kansas in Lubbock, he managed only 3 points while earlier that week against No. 4 Baylor, he scored only 8 points on 2-9 shooting.

Eight points were also all that he would tally against Kansas earlier that season when the Red Raiders lost in Lawrence by three points.  Additionally, in the two games against a ranked West Virginia team, he scored just nine and five points respectively.

In all, since the start of last season, Edwards has faced a ranked team on 12 occasions.  He’s averaged just 7.4 points per game.

A huge reason why is that his 3-point shot has failed him in those contests.  What is supposed to be his best skill, his outside shot has connected just 20% of the time.

Going just 8-40 last year from beyond the arc against ranked teams was not as damaging to the Red Raiders given that the team had the likes of Davide Moretti and Jahmi’us Ramsey to help carry the 3-point burden.

However, his 4-20 shooting from long distance this year has really hurt his team’s chances of collecting important wins.  In fact, in all four games against ranked teams this year, Edwards has had five attempts from deep.  Only once, the win at Texas, did he make more than one.

Now, to be fair, Edwards has been solid in other aspects of the game, even when his shot has not been falling.  In three of the four games against top 25 teams, he’s managed to pull down six rebounds.  What’s more, his overall defensive rating this year is an excellent 88.2.

Still, his inability to be an offensive force this year against good teams has been disappointing.  After all, the theory was that he would be more of a difference-maker this season given that the presence of players like Mac McClung and Jamarius Burton would mean that Edwards would be able to slide back to more of a shooting guard type of role, one that better suits his skill set.

But so far, his impact in games against the top opponents on the schedule has been minimal, if not a net negative.  In fact, against Houston, Kansas, Texas, and Baylor, Tech was a -11 on the scoreboard when Edwards was been on the court.

We’ve seen isolated instances when Edwards has played well against ranked teams.  For instance, he had 18 points against Kentucky last year.  And we will never forget his strong showing against Virginia in the 2019 National Title Game.  But far too often in his career, Edwards has failed to rise to the occasion against elite teams, and until that changes, the Texas Tech basketball team isn’t going to reach its ceiling.