Texas Tech basketball: Red Raiders in pursuit of former Indiana guard

It is being reported that the Texas Tech basketball program is recruiting former Indiana guard Aljami Durham, a player who would be a significant addition to the roster.

With hundreds of teams around the nation having seen their season come to an end, the activity in the transfer portal is picking up  And as we all know, the Texas Tech basketball program loves to mine that resource for talent.

One name the Red Raiders have recently been linked to is Aljami (Al) Durham, a guard who played this past year for the Indiana Hoosiers.  According to Andrew Slater of The Athletic, the Red Raiders are among a host of programs to have reached out to the 6-foot-4 guard since he entered the transfer portal.  Also reportedly having contacted Durham are Nebraska, Providence, Kansas, St. John’s, LSU, TCU, Villanova, Duke, and Michigan St.

This past season, the Georgia native averaged 11.3 points, 3.1 rebounds, and 2.6 assists per game as a senior.  He shot 38.8% overall and 38% from 3-point range.

Of course, being a senior is always a huge benefit in the eyes of Chris Beard who loves to have experience on his roster.  Beard also loves to have players who are desperate for one last taste of success and that would have to be Durham given that he’s yet to experience an NCAA Tournament.  Of course, this year was supposed to be his final shot at that but the NCAA has allowed all players this season to have an extra year of eligibility due to the uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.

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This season, Durham became the 53rd player at Indiana to join the 1,000-point club.  And his scoring punch would be a welcome addition to the Red Raider program.

He scored in double digits in 13 of IU’s 26 games.  Included among those performances were a pair of 20 point games against Northwestern and Rutgers.

Currently, Texas Tech is set to have three seniors next season with Mac McClung and Kyler Edwards technically becoming seniors (though they will still have two years of eligibility remaining due to the NCAA eligibility exemption this season) and Marcus Santos-Silva (should he choose to return for one more senior season).  Adding a fourth would make the next version of Texas Tech basketball one of the most experienced of the Chris Beard era and that’s something the head coach deeply values.

And it appears that Durham is a fantastic teammate and leader.

"“You go through a lot of ups and downs as players, and Al is a special player to me,” Miller said earlier this year. “He’s as loyal as it gets; he’s as coachable as it gets, and he’s as hard of a working guy as you’ll ever be around.”"

So keep an eye on the recruitment of Al Durham.  He’s a player who has been through the wars in one of the top conferences in America and he could be a valuable addition to the Texas Tech program next season.