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Texas Tech basketball: 5 pleasant surprises in 2020-21 season

By Matthew Conner

LUBBOCK, TEXAS - MARCH 04: Forward Marcus Santos-Silva #14 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders wins the opening tipoff against forward Solomon Young #33 of the Iowa State Cyclones at United Supermarkets Arena on March 04, 2021 in Lubbock, Texas. (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images)
LUBBOCK, TEXAS - MARCH 04: Forward Marcus Santos-Silva #14 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders wins the opening tipoff against forward Solomon Young #33 of the Iowa State Cyclones at United Supermarkets Arena on March 04, 2021 in Lubbock, Texas. (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images) /
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Mar 21, 2021; Indianapolis, Indiana, USA; Texas Tech Red Raiders guard Micah Peavy (5) reacts on the bench in the second half against the Arkansas Razorbacks in the second round of the 2021 NCAA Tournament at Hinkle Fieldhouse. Mandatory Credit: Marc Lebryk-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 21, 2021; Indianapolis, Indiana, USA; Texas Tech Red Raiders guard Micah Peavy (5) reacts on the bench in the second half against the Arkansas Razorbacks in the second round of the 2021 NCAA Tournament at Hinkle Fieldhouse. Mandatory Credit: Marc Lebryk-USA TODAY Sports /

Now that the Texas Tech basketball season is officially in the books, let’s look at five pleasant surprises from the 2020-21 campaign.

While we all love the NCAA Tournament, the one painful reality it brings with it is the fact that in an instant, the hopes and dreams of a team and its fan base can come crashing to an end.  That’s the beauty and the agony of March Madness all rolled into one package.  And for Texas Tech basketball fans, most of whom had dreams of another deep run in the Big Dance, coming to grips with the finality of this year’s season is still an ongoing process.

But while the pain and frustration of Sunday’s two-point loss to Arkansas may still be festering for some fans, let’s spend some time today looking at the bright side of this season.  After all, it was another year in which Texas Tech was nationally relevant, something that this fan base should never take for granted given what we witnessed during the Pat Knight and Billi Gillespie years.

This season marked the first in which Tech was ranked every week of the regular season.  That’s yet another first that Chris Beard can put on his resume.

He can also proudly point out that he is the only coach in Tech history to take this program to three-straight NCAA Tournaments.  And of course, not only has he simply gotten this team to the Big Dance, he’s been able to win at least one game in each NCAA Tournament he’s ever been to, including one as head coach at Arkansas-Little Rock.

As for the regular season, while the Red Raiders sustained more losses than most of us anticipated when the year began, there were no blowouts.  The largest loss the team suffered was an 11-point defeat at the hands of Houston early in the season.

That’s a sign that this team came to play every time out and never really had a night where the effort wasn’t there.  That suggests that this year’s squad bought into the culture and attitude that Chris Beard and his staff have spent the last five years cultivating.

Though the season ended sooner than we all hoped, it was yet another fun ride for Texas Tech basketball fans and that’s something that we should appreciate given where this program was just a few years ago.

So with that in mind, let’s take a look at some of the most pleasant surprises of the 2020-21 season.  And we will begin with the emergence of a player who improved dramatically over the course of the season.

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