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

Tech’s lack of height was rarely an issue

Texas Tech fans had every right to be concerned about how the 2020-21 team would defend the post given that no player in the regular rotation was taller than 6-foot-7.  But the reality is the Red Raiders’ size deficit rarely proved to be a problem. That was certainly a nice surprise.

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This team had plenty of problems but its lack of height wasn’t one.  In fact, when Beard went to a five-guard lineup, this team seemed to play better.

Tech saw some pretty good big men this year and none were too much to handle.  For instance, KU’s powerful 6-foot-9 David McCormack averaged just 12 points and six rebounds in his two games against the Red Raiders this year.

WVU’s 6-foot-10 Derek Culver put up nice numbers of 12.5 points and 8.5 rebounds against Tech this year but he was far from dominant.  Rather, in both games, it was the Mountaineer guards that proved to be too much for Beard’s team to handle.

UT’s 6-foot-10 Jericho Sims averaged 12.3 points and 7.6 boards in three games versus the Red Raiders.  Meanwhile, 7-foot Neemias Queta of Utah State was also solid but not dominant against the Red Raiders with 11 points and 13 rebounds in the Aggies’ first-round loss in the NCAA Tournament.

The point is that none of Tech’s losses this year came about because of this team’s lack of height.  Marcus Santos-Silva proved to be a solid positional defender in the post who used his strength and wide frame to keep big men from setting up camp in the paint.  Meanwhile, Tech’s collapsing defense also helped keep big men from simply taking over any game this season.

That wasn’t the case in 2019-20 when Tech had several losses that could be attributed to being unable to stop an opposing big man.  Thus, to see the Red Raiders have such success defending the post with a lineup that didn’t feature much height in the post was one of this season’s greatest surprises.