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Texas Tech basketball: Signee Jaylon Tyson flips to Texas

By Matthew Conner

LUBBOCK, TX - JANUARY 02: General view of a rack of Under Armour basketballs taken before the game between the Texas Tech Red Raiders and the Texas Longhorns on January 02, 2016 at United Supermarkets Arena in Lubbock, Texas. Texas Tech won the game 82-74. (Photo by John Weast/Getty Images)
LUBBOCK, TX - JANUARY 02: General view of a rack of Under Armour basketballs taken before the game between the Texas Tech Red Raiders and the Texas Longhorns on January 02, 2016 at United Supermarkets Arena in Lubbock, Texas. Texas Tech won the game 82-74. (Photo by John Weast/Getty Images) /
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The Texas Tech basketball team has lost its only member of the current 2021 recruiting class, Jaylon Tyson.  Of course, making matters worse is the fact that the Red Raiders have lost him to Texas.

Tyson, who signed his national letter of intent with the Red Raiders back in November, announced his decision on Twitter on Thursday evening.  That’s a major blow to next season’s Texas Tech roster.

The 6-foot-6 small forward is rated by 247Sports as a 4-star prospect and the No. 4 player in Texas.  With a silky-smooth mid-range game and an accurate touch from behind the 3-point line, he is the type of player that the Red Raiders need to add this offseason.

Now, it is fair to wonder if Tech is even going to go after any high school prospects at all in the class of 2021 or just try to supplement the roster with transfers.  That’s because it is rather late in the game to be adding quality players from the high school ranks.

https://twitter.com/jaylontyson/status/1380295690887299083?s=20

Of all the players in the 247Sports database that hold an offer from the Red Raiders, only three are currently uncommitted.  The only one that is similar to Tyson in size and game is Jaden Hardy, the No. 2 player in the nation who is widely expected to play professionally next season, either in the NBA G League or internationally.

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One player to watch though is TyTy Washington from Arizona. The 6-foot-3 guard who averaged over 24 points per game this past season recently decommitted from Creighton and is the No. 30 player in the nation.  He picked up an offer from Texas Tech in March but the competition for his services will be fierce.

And on Thursday, he reported via Twitter an offer from the Longhorns.  Perhaps this will be the first true head-to-head recruiting battle between Mark Adams and his former boss but there are plenty of other schools in the mix such as Kentucky, Kansas, Arizona, UCLA, Oregon, Auburn, and LSU just to name a few.

As of now, Tech has already lost one 2021 prospect to its in-state rival in Tyson.  But it wasn’t unexpected as his primary recruiter, Ulrich Malagi, has followed Beard to Austin.

However, for Tech to be able to put together a winning roster in 2021-22, Adams must hit the ground running on the recruiting trail, even before he’s put the finishing touches on his assistant coaching staff.

It will be interesting to see if Tech can put together some semblance of a recruiting class during the period of transition from Beard to Adams and now, the new Red Raider boss has to start almost from scratch.  It’s certainly going to be one of the biggest early challenges for this new coaching staff and everyone in Raiderland is going to be watching very closely to see how they handle it.

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