Texas Tech basketball: Three players that must improve under Mark Adams

For the past two weeks, since the start of the Texas Tech basketball program’s head coaching drama, the focus of the fan base has been on which players will be coming and which will be going.  But if you believe that Mark Adams is a strong coach, then the belief that some returning players on this roster will improve also has to be part of your expectations for next year.

Make no mistake, Adams has to find some more players to add to his roster and that is the current priority (along with filling out his coaching staff).  But eventually, when the roster is put together, team practices and offseason training will commence and that’s where some returners need to take their game to a new level in preparation for next season.

After all, the foundation of what has built over the past several years has been internal improvement.  Players such as Keenan Evans, Jarrett Culver, Davide Moretti, and others have worked to transform their games in the offseason and it’s yielded huge results.  So let’s take a look at three players who may do the same this offseason and become key contributors for Mark Adams.

Kevin McCullar

Being as he is Tech’s best returning player by a mile, some might not expect Kevin McCullar to make a huge jump next season.  But to suggest that the third-year player has hit his ceiling is laughable.

Sure, McCullar was Mr. Steady for Tech over the course of 2020-21.  He was third on the team with 10.4 points per game while grabbing 6.3 rebounds per game, second only to Marcus Santos-Silva.

But McCullar figures to have a more prominent role next year being as he will be Tech’s top returner.  Thus his usage rate (the percentage of a team’s offensive plays that ends with a particular player assisting on a basket, shooting the ball, or turning it over) is likely to rise.

This year, that rate was 19.9%, third-highest on the team (as far as players in the regular rotation go anyway).  But with the two leaders in that category, Mac McClung and Terrence Shannon, both almost certain to leave for other opportunities, McCullar could be relied upon even more heavily next season.

Of course, the area where the San Antonio native must take a step forward is with his outside shot.  This past season, he shot a mere 28.3% (which was actually worse than he shot in 2019-20 as a freshman).

While no one is going to ever expect McCullar to be the next Davide Moretti, he does need to become a player who can score from the outside with consistency.  Should he do that, he could become one of the best players in the Big 12.

We all expected McCullar to make a serious jump in between his freshman season and this past year but in reality, his numbers didn’t change all that much.  But if he can improve his outside jumper this offseason, he could become a star in the Big 12 and that would do wonders for Mark Adams in his first year in charge.