I copied it for the peasants who always complain.
https://theathletic.com/2847352/202...a-rebuilding-year/?source=user_shared_article
Since the winter of 2018, Kevin McCullarhas played college basketball at Texas Tech. That is more than zero time spent playing for the school, which made him a rare commodity last spring and summer. Conveniently, it also qualified him to be the primary driver of the unofficial Red Raider welcome wagon. If a player considered joining an overhauled roster led by a new head coach, the junior guard reached out to said prospect. If McCullar couldn’t make contact then, he hastened to do so upon the player’s arrival. He had a singular voice for one important job: telling everybody what to expect, when nobody was sure what that was anymore.
McCullar’s message was simple enough. The program, with assistant coach Mark Adams elevated to the top job, would continue to get after it daily. It was going to be physical. It was going to be hard. It was going to be more of what made Texas Tech a championship contender. The coming months, he advised, would be both full of newness and absolutely nothing new at all. “It’s really the same environment,” McCullar says now. “Every day we’re going to put in the maximum hours we can put in and work as hard as we can individually and as a team. With Coach Adams at the helm now, he’s applying pressure to us and letting us know this isn’t a rebuild year. We’re just going to continue our success.”
What was it that Lubbock’s own Natalie Maines once sang about wide open spaces and the high stakes? Consider it at least loosely applicable in 2021-22 for the Red Raiders, who arrive at a portentous crossroads in the West Texas plains. Fair or not, everyone will examine this season’s results to determine if the recent propulsive success was attributable to program ethos … or the outsize figure running things, before he left for a job in Austin. It’s a paradigm that could have years of repercussions, whichever way it goes.
Adams, a 30-year veteran of the business and for the last five seasons an assistant at his alma mater, represents continuity. He’s an avatar for the soul-crushing defense Texas Tech has deployed for deep NCAA Tournament runs. He also started in April with special advisor Sean Sutton and an administrative assistant and no one else in the office, and his first roster features nine players who haven’t logged a minute for the program yet. “I don’t know of a busier summer I’ve ever had,” Adams says, but the urgency won’t abate for quite some time. The template is there for the continued success McCullar referenced. The chase is on for proof it can happen.
Which, maybe, is the most Texas Tech place to begin after all. “We’re better being underdogs,” junior wing Terrence Shannon Jr. says. “Everybody is here. Nobody started as like a big star. We’re hungry right now.”
The how Texas Tech will score, at least for 2021-22, remains to be decided. Or at least it was about a week before official practices began.
Assiduously following the new-hire guidebook, Adams preached playing with pace initially and followed through with his staff hires, most notably associate head coach Barrett Peery, whose Portland State teams finished in the top 40 in adjusted tempo twice in four seasons. But a summer of roster evaluation has Adams pondering how to best deploy the size and strength of his roster. Scoring from the post or around the paint, perhaps, could become the offense’s touchstone.
“Maximizing” the inside game, is how Adams puts it. “We’re going to try to push the ball and try to get set up as quick as we can or try to get an easy basket,” he says. “We’re still doing that, but at the same time, reality set in. And I think this is such a big, strong, physical team that I think that our strength is maybe just in the half-court and to beat people up when we get it down there five-on-five.”
An attack predicated on close-range looks and 3-pointers certainly hits the advanced metrics high notes. How that fits a squad teeming with long, athletic wings, maybe just a couple true post scorers and a whole lot of newness bears watching. Adams saw a few too many turnovers for his liking during summer workouts, but that’s also not terribly surprising as everyone familiarizes themselves with new teammates and new schemes. “(It’s) spacing and timing, trying to get our guys to slow down, and be a bit more patient, and understand how important it is to spread the floor,” Adams says.
And he’s been steady and knows what Adams wants. These might be decisive qualifications for the gig under the circumstances. McCullar averaged 13.0 points per 40 minutes mostly as a reserve in his first year … and averaged 13.6 points per 40 minutes mostly as a starter in his second year. He basically flipped his assist-to-turnover rate season-to-season. Texas Tech would like to see the 28.4 percent 3-point shooting improve, but it also imported long-range options via the transfer portal. “He has the experience and intelligence to be one of our best leaders,” Adams says. “That’s an area he’s embraced.”
If it’s not McCullar at the point, Mylik Wilson cuts a more natural profile for the spot, at least: The Louisiana transfer is 6-3, had an assist rate of 17.6 percent over 55 career games and appears to be the disruptive defender you’d like at the point of attack, recording 120 steals across two seasons with the Ragin’ Cajuns. Wilson is also, in Adams’ eyes, one of the top two pure athletes on the roster, with a vertical leap north of 40 inches. That’s a potential tone-setting package of explosiveness … but he’ll also have to be more efficient in half-court offense to be a productive Big 12 guard, especially if Texas Tech turns to more of a ground-and-pound attack. Wilson was a below-average jump shooter as a sophomore (0.71 PPP, 22nd percentile nationally, per Synergy). In fact, he was most effective when he posted up other guards in 2020-21. Can what worked in the Sun Belt work here?
Davion Warren might warrant a similar appraisal, but here’s guessing the responsibilities heaped upon him at Hampton created inefficiencies as much as anything else. The 6-6 senior ranked 13th nationally with 21.2 points per game last season, but he required 16.4 shots a night to get there, while committing 92 turnovers against 75 assists. Warren made just nine out of 44 guarded jumpers, per Synergy. Hitting the floor in Lubbock, though, might hit refresh. “At Hampton, what he was telling us was he pretty much had to do everything,” McCullar says. “Now he’s realizing we can get shots for him and he can get shots for us.”
Lost in the points avalanche are Warren’s length and instincts on defense. He averaged 6.2 rebounds over two years at Hampton and recorded 52 steals as a sophomore. A rowdy defender who’s eminently switchable and can hit a few shots at the other end feels like a more useful piece than a pure volume scorer. “He’s a very tough individual and has very quick hands and has been one of our best defensive players as well,” Adams says. “So that’s been a pleasant surprise. We knew he could score, but he’s been great on the other end as far as just defending and getting deflections to steal.”
Adonis Arms is the squad’s other uber-athlete, with a 45-inch vertical leap on the board, per Adams. Texas Tech was likely more interested in the 6-5 senior’s jumperthan his jumping, of course. Arms hit 35.1 percent from 3-point range in his one season with Winthrop — he played two seasons of junior college previous to that — and ranked in the 75th percentile nationally with 1.163 PPP in catch-and-shoot scenarios. Adams laments that the staff only has one season with Arms, which suggests there are some underdeveloped but tantalizing facets to his game; we’ll see how much can emerge in a small window.
Sardaar Calhoun and Clarence Nadolnyare the backcourt variables for various different reasons. The 6-6 Calhoun wasn’t very notable in his one year at Florida State beyond 39.7 percent shooting from 3-point range, coming off the bench in 25 games and averaging about 14 minutes per appearance. Adams and Co. are gambling on that long-range efficiency, however. “When I’m scouting a team, the first thing I look at on the stat sheet is 3-point shooting and who we need to guard,” Adams says. “He’s one of our best shooters.” Accordingly, the hope is that Calhoun’s “tremendous attitude,” in the head coach’s words, permit him to fill a role willingly.
Nadolny, meanwhile, has played in 48 games at Texas Tech, a level of experience that practically makes the 6-3 junior a program graybeard. But Nadolny had hip surgery in May, which led to a summer devoted to rehab rather than skill development. Adams says Nadolny is about three weeks ahead of schedule and could return in December. The issue, for Nadolny, is the backcourt solidifying before that.
Wings: Terrence Shannon Jr. had a cold. By the time he’s on the phone, less than a week before the official start of practices, he’s over it. But Shannon also notes he caught some sort of affliction during the NBA Draft evaluation process, which is a pretty bad time to be afflicted, and he’s starting to wonder what’s conspiring against him here. “I think I’ve been jinxing myself,” Shannon says. “Every time somebody arounds me gets sick, I’m like, ‘Man, I never get sick.’”
Healthy output from the 6-6 junior and All-Big 12 wing, of course, dictates Texas Tech’s fate in a very significant way. In spurts, Shannon has looked like a first-round pick. (See: DePaul 2019; Kansas 2020; LSU 2021.) The idea is to be that guy all the time. Relatedly, based primarily on NBA feedback, the idea is to be a more consistent threat from the perimeter (he shot 35.7 percent from 3-point range as sophomore) and a more reliable ball-handler, with a stronger right-hand game. Hence a summer full of two-ball zig-zag dribbling drills and station-by-station shooting, where Shannon would give himself a target amount of makes in one spot — and reset the count to zero if he missed two in a row. It’s not selfish, because it’s skill development that fits snugly into Adams’ plans and can make Texas Tech better as a whole. “His shooting form and technique is much better than what it was last year, so he’s already shooting the ball better,” Adams says. “The emphasis now for him is just a lot of reps and to build his confidence up.”
If Shannon plays like an All-America candidate, then Texas Tech has the foundation to win big in Adams’ first season. For the player who told the school’s athletic director that he wouldn’t play for any other coach in Lubbock, it’s an extremely personal and extremely important paradigm. “Me coming back, and me being the player I am, if we’re not successful this season, I’ll put that on me,” Shannon says. “I’m trying to get Coach Adams off to a good start. I just feel like I have a lot to prove.”
A brief alphabetical-order recap of the 10 schools who made the final cut when Kevin Obanor withdrew from the NBA Draft and officially pursued a transfer from Oral Roberts: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Creighton, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Oklahoma, Texas A&M and Texas Tech. Not a guy who lacked good options. And not surprising after the 6-8 Obanor averaged 18.7 points and 9.6 rebounds and shot 46.3 percent from 3-point range as a junior. His arrival in Lubbock also can alter the trajectory for Adams’ nascent tenure. We’ll get to that in the Spotlight section below.
K.J. Allen got off to a bad news, good news start: The 6-7 junior college transfer came in 25 pounds overweight, according to Adams, but has since shed 20 of those. Allen has three years of eligibility, though, and Texas Tech can afford him patience, given the promise some of his teammates see. “Relentless rebounder,” Shannon says. “Nobody can box him out in practice.”
Adds McCullar: “He’s a motor guy — I kind of compare him to a younger Mark Vital.”
Chibuzo Agbo logged 140 minutes, total, as a freshman in 2020-21. Adams lauds the 6-7 sophomore’s work ethic and overall bonhomie and deems him one of the better perimeter weapons available, but there’s going to be a lot of wait-and-see here. Agbo also participated in tryouts for Nigeria’s Olympic team, an experience that made a lasting impact, at least in the estimation of Texas Tech’s head coach. “He’s come in with a lot of confidence,” Adams says.
Bigs: Marcus Santos-Silva is an anchor. Yes, his production rates slipped a touch after a transfer from VCU, but that’s not unreasonable when you’re a 6-7 center moving on up to the Big 12. Santos-Silva nevertheless was a 29-game starter last year and a double-double performer on a per-40 minute basis, shooting 53.4 percent on 2-point attempts and remaining a beast on the offensive glass, collecting 15 percent of the Red Raiders’ misses when he was on the floor. He’s a renewable energy source all by himself. We’d tend not to expect revelatory seasons from sixth-year players with 2,584 career minutes in the bank already. But revelation isn’t relevant here. The leap years are imperative for everyone else. Texas Tech needs Santos-Silva, pretty simply, to keep doing what he does. “He’s bigger than life,” Adams says, “so we just count on him in so many ways.”
No subtlety necessary with Bryson Williams, in any form. “He’s just a beast,” Shannon says. “He can get whatever he wants inside the paint.” Adams freely characterizes the 6-8 forward’s transfer from UTEP as an effort to showcase his talents at the power-conference level before he moves to the next stage in his career. On the floor, Williams can head to the paint and produce. Post-ups accounted for nearly 35 percent of his possessions in 2020-21, and he averaged .992 PPP on those, good for the 79th percentile nationally. He’s gotten to the free-throw line 216 times over the last two seasons and hit 81.9 percent of his attempts. He’ll take a 3-pointer — 155 of them during two seasons with UTEP — but whether Texas Tech wants or needs him to do so is a different matter. (He’s a 32.1 percent career shooter there.)
That might be a negotiation with Adams: what new tricks the scouts need to see, and what the team needs to win. But Williams’ head, evidently, is where it should be. “He may be our hardest worker on the team,” Adams says. “He’s the kind of guy that beats everybody to work, and then he’s the last one to leave. His 3-point shooting has gotten a lot better, so he’s scoring on all three levels and he’s been one of our best defenders.”
Could Daniel Batcho be the surprise element that tilts Texas Tech’s offensive approach, either this year or in the years to come? The 6-11 redshirt freshman didn’t play a minute at Arizona after knee surgery in October 2020. And now? “He is maybe the most improved player on the team,” Adams says. “He’s got an amazing skill set. He can handle the ball and has a great feel, and he’s just getting better every day. He may be the best freshman we’ve had here in five years, as far as when it comes to the upside.”
Texas Tech’s sleeved ace was new assistant coach Talvin Hester, who recruited Obanor to Oral Roberts … only to head to Louisiana Tech thereafter. A built-in familiarity nevertheless remained. And with the Houston native making this one last college stop, betting dang near everything on being well-taken care of, the comfort level proved invaluable. “It’s crazy how everything comes back full circle,” Obanor says now.
The hope is for Obanor’s well-rounded game to take on similarly immeasurable worth. His 1.099 PPP ranked in the 94th percentile nationally last season, per Synergy. He can pretzel the opposition’s screen-and-roll coverage plans with his size and ability to shoot from range; Obanor spent 30 percent of his possessions last season as a roll man and averaged 1.268 PPP in those scenarios. Even getting a hand up hasn’t necessarily mattered: He posted a 60.1 percent adjusted field goal percentage on guarded jumpers as a junior. And he’s more than capable on the blocks (0.96 PPP). Given Adams’ emphasis on offensive spacing and the emerging likelihood that Texas Tech may play inside-out in the half-court, Obanor could not represent a more integral option.
Expanding his repertoire for the scouts, of course, is part of the deal here. Obanor took merely 10 jumpers off the dribble last season. Putting the ball on the floor to get to a shot has been an emphasis, based on the draft process feedback. That meant repping out the movement shots themselves but also devoting 30 minutes to an hour each offseason day to pure ball-handling work. “I know this year they’re really going to try to run me off the line, so it’s been working on my one-dribble, two-dribble pull-ups,” Obanor says. “It’s being more comfortable with the ball in my hands. I started playing when I was 15 years old, so there’s still a lack of feel I have. But with me prioritizing that and making it a focus, everything should be good this year.”
But back to the potential long-range impact of a one-year player. Without Obanor andShannon, Texas Tech might struggle to stay out of the Big 12 basement. With one of them, it’s a mid-level outfit. With both? Anticipating a push for the upper tier of the conference is reasonable, which would mean Adams won’t have to quell doubts right from the start and, instead, acquire some momentum on the recruiting trail. That’s the impact — possibly — that Obanor’s July 16 decision had on all the days to come. “We had a pretty good run to the Sweet 16 last year,” Obanor says of his Oral Roberts squad. “But it’s me staying in that gritty mode of not being satisfied, going one more round. It can only get better from here.”
The lone Class of 2022 commitment is four-star guard Richard Isaacs, currently ranked as the No. 69 player in the country. Also a solid start. But there’s certainly more work to be done, given the likelihood of significant personnel turnover next offseason and the basic need to build some sort of roster continuity. Accordingly, based on the 247Sports database, Texas Tech had offers out to 44 prospects in ‘22 (17 of whom have committed already, including Isaacs) and 19 in ‘23.
So sit tight. Adams says he hopes to have four or five high school signees, total, in Texas Tech’s ‘22 haul. And that’s reflective of the general recruiting philosophy moving ahead. The Red Raiders’ new coach would prefer to mine the prep ranks foremost. “It seemed like we were always being reactive, trying to use the portal to bring guys in and fill in the holes,” Adams says. “That’s really what you’d like to use it for, is a last resort. Ideally, you’d want to bring in guys that you can grow each year with.”
Sorry, what’s that you say? There are other games on the schedule?
(Shuffles papers around) Ah. Yes. Well, then. We should talk about those!
Texas Tech’s non-conference schedule is about what you’d anticipate for a program working through coaching staff and roster upheaval, while also still aiming to maintain a high profile. There’s one true road game before January: at Providence on Dec. 1, as dictated by the Big 12-Big East Battle matrix. After that, a pair of neutral-site showdowns will be no easy task. First comes Tennessee in the Jimmy V Classic in New York on Dec. 7, and then there’s Gonzaga on Dec. 18 in Phoenix, the latter of which gets the national broadcast treatment from CBS. In the midst of the conference grind, Mississippi State visits Lubbock as part of the Big 12-SEC Challenge in late January.
The Red Raiders should collect nine wins from the buy-game portion of the schedule. Gonzaga, meanwhile, is a big ask. But the Providence, Tennessee and Mississippi State contests are the true inflection points — legitimately gettable games that could provide some cushion for whatever happens in league play.
In the best-case scenario — and that’s what we’re talking about here — the Red Raiders are again a tough prep and a tough out on a short turnaround. That’s a pretty good identity to bring into the postseason.
So what happens if they get more of the same from Shannon and McCullar and Santos-Silva, and the lot of newcomers scuffle as often as they shine? It’s a team that sits precariously on the NCAA Tournament bubble at best.
Adams will get the benefit of the doubt and probably more patience than might be afforded anyone else in his position. In the end, though? He’s another new coach, looking for a definitively positive start in his biggest and best shot yet. “Rome wasn’t built in a day, so we gotta do it brick by brick, and we’re excited,” Adams says. “I think we’re going to be extremely competitive and see how it goes. But, at the same time, we’re planning on winning every game.”
https://theathletic.com/2847352/202...a-rebuilding-year/?source=user_shared_article
Since the winter of 2018, Kevin McCullarhas played college basketball at Texas Tech. That is more than zero time spent playing for the school, which made him a rare commodity last spring and summer. Conveniently, it also qualified him to be the primary driver of the unofficial Red Raider welcome wagon. If a player considered joining an overhauled roster led by a new head coach, the junior guard reached out to said prospect. If McCullar couldn’t make contact then, he hastened to do so upon the player’s arrival. He had a singular voice for one important job: telling everybody what to expect, when nobody was sure what that was anymore.
McCullar’s message was simple enough. The program, with assistant coach Mark Adams elevated to the top job, would continue to get after it daily. It was going to be physical. It was going to be hard. It was going to be more of what made Texas Tech a championship contender. The coming months, he advised, would be both full of newness and absolutely nothing new at all. “It’s really the same environment,” McCullar says now. “Every day we’re going to put in the maximum hours we can put in and work as hard as we can individually and as a team. With Coach Adams at the helm now, he’s applying pressure to us and letting us know this isn’t a rebuild year. We’re just going to continue our success.”
What was it that Lubbock’s own Natalie Maines once sang about wide open spaces and the high stakes? Consider it at least loosely applicable in 2021-22 for the Red Raiders, who arrive at a portentous crossroads in the West Texas plains. Fair or not, everyone will examine this season’s results to determine if the recent propulsive success was attributable to program ethos … or the outsize figure running things, before he left for a job in Austin. It’s a paradigm that could have years of repercussions, whichever way it goes.
Adams, a 30-year veteran of the business and for the last five seasons an assistant at his alma mater, represents continuity. He’s an avatar for the soul-crushing defense Texas Tech has deployed for deep NCAA Tournament runs. He also started in April with special advisor Sean Sutton and an administrative assistant and no one else in the office, and his first roster features nine players who haven’t logged a minute for the program yet. “I don’t know of a busier summer I’ve ever had,” Adams says, but the urgency won’t abate for quite some time. The template is there for the continued success McCullar referenced. The chase is on for proof it can happen.
Which, maybe, is the most Texas Tech place to begin after all. “We’re better being underdogs,” junior wing Terrence Shannon Jr. says. “Everybody is here. Nobody started as like a big star. We’re hungry right now.”
The big question
Just to clarify: Mark Adams, side-defense oracle, believes it is very important to score points. And to do so as efficiently and as much as possible. “Like I’ve told our recruiters,” he says, “we can teach them how to play defense.”The how Texas Tech will score, at least for 2021-22, remains to be decided. Or at least it was about a week before official practices began.
Assiduously following the new-hire guidebook, Adams preached playing with pace initially and followed through with his staff hires, most notably associate head coach Barrett Peery, whose Portland State teams finished in the top 40 in adjusted tempo twice in four seasons. But a summer of roster evaluation has Adams pondering how to best deploy the size and strength of his roster. Scoring from the post or around the paint, perhaps, could become the offense’s touchstone.
“Maximizing” the inside game, is how Adams puts it. “We’re going to try to push the ball and try to get set up as quick as we can or try to get an easy basket,” he says. “We’re still doing that, but at the same time, reality set in. And I think this is such a big, strong, physical team that I think that our strength is maybe just in the half-court and to beat people up when we get it down there five-on-five.”
An attack predicated on close-range looks and 3-pointers certainly hits the advanced metrics high notes. How that fits a squad teeming with long, athletic wings, maybe just a couple true post scorers and a whole lot of newness bears watching. Adams saw a few too many turnovers for his liking during summer workouts, but that’s also not terribly surprising as everyone familiarizes themselves with new teammates and new schemes. “(It’s) spacing and timing, trying to get our guys to slow down, and be a bit more patient, and understand how important it is to spread the floor,” Adams says.
Roster analysis
Guards: All indications have Kevin McCullar running the operation as a somewhat unconventional point guard. The 6-6 redshirt junior’s numbers aren’t those of a natural-born facilitator; he averaged four assists per 100 possessions in 2020-21, ranking fifth among rotation regulars. He’s probably better known for his physicality as a rebounder — his 6.3 defensive boards per game trailed only big man Marcos Santos-Silva (6.4) — and as a defender (69 steals in two seasons). Then again: Grabbing defensive boards or deflections and pushing the pace thereafter can be a point guard-like job.And he’s been steady and knows what Adams wants. These might be decisive qualifications for the gig under the circumstances. McCullar averaged 13.0 points per 40 minutes mostly as a reserve in his first year … and averaged 13.6 points per 40 minutes mostly as a starter in his second year. He basically flipped his assist-to-turnover rate season-to-season. Texas Tech would like to see the 28.4 percent 3-point shooting improve, but it also imported long-range options via the transfer portal. “He has the experience and intelligence to be one of our best leaders,” Adams says. “That’s an area he’s embraced.”
If it’s not McCullar at the point, Mylik Wilson cuts a more natural profile for the spot, at least: The Louisiana transfer is 6-3, had an assist rate of 17.6 percent over 55 career games and appears to be the disruptive defender you’d like at the point of attack, recording 120 steals across two seasons with the Ragin’ Cajuns. Wilson is also, in Adams’ eyes, one of the top two pure athletes on the roster, with a vertical leap north of 40 inches. That’s a potential tone-setting package of explosiveness … but he’ll also have to be more efficient in half-court offense to be a productive Big 12 guard, especially if Texas Tech turns to more of a ground-and-pound attack. Wilson was a below-average jump shooter as a sophomore (0.71 PPP, 22nd percentile nationally, per Synergy). In fact, he was most effective when he posted up other guards in 2020-21. Can what worked in the Sun Belt work here?
Davion Warren might warrant a similar appraisal, but here’s guessing the responsibilities heaped upon him at Hampton created inefficiencies as much as anything else. The 6-6 senior ranked 13th nationally with 21.2 points per game last season, but he required 16.4 shots a night to get there, while committing 92 turnovers against 75 assists. Warren made just nine out of 44 guarded jumpers, per Synergy. Hitting the floor in Lubbock, though, might hit refresh. “At Hampton, what he was telling us was he pretty much had to do everything,” McCullar says. “Now he’s realizing we can get shots for him and he can get shots for us.”
Lost in the points avalanche are Warren’s length and instincts on defense. He averaged 6.2 rebounds over two years at Hampton and recorded 52 steals as a sophomore. A rowdy defender who’s eminently switchable and can hit a few shots at the other end feels like a more useful piece than a pure volume scorer. “He’s a very tough individual and has very quick hands and has been one of our best defensive players as well,” Adams says. “So that’s been a pleasant surprise. We knew he could score, but he’s been great on the other end as far as just defending and getting deflections to steal.”
Adonis Arms is the squad’s other uber-athlete, with a 45-inch vertical leap on the board, per Adams. Texas Tech was likely more interested in the 6-5 senior’s jumperthan his jumping, of course. Arms hit 35.1 percent from 3-point range in his one season with Winthrop — he played two seasons of junior college previous to that — and ranked in the 75th percentile nationally with 1.163 PPP in catch-and-shoot scenarios. Adams laments that the staff only has one season with Arms, which suggests there are some underdeveloped but tantalizing facets to his game; we’ll see how much can emerge in a small window.
Sardaar Calhoun and Clarence Nadolnyare the backcourt variables for various different reasons. The 6-6 Calhoun wasn’t very notable in his one year at Florida State beyond 39.7 percent shooting from 3-point range, coming off the bench in 25 games and averaging about 14 minutes per appearance. Adams and Co. are gambling on that long-range efficiency, however. “When I’m scouting a team, the first thing I look at on the stat sheet is 3-point shooting and who we need to guard,” Adams says. “He’s one of our best shooters.” Accordingly, the hope is that Calhoun’s “tremendous attitude,” in the head coach’s words, permit him to fill a role willingly.
Nadolny, meanwhile, has played in 48 games at Texas Tech, a level of experience that practically makes the 6-3 junior a program graybeard. But Nadolny had hip surgery in May, which led to a summer devoted to rehab rather than skill development. Adams says Nadolny is about three weeks ahead of schedule and could return in December. The issue, for Nadolny, is the backcourt solidifying before that.
Wings: Terrence Shannon Jr. had a cold. By the time he’s on the phone, less than a week before the official start of practices, he’s over it. But Shannon also notes he caught some sort of affliction during the NBA Draft evaluation process, which is a pretty bad time to be afflicted, and he’s starting to wonder what’s conspiring against him here. “I think I’ve been jinxing myself,” Shannon says. “Every time somebody arounds me gets sick, I’m like, ‘Man, I never get sick.’”
Healthy output from the 6-6 junior and All-Big 12 wing, of course, dictates Texas Tech’s fate in a very significant way. In spurts, Shannon has looked like a first-round pick. (See: DePaul 2019; Kansas 2020; LSU 2021.) The idea is to be that guy all the time. Relatedly, based primarily on NBA feedback, the idea is to be a more consistent threat from the perimeter (he shot 35.7 percent from 3-point range as sophomore) and a more reliable ball-handler, with a stronger right-hand game. Hence a summer full of two-ball zig-zag dribbling drills and station-by-station shooting, where Shannon would give himself a target amount of makes in one spot — and reset the count to zero if he missed two in a row. It’s not selfish, because it’s skill development that fits snugly into Adams’ plans and can make Texas Tech better as a whole. “His shooting form and technique is much better than what it was last year, so he’s already shooting the ball better,” Adams says. “The emphasis now for him is just a lot of reps and to build his confidence up.”
If Shannon plays like an All-America candidate, then Texas Tech has the foundation to win big in Adams’ first season. For the player who told the school’s athletic director that he wouldn’t play for any other coach in Lubbock, it’s an extremely personal and extremely important paradigm. “Me coming back, and me being the player I am, if we’re not successful this season, I’ll put that on me,” Shannon says. “I’m trying to get Coach Adams off to a good start. I just feel like I have a lot to prove.”
A brief alphabetical-order recap of the 10 schools who made the final cut when Kevin Obanor withdrew from the NBA Draft and officially pursued a transfer from Oral Roberts: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Creighton, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Oklahoma, Texas A&M and Texas Tech. Not a guy who lacked good options. And not surprising after the 6-8 Obanor averaged 18.7 points and 9.6 rebounds and shot 46.3 percent from 3-point range as a junior. His arrival in Lubbock also can alter the trajectory for Adams’ nascent tenure. We’ll get to that in the Spotlight section below.
K.J. Allen got off to a bad news, good news start: The 6-7 junior college transfer came in 25 pounds overweight, according to Adams, but has since shed 20 of those. Allen has three years of eligibility, though, and Texas Tech can afford him patience, given the promise some of his teammates see. “Relentless rebounder,” Shannon says. “Nobody can box him out in practice.”
Adds McCullar: “He’s a motor guy — I kind of compare him to a younger Mark Vital.”
Chibuzo Agbo logged 140 minutes, total, as a freshman in 2020-21. Adams lauds the 6-7 sophomore’s work ethic and overall bonhomie and deems him one of the better perimeter weapons available, but there’s going to be a lot of wait-and-see here. Agbo also participated in tryouts for Nigeria’s Olympic team, an experience that made a lasting impact, at least in the estimation of Texas Tech’s head coach. “He’s come in with a lot of confidence,” Adams says.
Bigs: Marcus Santos-Silva is an anchor. Yes, his production rates slipped a touch after a transfer from VCU, but that’s not unreasonable when you’re a 6-7 center moving on up to the Big 12. Santos-Silva nevertheless was a 29-game starter last year and a double-double performer on a per-40 minute basis, shooting 53.4 percent on 2-point attempts and remaining a beast on the offensive glass, collecting 15 percent of the Red Raiders’ misses when he was on the floor. He’s a renewable energy source all by himself. We’d tend not to expect revelatory seasons from sixth-year players with 2,584 career minutes in the bank already. But revelation isn’t relevant here. The leap years are imperative for everyone else. Texas Tech needs Santos-Silva, pretty simply, to keep doing what he does. “He’s bigger than life,” Adams says, “so we just count on him in so many ways.”
No subtlety necessary with Bryson Williams, in any form. “He’s just a beast,” Shannon says. “He can get whatever he wants inside the paint.” Adams freely characterizes the 6-8 forward’s transfer from UTEP as an effort to showcase his talents at the power-conference level before he moves to the next stage in his career. On the floor, Williams can head to the paint and produce. Post-ups accounted for nearly 35 percent of his possessions in 2020-21, and he averaged .992 PPP on those, good for the 79th percentile nationally. He’s gotten to the free-throw line 216 times over the last two seasons and hit 81.9 percent of his attempts. He’ll take a 3-pointer — 155 of them during two seasons with UTEP — but whether Texas Tech wants or needs him to do so is a different matter. (He’s a 32.1 percent career shooter there.)
That might be a negotiation with Adams: what new tricks the scouts need to see, and what the team needs to win. But Williams’ head, evidently, is where it should be. “He may be our hardest worker on the team,” Adams says. “He’s the kind of guy that beats everybody to work, and then he’s the last one to leave. His 3-point shooting has gotten a lot better, so he’s scoring on all three levels and he’s been one of our best defenders.”
Could Daniel Batcho be the surprise element that tilts Texas Tech’s offensive approach, either this year or in the years to come? The 6-11 redshirt freshman didn’t play a minute at Arizona after knee surgery in October 2020. And now? “He is maybe the most improved player on the team,” Adams says. “He’s got an amazing skill set. He can handle the ball and has a great feel, and he’s just getting better every day. He may be the best freshman we’ve had here in five years, as far as when it comes to the upside.”
Spotlight on: Kevin Obanor
Thirty minutes separated Obanor from being nowhere near a college basketball game this winter, short of buying a ticket. That’s how close he says he got to the NBA Draft withdrawal deadline before pivoting back to school for one more go. And that’s how close Texas Tech came to not having a potentially transformational piece for Adams’ first season, before waiting all the way until mid-July for the 6-8 floor-stretching forward to make a final decision on his 2021-22 whereabouts. “Gosh, that was kind of icing on the cake,” Adams says. “When we landed him, we just felt like everything kind of fell together for us.”Texas Tech’s sleeved ace was new assistant coach Talvin Hester, who recruited Obanor to Oral Roberts … only to head to Louisiana Tech thereafter. A built-in familiarity nevertheless remained. And with the Houston native making this one last college stop, betting dang near everything on being well-taken care of, the comfort level proved invaluable. “It’s crazy how everything comes back full circle,” Obanor says now.
The hope is for Obanor’s well-rounded game to take on similarly immeasurable worth. His 1.099 PPP ranked in the 94th percentile nationally last season, per Synergy. He can pretzel the opposition’s screen-and-roll coverage plans with his size and ability to shoot from range; Obanor spent 30 percent of his possessions last season as a roll man and averaged 1.268 PPP in those scenarios. Even getting a hand up hasn’t necessarily mattered: He posted a 60.1 percent adjusted field goal percentage on guarded jumpers as a junior. And he’s more than capable on the blocks (0.96 PPP). Given Adams’ emphasis on offensive spacing and the emerging likelihood that Texas Tech may play inside-out in the half-court, Obanor could not represent a more integral option.
Expanding his repertoire for the scouts, of course, is part of the deal here. Obanor took merely 10 jumpers off the dribble last season. Putting the ball on the floor to get to a shot has been an emphasis, based on the draft process feedback. That meant repping out the movement shots themselves but also devoting 30 minutes to an hour each offseason day to pure ball-handling work. “I know this year they’re really going to try to run me off the line, so it’s been working on my one-dribble, two-dribble pull-ups,” Obanor says. “It’s being more comfortable with the ball in my hands. I started playing when I was 15 years old, so there’s still a lack of feel I have. But with me prioritizing that and making it a focus, everything should be good this year.”
But back to the potential long-range impact of a one-year player. Without Obanor andShannon, Texas Tech might struggle to stay out of the Big 12 basement. With one of them, it’s a mid-level outfit. With both? Anticipating a push for the upper tier of the conference is reasonable, which would mean Adams won’t have to quell doubts right from the start and, instead, acquire some momentum on the recruiting trail. That’s the impact — possibly — that Obanor’s July 16 decision had on all the days to come. “We had a pretty good run to the Sweet 16 last year,” Obanor says of his Oral Roberts squad. “But it’s me staying in that gritty mode of not being satisfied, going one more round. It can only get better from here.”
Recruiting
At the moment, there’s not enough information to cast a definitive judgment on the new staff’s wooing one way or another. There are no scholarship freshmen among the 2021 newcomers, but that’s attributable to Adams and Co. scrambling to create a viable Big 12 roster almost from scratch. Obanor and Williams should be considered among the better gets from the transfer portal and, therefore, a continuation of the trend for the Red Raiders over the past few seasons. So that’s a good start.The lone Class of 2022 commitment is four-star guard Richard Isaacs, currently ranked as the No. 69 player in the country. Also a solid start. But there’s certainly more work to be done, given the likelihood of significant personnel turnover next offseason and the basic need to build some sort of roster continuity. Accordingly, based on the 247Sports database, Texas Tech had offers out to 44 prospects in ‘22 (17 of whom have committed already, including Isaacs) and 19 in ‘23.
So sit tight. Adams says he hopes to have four or five high school signees, total, in Texas Tech’s ‘22 haul. And that’s reflective of the general recruiting philosophy moving ahead. The Red Raiders’ new coach would prefer to mine the prep ranks foremost. “It seemed like we were always being reactive, trying to use the portal to bring guys in and fill in the holes,” Adams says. “That’s really what you’d like to use it for, is a last resort. Ideally, you’d want to bring in guys that you can grow each year with.”
Schedule analysis
On Feb. 1, 2022, Texas plays at Texas Tech. Chris Beard returns to Lubbock. It’s all happening. Everything is up for grabs.Sorry, what’s that you say? There are other games on the schedule?
(Shuffles papers around) Ah. Yes. Well, then. We should talk about those!
Texas Tech’s non-conference schedule is about what you’d anticipate for a program working through coaching staff and roster upheaval, while also still aiming to maintain a high profile. There’s one true road game before January: at Providence on Dec. 1, as dictated by the Big 12-Big East Battle matrix. After that, a pair of neutral-site showdowns will be no easy task. First comes Tennessee in the Jimmy V Classic in New York on Dec. 7, and then there’s Gonzaga on Dec. 18 in Phoenix, the latter of which gets the national broadcast treatment from CBS. In the midst of the conference grind, Mississippi State visits Lubbock as part of the Big 12-SEC Challenge in late January.
The Red Raiders should collect nine wins from the buy-game portion of the schedule. Gonzaga, meanwhile, is a big ask. But the Providence, Tennessee and Mississippi State contests are the true inflection points — legitimately gettable games that could provide some cushion for whatever happens in league play.
The ceiling
If Shannon or Obanor evolves into an All-America-level performer and the rest of the cast ably fills their roles, a fourth straight NCAA Tournament appearance (in NCAA Tournaments that happened) is minimum competency. That means there’s buy-in for Adams on all fronts and a lot of interchangeable pieces to contend with nightly. That means Texas Tech will play its standard flummoxing defense while stretching out opponents and deploying a true go-to scorer in crunch time. So if a regular season title might be slightly out of reach, given what Kansas has in its arsenal particularly, feel free to envision a Sweet 16 run in March.In the best-case scenario — and that’s what we’re talking about here — the Red Raiders are again a tough prep and a tough out on a short turnaround. That’s a pretty good identity to bring into the postseason.
The floor
Relying on transfers — and up-transfers specifically — may be unavoidable in 2021. It certainly seemed unavoidable at Texas Tech for this season. But it’s inherently an unpredictable gambit. Production often doesn’t translate directly. And the Red Raiders probably need almost every transfer to enjoy a smooth transition in order to function at a high level as a team.So what happens if they get more of the same from Shannon and McCullar and Santos-Silva, and the lot of newcomers scuffle as often as they shine? It’s a team that sits precariously on the NCAA Tournament bubble at best.
Final report
As likable as Adams is, and as much as Texas Tech faithful crave success for one of their own in this gig, the good vibes won’t last long without wins. Success can spoil a place, and this place has had a lot of success lately. A higher bar is fixed in place.Adams will get the benefit of the doubt and probably more patience than might be afforded anyone else in his position. In the end, though? He’s another new coach, looking for a definitively positive start in his biggest and best shot yet. “Rome wasn’t built in a day, so we gotta do it brick by brick, and we’re excited,” Adams says. “I think we’re going to be extremely competitive and see how it goes. But, at the same time, we’re planning on winning every game.”
