Sounding like good things are happening with the roster.
By CJ Moore
3h ago
Mark Adams hears it a lot from his staff and from coaches of recruits: Coach, you want this kid because he can really play defense.
And for those players with a questionable defensive pedigree: Coach, I don’t know about this kid’s defense.
“My message has always been the same,” Adams told The Athletic. “We want good offensive players. You win on the offensive end and defense keeps you in games, but we’ll teach them to play defense. It’s hard to teach a guy to go to the basket and shoot in eight months.”
Adams had to restock his roster again this offseason, bringing in nine new players for the second year in a row. The assumption is that Adams is going to get this new Texas Tech team to guard, because his reputation proceeds him. In his first year as a head coach, the Red Raiders finished first in adjusted defensive efficiency at KenPom.com. In the four years prior when he was running the defense, Texas Tech had an average rank of eighth in adjusted defense.
But what Adams wants to change is where his offense ranked (42nd). In particular, this offseason he wanted to address two areas of weakness: 3-point shooting and ballhandling. The Red Raiders shot just 32.1 percent from 3 — and a Big 12-worst 28 percent in conference play — and they turned over the ball on 19.8 percent of their possessions.
“Those were the two areas of emphasis,” Adams said. “I think we’ve done a good job to fill in the gaps there to make us a more efficient team on the offensive end and a better shooting team.”
In addition to addressing the personnel, Adams also brought in former South Plains College coach Steve Green to run his offense. Green has won three national titles at the junior college level while running an NBA-style offense with a ton of influence from the Golden State Warriors, who became an obsession of his.
“He’s got an offensive mind that I think can get us to an elite level,” Adams said.
For the second straight preseason, Texas Tech likely will fly under the radar because of roster attrition, most notably graduating All-Big 12 forward Bryson Williams and then losing starters Kevin McCullar and Terrence Shannon Jr. to the transfer portal. But under Chris Beard, Texas Tech used to get a preseason rankings bump from national media, which assumed the Beard formula worked no matter the personnel. We should probably treat Adams similarly. Obviously the man is a defensive wizard, but he also had arguably the best hit rate in college hoops last year with the transfer portal. Up transfers, as in those coming from a lower level, tended to struggle in the first year of the one-time transfer era. The Red Raiders were the exception to the rule with players like Williams, Adonis Arms, Kevin Obanor and Davion Warren — who all came from mid- or low-major levels — out-performing reasonable expectations.
Most coaches are optimistic in June, but Adams was exceptionally so last week, throwing out superlatives when it comes to his transfers and incoming freshmen class, which he believes is the best in school history.
In the portal, Texas Tech’s top priorities were finding a point guard and a replacement for Williams. The staff came through by landing two of the best available players at those positions in De’Vion Harmon (Oregon) and WAC Player of the Year Fardaws Aimaq (Utah Valley).
Harmon is a guy Adams was familiar with after coaching against him during Harmon’s two years at Oklahoma.
“We didn’t really have a true point guard last year, and I think he’s the closest we’ve had since back to the days of Keenan Evans,” Adams said. “We sure like the way he’s distributing the ball and his mentality of pushing the ball and getting up and down the floor. We’d like to attack more offensively and try to score off of missed baskets and in transition.”
Harmon will have to receive a waiver to play right away because he’s transferring for a second time since the one-time exception went into effect, but Adams doesn’t seem to be worried. That’s justified, given West Virginia just had two transfers who also had transferred a year ago receive waivers.
Aimaq, like Williams was, is a proven scorer who can operate with his back to the basket and step outside. The question mark with Aimaq is whether Texas Tech will be able to continue to switch at all five positions. That was one reason the defense was so good a year ago, because both Williams and Marcus Santos-Silva had no issue switching.
“Like Bryson, that’s one of the reasons Fardaws wanted to come to Texas Tech was to improve his defense,” Adams said. “He has the agility I think to switch. It’s still to be determined, but that’s the plan right now.
“We’re gonna miss Bryson Williams. I don’t know if I’ve ever had a kid that worked as hard as him from sunup to sundown. The kid just was always in the gym and had an exceptional attitude. But Fardaws has some of the same characteristics. And the thing with Fardaws, he’s 7-foot, and we’re talking about a skilled player that’s got size and can score anywhere on the floor. One of the reasons that we recruited him is that we love to stretch the floor with our bigs, and he can shoot the 3.”
Aimaq has done so successfully, albeit in a small sample size, as he made 20 of 46 3s last season after taking just two 3s in his first two college seasons.
The track record for the incoming transfer guards is there. Harmon made 36.7 percent of his 3s last season at Oregon. Kerwin Walton set a North Carolina freshman record by shooting 42 percent from deep as a freshman and made 81 3s in two seasons. “He could be one of the best 3-point shooters we’ve had at Texas Tech,” Adams said.
Gardner-Webb transfer D’Maurin Williams is a combo who can play both guard positions, and he has made 38.8 percent from 3 for his career on 340 attempts. Similar to Arms, he might be one of those high-major talents who somehow slipped through the cracks. Williams didn’t have much Division I interest out of high school, so he spent a year at Putnam Science Academy, a well-known prep school that’s been a basketball factory in the Northwest. Williams “really was not even recruited there,” Adams said, but he proved himself at Gardner-Webb, averaging 14.5 points as a sophomore in the same league from which Arms came. Also like Arms, Williams grew late and now at 6-3 has good size for a combo guard.
“He’s one of those guys that we like because he kind of fills those voids that we had last year with his ballhandling and 3-point shooting ability,” Adams said.
“It may be the best freshman class we’ve ever had here,” Adams said. “I can’t think of a better freshman class that we’ve had in my tenure here.”
That’s quite the statement considering Adams was in Lubbock when the staff landed the 2017 class that included Jarrett Culver and Zhaire Smith, both eventual first-round picks, and multi-year starter David Moretti. When reminded of that class, Adams did not backtrack.
It is not easy to contribute as a freshman in the Big 12 these days. Last year, for instance, there were really only three freshmen who played significant roles in the league: former Iowa State guard Tyrese Hunter and Baylor wings Kendall Brown and Jeremy Sochan. The two Baylor players were drafted last week, and Hunter, now at Texas, was one of the most sought-after transfers in the portal.
“It takes a special freshman,” Adams said of being able to play right away in the Big 12, but he believes he’s got some special guys.
Tyson probably has the best shot immediately because he already spent a semester with the program. He played sparingly in his short time at Texas, but the pedigree is there. He was a top-40 recruit in his class.
“Jaylon’s been such a pleasant surprise,” Adams said. “This guy is a gym rat. Our staff has even talked about maybe having him not working as many hours because he just is in the gym all the time. We just don’t want to wear him out. But he loves basketball, and he can score on all three levels. He’s 6-6, 6-7, athletic. He has the tools to be a great player in the Big 12.”
Mark Adams has high hopes for Texas transfer Jaylon Tyson. (Scott Wachter / USA Today_
Here’s Adams’ assessment of the other four freshmen:
• “Lamar Washington is just like we thought. He’s hard-nosed. He’s a guy that played football in high school. He brings that type of mental toughness you imagine a football player would have. He can play the point or the off guard. I think he’ll be one of our best defensive players.”
• “Robert Jennings is more athletic than we thought. He’s one of our best athletes and is a much, much better 3-point shooter than we had anticipated. So we’ve been pleasantly surprised with just the way he’s playing and his skill set.”
• On Richard Isaacs, who had hip surgery recently and is expected to be ready by the start of the season: “Very explosive. A true point guard to me. He has that ability to make plays off of ball screens and really push the ball up the floor.”
• On Fisher, who had not arrived yet when we spoke: “Athletic. I think he can play four positions. This summer, he played a lot at the point.”
With Clarence Nadolny leaving recently to pursue a professional career overseas, Texas Tech has one open scholarship, but Adams isn’t sure he’s going to fill it, “because we have a lot of confidence in what we’re seeing in these freshmen.”
“He has made some great strides in the spring and the summer on just different ways to score,” Adams said. “Last year, he was somewhat limited just to his 3-point shooting, and then he’d score off of offensive rebounds. He led our team in 3-pointers, and he’s had 35 (career) double-doubles, so that’s his strength. But he’s been working every day on his ballhandling, passing and just on his guard skills. He’s maybe the most improved player that we have coming back. He and Bacho both, but I see more improvement in him than any player I’ve coached since I’ve been here at Texas Tech.”
This is quite the statement considering the leap Culver made from his freshman to sophomore season.
Adams added that Obanor’s pull-up jumper had really improved, and after shedding some pounds with the help of boxing classes, he’s become a more explosive athlete, which Adams sees in the way Obanor attacks the rim.
Batcho figures to slide into the Santos-Silva role. Batcho was adequate last season as a defender, but Texas Tech’s offense tended to struggle when he was on the floor. Adams expects that to change.
“Daniel is definitely the most improved non-starter we’ve had since I’ve been here at Tech,” Adams said. “It’s just like it’s clicked for him, and he gets it now. You wouldn’t even recognize him on the floor. He’s just playing with more confidence and much more aggressive and he’s scoring.
“He’s a great athlete. I can’t imagine the NBA won’t have him on their radar because of his size and athleticism, and being from Europe, he’s already developed a lot of ballhandling and passing skills that you don’t lot of times see over here in the States. There’s no question he’ll be playing a lot of minutes this next year.”
With the skill set of the two fives, Adams believes he can play Obanor and Batcho together like he did at times last year with Williams and Santos-Silva, which was one his best defensive lineups. In the 361 possessions those two were both on the floor, the Red Raiders allowed just 0.82 points per possession, per hooplens.com.
Adams was asked if he’d even consider playing three bigs, sliding Obanor to the three with the two twin towers — Batcho and Aimaq — up front.
“I’m not fixated on labeling guys,” Adams said. “I just want to get the best guys on the floor. If it’s that lineup, that’s what we’ll play. With Kevin developing more of his perimeter skills, you could actually see more of that.”
Adams likes to use his bench and play a variety of lineups. Last season Oklahoma State was the only Big 12 team that had its bench play a higher percentage of the minutes than Texas Tech. Adams admits he’s not sure this team will be as athletic and long as last year’s team, but then in the next thought he considers that possibility of those two 7-footers playing together. He also says that this team is further along right now than last year’s team was at this point. And he knows there’s a reason he’s sacrificing when it comes to length on the perimeter …
“I’m hoping we’ll have more scoring abilities with this team,” he said.
Texas Tech’s Mark Adams hopes transfers, freshmen lead to bigger scoring punch
By CJ Moore
3h ago
Mark Adams hears it a lot from his staff and from coaches of recruits: Coach, you want this kid because he can really play defense.
And for those players with a questionable defensive pedigree: Coach, I don’t know about this kid’s defense.
“My message has always been the same,” Adams told The Athletic. “We want good offensive players. You win on the offensive end and defense keeps you in games, but we’ll teach them to play defense. It’s hard to teach a guy to go to the basket and shoot in eight months.”
Adams had to restock his roster again this offseason, bringing in nine new players for the second year in a row. The assumption is that Adams is going to get this new Texas Tech team to guard, because his reputation proceeds him. In his first year as a head coach, the Red Raiders finished first in adjusted defensive efficiency at KenPom.com. In the four years prior when he was running the defense, Texas Tech had an average rank of eighth in adjusted defense.
But what Adams wants to change is where his offense ranked (42nd). In particular, this offseason he wanted to address two areas of weakness: 3-point shooting and ballhandling. The Red Raiders shot just 32.1 percent from 3 — and a Big 12-worst 28 percent in conference play — and they turned over the ball on 19.8 percent of their possessions.
“Those were the two areas of emphasis,” Adams said. “I think we’ve done a good job to fill in the gaps there to make us a more efficient team on the offensive end and a better shooting team.”
In addition to addressing the personnel, Adams also brought in former South Plains College coach Steve Green to run his offense. Green has won three national titles at the junior college level while running an NBA-style offense with a ton of influence from the Golden State Warriors, who became an obsession of his.
“He’s got an offensive mind that I think can get us to an elite level,” Adams said.
For the second straight preseason, Texas Tech likely will fly under the radar because of roster attrition, most notably graduating All-Big 12 forward Bryson Williams and then losing starters Kevin McCullar and Terrence Shannon Jr. to the transfer portal. But under Chris Beard, Texas Tech used to get a preseason rankings bump from national media, which assumed the Beard formula worked no matter the personnel. We should probably treat Adams similarly. Obviously the man is a defensive wizard, but he also had arguably the best hit rate in college hoops last year with the transfer portal. Up transfers, as in those coming from a lower level, tended to struggle in the first year of the one-time transfer era. The Red Raiders were the exception to the rule with players like Williams, Adonis Arms, Kevin Obanor and Davion Warren — who all came from mid- or low-major levels — out-performing reasonable expectations.
Most coaches are optimistic in June, but Adams was exceptionally so last week, throwing out superlatives when it comes to his transfers and incoming freshmen class, which he believes is the best in school history.
In the portal, Texas Tech’s top priorities were finding a point guard and a replacement for Williams. The staff came through by landing two of the best available players at those positions in De’Vion Harmon (Oregon) and WAC Player of the Year Fardaws Aimaq (Utah Valley).
Harmon is a guy Adams was familiar with after coaching against him during Harmon’s two years at Oklahoma.
“We didn’t really have a true point guard last year, and I think he’s the closest we’ve had since back to the days of Keenan Evans,” Adams said. “We sure like the way he’s distributing the ball and his mentality of pushing the ball and getting up and down the floor. We’d like to attack more offensively and try to score off of missed baskets and in transition.”
Harmon will have to receive a waiver to play right away because he’s transferring for a second time since the one-time exception went into effect, but Adams doesn’t seem to be worried. That’s justified, given West Virginia just had two transfers who also had transferred a year ago receive waivers.
Aimaq, like Williams was, is a proven scorer who can operate with his back to the basket and step outside. The question mark with Aimaq is whether Texas Tech will be able to continue to switch at all five positions. That was one reason the defense was so good a year ago, because both Williams and Marcus Santos-Silva had no issue switching.
“Like Bryson, that’s one of the reasons Fardaws wanted to come to Texas Tech was to improve his defense,” Adams said. “He has the agility I think to switch. It’s still to be determined, but that’s the plan right now.
“We’re gonna miss Bryson Williams. I don’t know if I’ve ever had a kid that worked as hard as him from sunup to sundown. The kid just was always in the gym and had an exceptional attitude. But Fardaws has some of the same characteristics. And the thing with Fardaws, he’s 7-foot, and we’re talking about a skilled player that’s got size and can score anywhere on the floor. One of the reasons that we recruited him is that we love to stretch the floor with our bigs, and he can shoot the 3.”
Aimaq has done so successfully, albeit in a small sample size, as he made 20 of 46 3s last season after taking just two 3s in his first two college seasons.
The track record for the incoming transfer guards is there. Harmon made 36.7 percent of his 3s last season at Oregon. Kerwin Walton set a North Carolina freshman record by shooting 42 percent from deep as a freshman and made 81 3s in two seasons. “He could be one of the best 3-point shooters we’ve had at Texas Tech,” Adams said.
Gardner-Webb transfer D’Maurin Williams is a combo who can play both guard positions, and he has made 38.8 percent from 3 for his career on 340 attempts. Similar to Arms, he might be one of those high-major talents who somehow slipped through the cracks. Williams didn’t have much Division I interest out of high school, so he spent a year at Putnam Science Academy, a well-known prep school that’s been a basketball factory in the Northwest. Williams “really was not even recruited there,” Adams said, but he proved himself at Gardner-Webb, averaging 14.5 points as a sophomore in the same league from which Arms came. Also like Arms, Williams grew late and now at 6-3 has good size for a combo guard.
“He’s one of those guys that we like because he kind of fills those voids that we had last year with his ballhandling and 3-point shooting ability,” Adams said.
Tech’s best freshman class ever?
When Adams got the job last spring, the biggest question mark surrounding the hire was whether he could recruit. The early returns were promising considering the work he did in the portal a year ago. But the 2022 class was really his first chance to prove himself at the prep level, and Adams recently landed Elijah Fisher, a five-star wing out of the 2023 class who immediately reclassified and joined the incoming class. That four-man class has three top-100 players and now ranks 16th-best nationally at 247Sports. And in Adams’ mind, it’s a five-man class with Texas transfer Jaylon Tyson as the fifth member.“It may be the best freshman class we’ve ever had here,” Adams said. “I can’t think of a better freshman class that we’ve had in my tenure here.”
That’s quite the statement considering Adams was in Lubbock when the staff landed the 2017 class that included Jarrett Culver and Zhaire Smith, both eventual first-round picks, and multi-year starter David Moretti. When reminded of that class, Adams did not backtrack.
It is not easy to contribute as a freshman in the Big 12 these days. Last year, for instance, there were really only three freshmen who played significant roles in the league: former Iowa State guard Tyrese Hunter and Baylor wings Kendall Brown and Jeremy Sochan. The two Baylor players were drafted last week, and Hunter, now at Texas, was one of the most sought-after transfers in the portal.
“It takes a special freshman,” Adams said of being able to play right away in the Big 12, but he believes he’s got some special guys.
Tyson probably has the best shot immediately because he already spent a semester with the program. He played sparingly in his short time at Texas, but the pedigree is there. He was a top-40 recruit in his class.
“Jaylon’s been such a pleasant surprise,” Adams said. “This guy is a gym rat. Our staff has even talked about maybe having him not working as many hours because he just is in the gym all the time. We just don’t want to wear him out. But he loves basketball, and he can score on all three levels. He’s 6-6, 6-7, athletic. He has the tools to be a great player in the Big 12.”
Mark Adams has high hopes for Texas transfer Jaylon Tyson. (Scott Wachter / USA Today_
Here’s Adams’ assessment of the other four freshmen:
• “Lamar Washington is just like we thought. He’s hard-nosed. He’s a guy that played football in high school. He brings that type of mental toughness you imagine a football player would have. He can play the point or the off guard. I think he’ll be one of our best defensive players.”
• “Robert Jennings is more athletic than we thought. He’s one of our best athletes and is a much, much better 3-point shooter than we had anticipated. So we’ve been pleasantly surprised with just the way he’s playing and his skill set.”
• On Richard Isaacs, who had hip surgery recently and is expected to be ready by the start of the season: “Very explosive. A true point guard to me. He has that ability to make plays off of ball screens and really push the ball up the floor.”
• On Fisher, who had not arrived yet when we spoke: “Athletic. I think he can play four positions. This summer, he played a lot at the point.”
With Clarence Nadolny leaving recently to pursue a professional career overseas, Texas Tech has one open scholarship, but Adams isn’t sure he’s going to fill it, “because we have a lot of confidence in what we’re seeing in these freshmen.”
The new and improved Kevin Obanor and Daniel Batcho
Obanor returning for his extra COVID-19 year of eligibility was one of the Texas Tech’s biggest wins this offseason. Just getting back the version of Obanor the Red Raiders had last season would help, but it sounds like Obanor could be expanding his skill set.“He has made some great strides in the spring and the summer on just different ways to score,” Adams said. “Last year, he was somewhat limited just to his 3-point shooting, and then he’d score off of offensive rebounds. He led our team in 3-pointers, and he’s had 35 (career) double-doubles, so that’s his strength. But he’s been working every day on his ballhandling, passing and just on his guard skills. He’s maybe the most improved player that we have coming back. He and Bacho both, but I see more improvement in him than any player I’ve coached since I’ve been here at Texas Tech.”
This is quite the statement considering the leap Culver made from his freshman to sophomore season.
Adams added that Obanor’s pull-up jumper had really improved, and after shedding some pounds with the help of boxing classes, he’s become a more explosive athlete, which Adams sees in the way Obanor attacks the rim.
Batcho figures to slide into the Santos-Silva role. Batcho was adequate last season as a defender, but Texas Tech’s offense tended to struggle when he was on the floor. Adams expects that to change.
“Daniel is definitely the most improved non-starter we’ve had since I’ve been here at Tech,” Adams said. “It’s just like it’s clicked for him, and he gets it now. You wouldn’t even recognize him on the floor. He’s just playing with more confidence and much more aggressive and he’s scoring.
“He’s a great athlete. I can’t imagine the NBA won’t have him on their radar because of his size and athleticism, and being from Europe, he’s already developed a lot of ballhandling and passing skills that you don’t lot of times see over here in the States. There’s no question he’ll be playing a lot of minutes this next year.”
With the skill set of the two fives, Adams believes he can play Obanor and Batcho together like he did at times last year with Williams and Santos-Silva, which was one his best defensive lineups. In the 361 possessions those two were both on the floor, the Red Raiders allowed just 0.82 points per possession, per hooplens.com.
Adams was asked if he’d even consider playing three bigs, sliding Obanor to the three with the two twin towers — Batcho and Aimaq — up front.
“I’m not fixated on labeling guys,” Adams said. “I just want to get the best guys on the floor. If it’s that lineup, that’s what we’ll play. With Kevin developing more of his perimeter skills, you could actually see more of that.”
Adams likes to use his bench and play a variety of lineups. Last season Oklahoma State was the only Big 12 team that had its bench play a higher percentage of the minutes than Texas Tech. Adams admits he’s not sure this team will be as athletic and long as last year’s team, but then in the next thought he considers that possibility of those two 7-footers playing together. He also says that this team is further along right now than last year’s team was at this point. And he knows there’s a reason he’s sacrificing when it comes to length on the perimeter …
“I’m hoping we’ll have more scoring abilities with this team,” he said.
