Texas Tech Basketball: 2019-20 season recap for Red Raiders
https://bustingbrackets.com/2020/04/08/texas-tech-basketball-2019-20-season-recap-red-raiders/
Coming off of a national championship appearance, the Texas Tech Red Raiders struggled with consistency all year. Will they be back in contention in 2020-21?
After a breakout 2018-19 under head coach Chris Beard, Texas Tech Basketball took a step back in 2019-20. At the conclusion of the season, the Red Raiders only had 18 wins; its lowest total since 2016-17 and an enormous drop off from the 31 wins a season ago.
Early in the season, the Red Raiders showed they may be able to make a run during March by pulling off five straight wins. Albeit the wins were against sub-par teams but the wins started to add up until they faced Iowa.
The 11-point loss to Iowa in late November began a string of three straight losses. Despite having four different streaks of multiple losses throughout the season, the Red Raiders were putting it all together at the end of the season. Instead of, what we probably assumed were going to be major blowouts at the time, the Red Raiders held tight to Baylor, at Baylor, with a 3 point overtime loss followed by a 4 point home loss against Kansas.
The Texas Tech Red Raiders’ high point came early in the season when they reached their highest ranking after the first week of play. After the first week, however, the Red Raiders dropped in the rankings as losses piled up. It’s an interesting dichotomy, though, with such a young team. Despite four losses to end the season and the uncertainty of competition in March, the Red Raiders could have been a ‘cinderella’ team.
The Raiders experienced two straight overtime losses in late November/early December which was devastating for a young team still trying to find its identity after losing three of their top scorers from the previous season. What kind of effect did those losses have on a team that experienced two more close overtime losses? A huge one. The players are 18 and 19 years old. There’s no doubt they experienced some of their own self-doubts after two straight devastating losses which affected their performance later in the season.
Key players of the season
The loss of three players to the NBA definitely hurt the Texas Tech Red Raiders in their quest to mirror a National Championship run. Jarrett Culver and his 18.5 points per game were drafted 6th overall. The other two players who left for an NBA career (Matt Mooney and Tariq Owens) combined with Culver accounted for almost 38 points per game.
Unfortunately, the Red Raiders did not see any player take the spot of Culver. However, freshman Jahmi’us Ramsey showed promise and averaged 15 points per game, 4 rebounds per game and 2.2 assists per game in his first collegiate season. Davide Moretti, an alternate scorer last year, picked up the slack to become the teams’ second-leading scorer at 13 points per game while trying to fill some big shoes from stars past.
Ramsey, a 6’4’’ guard, showed his prowess from three-point range by making 2.2 three’s per game on 5.2 attempts (42.6% success rate). Only a freshman, and a solid shooter, Ramsey will surely see his free-throw percentage improve (64.1%) by next year. More importantly, Ramsey functioned as one of the top three offensive and defensive players for the Red Raiders. In offensive win shares, Ramsey only trailed Moretti. Defensively, Ramsey only trailed Kyler Edwards in the win share category.
Sophomore Kyler Edwards also made a name for himself. Edwards, in almost every offensive category, improved. Interestingly enough, his success rate from three-point range pulled an Irish Goodbye and disappeared without telling anyone. Edwards experienced a 12% drop from three-point range while attempting three more shots per game.
You can tell Edwards put the work in during the offseason and the three-point debacle may work itself out with one more year at Texas Tech. Edwards improved his free throw percentage by 11% from 66% to 77%. Head Coach Chris Beard will be full of joy if Edwards continues to improve.
Key moments of the season
Coming off of a magical season, and despite losing three key players, the Red Raiders had high hopes and the pundits agreed by placing them 13th in the pre-season Associated Press rankings. However, success was not to be sustained. The loss of Culver, Mooney and Owens along with their leadership definitely affected the Red Raiders’ ability to bounce back from devastating losses. Instead of a bounce-back win, the Red Raiders would find themselves in downward spirals and, before they blinked, they were on another losing streak.
The wins that would have built their resume and provided some much-needed confidence never came to fruition. Overtime losses to Big-12 opponents were deflating. Losing streaks were deflating. Those losing streaks would be book-ended by winning streaks but the winning streaks were against sub-par opponents. They were not the type of wins that allows a team to leapfrog several teams in the rankings. These were the “you’re supposed to win” type of games and, fortunately for the Red Raiders, they won those games.
The low points of the Red Raiders season were the three overtime losses from late November to late January. The three losses came against Creighton, DePaul and Kentucky. The Red Raiders lost by seven, five and two points respectively. If the Raiders had won two out of three of those games their season trajectory would be quite different.
The high point of the Texas Tech Red Raiders season could have been, ironically enough, their last two losses of the season against Baylor and Kansas. Texas Tech took Baylor to overtime, at Baylor, and only lost by three points. They lost by four to Kansas. What was the message in the locker room? The young, inexperienced Red Raiders could hang with the most talented teams in the country. They proved it, they were ready but the world had other plans.
What to make of this season
After two consecutive March Madness berths including a national title appearance, the Red Raiders had higher than normal predictions. In most, if not all, pre-season rankings the Red Raiders were in the top 15 after coming off a 31-win season.
Despite losing their best offensive player in Jarrett Culver to the NBA, the Texas Tech Red Raiders were expected to re-tool and compete. They brought in two highly-regarded freshmen in Jahmi’us Ramsey and Terrence Shannon Jr. Ramsey exploded onto the scene averaging 15 points per game while Shannon Jr. also did his part with almost 10 points per game. Ramsey earned Big 12 Freshman of the Year and Newcomer of the Year.
Head coach Chris Beard had a solid showing this year given the circumstances. As with many other teams, most observers would like to see more consistency but consistency became a rare word around midseason in the college basketball landscape. Beard is going into his fifth year. His system is in place and we’re seeing the fruits of his labor.
Last year, Beard took his team to the national championship and the year prior, his team lost in the regional finals. Beard isn’t going anywhere unless he is lured to a top-tier program which is very possible. However, it would be nice to see Beard stick with Texas Tech and turn them into a perennial power.
Early look into 2020-21
The Red Raiders have three commitments for 2020 which has earned them a top 15 recruiting class in the nation and one of the top recruiting classes in the Big 12 Conference. Guard Nimari Burnett, Forward Micah Peavy and Forward Chibuzo Agbo Jr. will all be joining the Texas Tech Red Raiders. Each prospect is a top 25 player at their position and two are top 100 prospects in the nation (Burnett and Peavy). Beard and the Red Raiders continue to retool with strong recruiting classes.
Burnett is a huge commitment with the Red Raiders expecting to lose Ramsey to the draft. Burnett, arguably a better prospect coming out of high school than Ramsey, should be able to fill Ramsey’s shoes quickly.
Despite losing one of their best players for the second consecutive season, the Red Raiders have a solid coach with recruiting prowess and it shows. The Raiders will earn another tournament berth in 2020-21 on the backs of their three newest recruits; Burnett, Peavy and Agbo Jr.
https://bustingbrackets.com/2020/04/08/texas-tech-basketball-2019-20-season-recap-red-raiders/
Coming off of a national championship appearance, the Texas Tech Red Raiders struggled with consistency all year. Will they be back in contention in 2020-21?
After a breakout 2018-19 under head coach Chris Beard, Texas Tech Basketball took a step back in 2019-20. At the conclusion of the season, the Red Raiders only had 18 wins; its lowest total since 2016-17 and an enormous drop off from the 31 wins a season ago.
Early in the season, the Red Raiders showed they may be able to make a run during March by pulling off five straight wins. Albeit the wins were against sub-par teams but the wins started to add up until they faced Iowa.
The 11-point loss to Iowa in late November began a string of three straight losses. Despite having four different streaks of multiple losses throughout the season, the Red Raiders were putting it all together at the end of the season. Instead of, what we probably assumed were going to be major blowouts at the time, the Red Raiders held tight to Baylor, at Baylor, with a 3 point overtime loss followed by a 4 point home loss against Kansas.
The Texas Tech Red Raiders’ high point came early in the season when they reached their highest ranking after the first week of play. After the first week, however, the Red Raiders dropped in the rankings as losses piled up. It’s an interesting dichotomy, though, with such a young team. Despite four losses to end the season and the uncertainty of competition in March, the Red Raiders could have been a ‘cinderella’ team.
The Raiders experienced two straight overtime losses in late November/early December which was devastating for a young team still trying to find its identity after losing three of their top scorers from the previous season. What kind of effect did those losses have on a team that experienced two more close overtime losses? A huge one. The players are 18 and 19 years old. There’s no doubt they experienced some of their own self-doubts after two straight devastating losses which affected their performance later in the season.
Key players of the season
The loss of three players to the NBA definitely hurt the Texas Tech Red Raiders in their quest to mirror a National Championship run. Jarrett Culver and his 18.5 points per game were drafted 6th overall. The other two players who left for an NBA career (Matt Mooney and Tariq Owens) combined with Culver accounted for almost 38 points per game.
Unfortunately, the Red Raiders did not see any player take the spot of Culver. However, freshman Jahmi’us Ramsey showed promise and averaged 15 points per game, 4 rebounds per game and 2.2 assists per game in his first collegiate season. Davide Moretti, an alternate scorer last year, picked up the slack to become the teams’ second-leading scorer at 13 points per game while trying to fill some big shoes from stars past.
Ramsey, a 6’4’’ guard, showed his prowess from three-point range by making 2.2 three’s per game on 5.2 attempts (42.6% success rate). Only a freshman, and a solid shooter, Ramsey will surely see his free-throw percentage improve (64.1%) by next year. More importantly, Ramsey functioned as one of the top three offensive and defensive players for the Red Raiders. In offensive win shares, Ramsey only trailed Moretti. Defensively, Ramsey only trailed Kyler Edwards in the win share category.
Sophomore Kyler Edwards also made a name for himself. Edwards, in almost every offensive category, improved. Interestingly enough, his success rate from three-point range pulled an Irish Goodbye and disappeared without telling anyone. Edwards experienced a 12% drop from three-point range while attempting three more shots per game.
You can tell Edwards put the work in during the offseason and the three-point debacle may work itself out with one more year at Texas Tech. Edwards improved his free throw percentage by 11% from 66% to 77%. Head Coach Chris Beard will be full of joy if Edwards continues to improve.
Key moments of the season
Coming off of a magical season, and despite losing three key players, the Red Raiders had high hopes and the pundits agreed by placing them 13th in the pre-season Associated Press rankings. However, success was not to be sustained. The loss of Culver, Mooney and Owens along with their leadership definitely affected the Red Raiders’ ability to bounce back from devastating losses. Instead of a bounce-back win, the Red Raiders would find themselves in downward spirals and, before they blinked, they were on another losing streak.
The wins that would have built their resume and provided some much-needed confidence never came to fruition. Overtime losses to Big-12 opponents were deflating. Losing streaks were deflating. Those losing streaks would be book-ended by winning streaks but the winning streaks were against sub-par opponents. They were not the type of wins that allows a team to leapfrog several teams in the rankings. These were the “you’re supposed to win” type of games and, fortunately for the Red Raiders, they won those games.
The low points of the Red Raiders season were the three overtime losses from late November to late January. The three losses came against Creighton, DePaul and Kentucky. The Red Raiders lost by seven, five and two points respectively. If the Raiders had won two out of three of those games their season trajectory would be quite different.
The high point of the Texas Tech Red Raiders season could have been, ironically enough, their last two losses of the season against Baylor and Kansas. Texas Tech took Baylor to overtime, at Baylor, and only lost by three points. They lost by four to Kansas. What was the message in the locker room? The young, inexperienced Red Raiders could hang with the most talented teams in the country. They proved it, they were ready but the world had other plans.
What to make of this season
After two consecutive March Madness berths including a national title appearance, the Red Raiders had higher than normal predictions. In most, if not all, pre-season rankings the Red Raiders were in the top 15 after coming off a 31-win season.
Despite losing their best offensive player in Jarrett Culver to the NBA, the Texas Tech Red Raiders were expected to re-tool and compete. They brought in two highly-regarded freshmen in Jahmi’us Ramsey and Terrence Shannon Jr. Ramsey exploded onto the scene averaging 15 points per game while Shannon Jr. also did his part with almost 10 points per game. Ramsey earned Big 12 Freshman of the Year and Newcomer of the Year.
Head coach Chris Beard had a solid showing this year given the circumstances. As with many other teams, most observers would like to see more consistency but consistency became a rare word around midseason in the college basketball landscape. Beard is going into his fifth year. His system is in place and we’re seeing the fruits of his labor.
Last year, Beard took his team to the national championship and the year prior, his team lost in the regional finals. Beard isn’t going anywhere unless he is lured to a top-tier program which is very possible. However, it would be nice to see Beard stick with Texas Tech and turn them into a perennial power.
Early look into 2020-21
The Red Raiders have three commitments for 2020 which has earned them a top 15 recruiting class in the nation and one of the top recruiting classes in the Big 12 Conference. Guard Nimari Burnett, Forward Micah Peavy and Forward Chibuzo Agbo Jr. will all be joining the Texas Tech Red Raiders. Each prospect is a top 25 player at their position and two are top 100 prospects in the nation (Burnett and Peavy). Beard and the Red Raiders continue to retool with strong recruiting classes.
Burnett is a huge commitment with the Red Raiders expecting to lose Ramsey to the draft. Burnett, arguably a better prospect coming out of high school than Ramsey, should be able to fill Ramsey’s shoes quickly.
Despite losing one of their best players for the second consecutive season, the Red Raiders have a solid coach with recruiting prowess and it shows. The Raiders will earn another tournament berth in 2020-21 on the backs of their three newest recruits; Burnett, Peavy and Agbo Jr.
