RED RAIDER PREVIEW: at TCU
SERIES HISTORY: Tech is 84-52 all-time against TCU, including going 6-2 under coach Chris Beard. Tech had won four in a row against TCU before dropping a 64-54 decision in Fort Worth on Jan. 21, 2020 in the first matchup last season before responding with an 88-42 victory in Lubbock on Feb. 10, 2020. The Red Raiders are 33-31 in the series in games played in Fort Worth.
MEDIA: The game will be televised on ESPN Big Monday with Bob Wischusen and Fran Fraschilla on the call, while Geoff Haxton and Chris Level have the radio broadcast that can be found locally on Double T 97.3 and throughout the Texas Tech Sports Network. The Red Raiders are currently 1-2 in ESPN Big Monday matchups with a win over Oklahoma and a pair of losses to West Virginia. Tech is scheduled to play at Oklahoma State on Feb. 22 in Stillwater, Oklahoma for its fifth ESPN Big Monday game of the year.
UP NEXT: The Red Raiders will return to the road to play at Kansas on Saturday, Feb. 20 in Lawrence, Kansas and then at Oklahoma State on Monday, Feb. 22 in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Tech dropped its first matchup against the Jayhawks and Cowboys at home and will be looking to even both season series.
BACK IN DFW: Texas Tech is playing in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex for the third time this season after playing non-conference neutral-court games against Houston and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. The Red Raiders fell to Houston at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth in their third game of the season before topping Corpus in a game in Frisco.
POLLS (will be updated on Monday, Feb. 15): Texas Tech jumped six spots and returned to the top-10 last Monday following a three-game winning streak that has the Red Raiders at No. 7 in the Associated Press Top 25 and No. 8 in the USA TODAY Coaches Poll. TTU ran off wins over LSU, then-No. 9 Oklahoma and made it three straight with a 73-62 road win at Kansas State before falling to WVU on Tuesday. The wins pushed the Red Raiders up from No. 13 in last week’s AP rankings. The team is currently at No. 12 in the NCAA NET Rankings. The Red Raiders are back in the top-10 for the second time this season after being at No. 10 two weeks ago. The program’s highest ranking was at No. 6 in Week 16 of the 2017-18 season. Prior to Beard, Tech had only been a top-10 team in the 1995-96 season where they were as high as No. 7.
WATCH LISTS: The Red Raiders are represented by McClung and Shannon on national watch lists. McClung is one of 30 players who were named to the 2021 Jersey Mike’s Naismith Trophy Midseason Team while Shannon is a finalist for the Julius Erving Award. The Atlanta Tipoff Club administers the Naismith Awards, the most prestigious national honors in all of college basketball. Named in honor of Dr. James Naismith, inventor of the game of basketball, the family of Naismith Awards annually recognizes the most outstanding basketball players and coaches. The Julius Erving Small Forward of the Year Award is an annual basketball award given by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame to the top men’s collegiate small forward. Saddiq Bey (Villanova) won the 2020 Erving Award, while Obi Toppin (Dayton) was named the Naismith Trophy winner.
RED RAIDER REPORT: Mac McClung leads the Red Raiders this season by scoring 17.2 points per game overall and 19.5 per Big 12 game after going for 17 points against WVU following a 23-point performance at Kansas State in the past two games. He was named the Big 12 Newcomer of the Week on Feb. 1 to honor his performances at West Virginia and LSU and was also named the Big 12 Player of the Week on Jan. 18 following a game-winner at Texas and 24 points against Baylor. A junior Gate City, Virginia who transferred from Georgetown this season, he is averaging 19.6 points in the past five games including going for a season-high 30 points at West Virginia and 22 at LSU. McClung has scored 20 or more in 10 games this season after his 23 points in Manhattan, Kansas on 8-for-17 shooting. He was limited to six points against Oklahoma on Feb. 1, scoring all six at the free-throw line where he was 6-for-6 in the only Big 12 game that he hasn’t scored in double figures. For the season, McClung has made 36 3-pointers which is second on the team after going 3-for-5 on 3-pointers against the Mountaineers last Tuesday. He’s also 87-for-107 at the free-throw line (81.3 percent) and is shooting 43.3 percent from the field. McClung reached 1,000 points in his career at LSU and comes into the two games this week against TCU with 1,053 points through 70 games in his collegiate career. He scored a career-high 38 points as a freshman for the Hoyas against Little Rock on Dec. 12, 2018. In his season-high against WVU, McClung was 11-for-21 from the field with four 3-pointers in the 30-point performance in Morgantown. He has made two or more 3-pointers in 12 games this season and five or more free throws in 10 games.
Terrence Shannon, Jr. is coming off scoring 13 points in the home loss to WVU after he was limited to only 10 minutes of play in the second half at KSU with an ankle injury where he scored only two points. He had led the team in scoring in the previous two games after scoring a season-high 23 in the win at LSU before going for 15 points against Oklahoma. He’s currently averaging 13.5 points and 5.0 rebounds in conference games and is at 13.0 points per game for the season. A sophomore from Chicago, Shannon has scored in double-digits in 15 games and 20 or more in four games. Against LSU he also added 10 rebounds to his 23-point performance for his first career double-double. He would score the final six points of the win, first on a layup off a steal to take a 72-71 lead before knocking down four free throws to ice the game. He’s currently 70-for-87 on free throws (80.5 percent) this season and is 157 of 192 (81.8 percent) for his career after going 6-for-9 from the line against WVU. Shannon has scored 531 points, has 215 rebounds and 50 steals through 48 games of his career. He scored a career-high 24 points last season as a freshman at DePaul and also had a career-best 11 rebounds at Kansas. Shannon has made 17 3-pointers this season through 19 games played after having nine through 29 games as a freshman. He is a Julius Erving Award Finalist this season after being named to the Big 12 All-Freshman Team last year.
Kevin McCullar is averaging 10.4 points and 7.0 rebounds in Big 12 play this season after finishing with eight points, one rebound and three steals against WVU. He was coming off games with 15 points and six rebounds at KSU following a 13/8 performance in the win over Oklahoma. He hit a career-best three 3-pointers (3-for-4) and also matched a career-high with four assists against KSU. The other four-assist game coming in the first matchup at WVU. A redshirt sophomore from San Antonio, McCullar missed the first nine games of the season due to an injury suffered in the preseason but has emerged as one of the top players in the conference. He has recorded two double-doubles this season, first with 15 points and 11 rebounds at Iowa State and then again with a 10/10 double-double at home against No. 2 Baylor. He has three double-digit rebounding performances in his career after also having 11 rebounds last season at Iowa State. He has two double-doubles in his career, both this season. McCullar scored a career-high 16 points in the win at Texas where he was 6-for-7 from the field, including going 2-for-2 on 3-pointers. He hit two 3-pointers again last Monday night against Oklahoma where he was 2-for-3 from beyond the arc and also 5-for-6 on free throws. McCullar redshirted during the historic run to the 2019 NCAA Final Four before playing in 29 games last season. He has now scored 290 points and has 165 rebounds through 40 games of his career. McCullar matched a career-high with four steals against Oklahoma after also having two four-steal performances last season. He has recorded two or more steals in seven of 10 games played this season.
Marcus Santos-Silva had six points and didn’t have a rebound for the first time this season in the loss to West Virginia and is now averaging 8.2 points and 6.2 rebounds per game. He leads the Red Raiders with 1.0 blocks per game (20 total) this season, but has not had a block in the past three games. He recorded a career-high five assists in the win at Kansas State and now has 25 assists for the season. Tech’s only senior, Santos-Silva is in his first season with the program after transferring from VCU. He comes into the second matchup against WVU with 992 points in his career along with 743 rebounds and 112 blocks through 117 games. He has recorded two double-doubles this season with 10 points and 13 rebounds against Northwestern State before going for 12 points and 10 rebounds against Sam Houston State. He also had double-digit rebounding performances with 11 rebounds against Baylor and then 12 rebounds against LSU in Baton Rouge. He’s also had an eight-rebound game against the Sooners. Santos-Silva scored a season-high 14 points in the first matchup against Kansas State but has not scored in double digits in the past six games. At VCU, he had a pair of 26-point games highlighted by a 26-point, 22-rebound double-double against Rhode Island on March 15, 2019. He leads Tech with 20 blocks this season, including career-high performances with four blocks in games against Abilene Christian and Oklahoma State.
Kyler Edwards filled the stat sheet with 11 points, seven rebounds and six assists against WVU last Tuesday after also producing a game at KSU with 13 points, eight rebounds, three assists and a steal. He is now averaging 9.9 points, 5.2 rebounds a team-leading 2.7 assists per game. He was 3-for-4 on 3-pointers against KSU and 4-for-6 from the field before knocking down three shots and going 5-for-5 on free throws against the Mountaineers in the home loss. A junior from Arlington, Edwards has been a part of 63 wins through 89 games as a Red Raider that includes playing in all 38 games a freshman during the run to the 2019 NCAA Championship Final. Edwards scored a season-high 19 points in wins over Abilene Christian and Iowa State this season and has now scored 759 points in his career. He’s shooting 35-for-93 (36.9 percent) on 3-pointers this season and has made 114 3-pointers in his career. Edwards leads Tech with 53 assists this season, including a career-high seven assists in the opener against Northwestern State and the six he dished out against WVU. He had three more assists in the win at KSU and has recorded three or more assists in 11 games this season.
Micah Peavy has started 19 of 20 games to begin his collegiate career where he is averaging 5.4 points and 2.8 rebounds per game after going for eight points and three rebounds against WVU. A true freshman who was the Class 6A Player of the Year and a Class 6A State Champion at Duncanville HS, Peavy has scored a season-high 14 points in the season opener against Northwestern State and has a conference-high of nine points in the first matchup against Kansas State. He scored six points and had five rebounds against Baylor before also scoring six points at West Virginia. Peavy, who was 4-for-5 from the field against WVU, is shooting 46.2 percent from the field this season and has scored 107 points this season.
Tyreek Smith had a career-high eight rebounds in the win over Oklahoma before matching a career-high with three blocks at KSU where he also had five points. A redshirt freshman, Smith is averaging 2.5 points and 2.4 rebounds through 20 games after having three rebounds, but zero points against WVU in the last game. He went for five points, three blocks and two steals at KSU in 12 minutes of play. Smith scored a career-high seven points in the non-conference wins over Northwestern State and Troy. Against Troy, he had a career-high three blocks that was matched at KSU to take his season total to 18. Jamarius Burton is averaging 4.7 points and 1.4 assists per game after going for eight points, two assists and two rebounds against WVU. A junior from Charlotte, North Carolina who transferred from Wichita State, Burton has scored 624 points and has 255 assists through 87 games of his collegiate career. He scored a season-high 10 points in the win over Grambling in non-conference play and had a Big 12-best of nine at West Virginia where he was 4-for-7 from the field with one 3-pointer. Burton had a season-high five assists in the win over Northwestern State and has an 11-assist performance against Oklahoma State on his resume from Wichita State. Burton has made four starts and appeared in 16 games as a reserve this season. He was 3-for-4 from the field with a 3-pointer against WVU in his eight-point performance.
Clarence Nadolny scored a season-high seven points against Oklahoma where he was 2-for-2 from the field, including hitting one 3-pointer before scoring three points at KSU. A sophomore from France, he had a season-best three assists at West Virginia in the first matchup where he played 17 minutes before scoring his seven points in 15 minutes against OU. Nadolny did not score in the loss to WVU in the last game. He had a previous season-high of six points in the win over Corpus Christi and has a career-high of nine points last season against Houston Baptist as a freshman. He is currently 23 points away from 100 in his career. Avery Benson had missed the previous three games with an injury before playing four minutes against WVU. He is currently averaging 1.6 points and 1.0 rebound per game. A redshirt junior, Benson is the only player on the current roster who was with the program when it advanced to the 2018 Elite 8. He is currently 4-for-6 on 3-pointers this season and scored a season-high six points against Incarnate Word. Benson had a career-high 10 points and two blocked shots last season in the win over No. 1 Louisville at the 2019 Jimmy V Classic in New York. Chibuzo Agbo and Vladislav are true freshman along with Peavy and have had some moments in their first season at Tech. A San Diego native, Agbo is averaging 1.8 points per game with a season-high five coming in the opener against Northwestern State. He had three points at West Virginia with a 3-pointer and also had two points at LSU. Agbo has hit six 3-pointers this season. Goldin is the tallest player on the roster at 7-foot-1 and is averaging 2.8 points and 1.5 rebounds per game. A forward from Russia, Goldin scored a career-high six points against Grambling in non-conference play and also added four rebounds in the win. Goldin has not played since the win at Iowa State on Jan. 9 in Ames.
SECURING POSSESSION: Beard stresses a 10-or-less turnover game is one of the keys to victory in every game the Red Raiders play which the team has accomplished 10 times this season after only having 10 against Oklahoma and then again against at Kansas State. Tech had 13 turnovers in the home loss to WVU last Tuesday. The season has been highlighted by a two-turnover showing at West Virginia which matched the Big 12 single-game record. The Red Raiders are currently averaging only 11.1 turnovers per game which is the second in the Big 12 and 23rd nationally. In Big 12 play, Tech also had only seven turnovers against Texas and Kansas, nine in the win over Kansas State and 10 at Iowa State. The team is averaging only 10.5 turnovers per game in Big 12 play. Tech had only one turnover at halftime against the Cyclones to get out to a 24-point lead. In non-conference play, Tech had only four turnovers against Corpus Christi which was the low in the Beard era before the two in Morgantown. During his five seasons, Tech has committed 10 or less turnovers 61 times under Beard. The program’s low turnover output was highlighted at the 2019 Final Four with only seven in a win over Michigan State and eight in the overtime loss to Virginia in the National Championship game. Tech currently has a plus-6.1 turnover margin which is fifth nationally. The Red Raiders have drastically improved in the turnover category after committing 13.7 last season.
FORCING THE ISSUE: Texas Tech forced 30 turnovers against Grambling for the most since the 2009 season opener against South Dakota. At KSU, Tech forced 18 turnovers and has had more turnovers than their opponent in only four of 19 games. The Red Raiders forced 16 against Baylor after 15 turnovers at Texas and Iowa State. In their last game, the Red Raiders forced 15 turnovers from the Mountaineers with nine steals. Tech has recorded 13 steals in two games this season, against Grambling and Northwestern State before having eight at KSU. The team had seven steals against the Mountaineers in the first matchup. McCullar matched his career-high with four steals in the win over OU while McClung, Burton and Smith had two each against the Wildcats. The 13 steals against Grambling and Northwestern State is the most steals in a game since a 15-steal game by the team against Rice on Dec. 16, 2017. McCullar and Edwards had three steals each in the loss to the Mountaineers.
GAME-BY-GAME TURNOVERS (TTU-OPPONENT): TTU 10-NSU 19; TTU 12-SAM 18; TTU 18-HOU 14; TTU 13-TROY 22; TTU 13-GRAM 30; TTU 16-ACU 22; TTU 4-TAMUCC 20; TTU 7-KU 16; TTU 13-OU 16; TTU 7-UIW 20; TTU 14-OSU 13; TTU 9-KSU 14; TTU 10-ISU 15; TTU 7-UT 15; TTU 20-BU 16; TTU 2-WVU 12; TTU 13-LSU 12; TTU 10-OU 11; TTU 10-KSU 18; TTU 13-WVU 15.
STIFLING STARTS: The Texas Tech defense has been strong throughout the first 20 games, but especially solid in the first half where it has outscored its first 18 opponents by a combined 696-564 margin. TTU limited OU to only 18 points in the first half by holding the Sooners to 25.9 shooting from the field and 1-for-10 on 3-pointers before leading 30-25 at Kansas State. The Longhorns were an anomaly, outscoring the Red Raiders by a 48-38 margin before Tech made its second-half comeback for the win. WVU also cracked 40 in the opening 20, leading 40-34 at the break last Tuesday. Only eight of the first 20 opponents have scored over 30 points through the opening 20 minutes of games. ACU was limited to only 14 points in the opening 20 minutes and Sam Houston was at 15. The 14 points scored by ACU at the break was the lowest since Northwestern State was held to 10 points at halftime in 2018.
OUR LEADER: Beard is in his fifth season as the Texas Tech head coach where he has led the program to a 108-50 record, including an 8-2 mark in the NCAA Tournament. Beard was named the 2019 Associated Press National Coach of the Year and earned Big 12 Coach of the Year in 2018 and 2019. An assistant coach at Texas Tech under Bob and Pat Knight, Beard has amassed an impressive 138-55 record as a Division I head coach that started with one season at Little Rock where he was 30-5. He also has head coaching stops at Fort Scott Community College, Seminole State, McMurry and Angelo State in his collegiate career. Beard is the 17th head coach in Texas Tech history and reached 100 wins on Dec. 12, 2020 against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. He is the fastest Tech coach to reach that milestone following James Dickey (148 games), Bob Knight (150), Gerald Myers (152) and Polk Robison (170).
BEARD AT HOME (71-13, 30-12 Big 12)
2016-17: 16-3, 6-3 Big 12
2017-18: 17-1, 8-1 Big 12
2018-19: 17-1, 8-1 Big 12
2019-20: 13-4, 6-3 Big 12
2020-21: 8-4, 2-4 Big 12
THE STAFF: Beard is assisted this season by associate head coach Mark Adams, assistant coaches Ulric Maligi and Bob Donewald, Casey Perrin (Chief of Staff), Sean Sutton (Advisor/Player Development), John Reilly (Strength & Conditioning) and associate athletic trainer Mike Neal. Adams is entering his fifth season on Beard’s staff and also assisted him at Little Rock. A 1979 graduate of Texas Tech, Adams is a former head coach at Clarendon College, Wayland Baptist, West Texas A&M, Texas-Pan American and Howard College. He earned 2019 TABC Assistant Coach of the Year and is a member of multiple hall of fames, most recently being inducted into the NJCAA’s Men’s Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame Class for 2020. Donewald is in his second season on the staff, but his first as an assistant. He has extensive experience in professional basketball and worked last season as the program’s director of player development. Maligi is also in his second season on the staff and is widely respected as one of the top emerging assistants in the nation. He led the charge in the recruitment of this year’s signing class which was the highest ranked in program history. Reilly, a Killeen, Texas native who competed on the BYU Track & Field team, is also in his fifth season having led the strength and conditioning each year for Beard. Neal is in his second season, coming over from Little Rock where he played basketball and was the team’s athletic trainer during Beard’s year leading the program.
UNCOMFORTABLE – BEARD EXPLAINS: « Being comfortable gets you beat every single time. You see it all the time in sports. You win a big game and the next time there’s a letdown and a loss. We’ve all seen that. Life is the same way. You can have a great day at work and you could take the edge off. It takes a special person, we use the word ‘elite’, to remain uncomfortable. Coach Knight would talk a lot about when things were going good that we need to shake the tree from time to time. Everybody expects the best and have focus during times of adversity, but only the elite people can push themselves each day to stay uncomfortable. I think being uncomfortable is where growth comes from. Uncomfortable is what you have to be to compete in the Big 12. Our guys have embraced this. Each season we try to have a theme and with this year’s group, we just feel that if we can stay uncomfortable we’ll be where we need to be. We like our talent. We like our culture. If this team can keep pushing and not get too high or too low by staying uncomfortable right there in the middle, we think we have a great chance to grow. »