When Bob Knight was at Texas Tech his teams were ranked a lot. He had great teams that made the NCAA tournament, with one making a Sweet 16 run. Watching Tech basketball was fun. They were good teams that moved the ball a lot and hit key shots. My favorite moment of my college career was beating number two ranked Kansas in double overtime. Those were good years.
Then bad years came upon us. From Pat Knight to Billy Gillispie to Chris Walker, there were some very, very bad teams and I rarely changed my schedule to watch a game. It was a bad product and the attendance in the USA showed what a bad product that was. I don’t need to elaborate — those were dark years.
When Tubby Smith was hired I didn’t know what to think. Tubby was a solid coach but I wasn’t sure how invested he would be into the product and how he would turn it around. To my surprise, he did an incredible job turning the program around. And he did it quicker than I could have imagined.
With a great group of guys, Tubby made the NCAA tournament in his third year, thus showing Red Raider fans how fun basketball can be when you have a winning team.
Tubby moved on to Memphis, but I’m not mad. He built a solid foundation and opened the door for a great coach that wants to be in Lubbock. Chris Beard brought in key players and has this team playing well.
It is fun when Texas Tech basketball is good. We’ll show up to football games no matter what, and the baseball program is one of the best in the country. Having great basketball to watch during the winter is a great bridge between the two.
This team is good, and I expect as much success as we had last year. Last night’s win shows what this team is capable of, especially at home. The Big 12 is tough, but so is Chris Beard and his team.
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