They might not beat Gonzaga but it's impossible not to admire how talented defensively they are. Quick feet, quick hands, understand help defense, just excellently coached.
Texas Tech
- Thread starter kcgolfer
- Start date
Would like to see Tech finish the tourney strong and drive up their preseason ranking for next year
Both coaches of Gonzaga and Texas Tech are great and they are not at Blue Blood schools or in major cities and have smaller athletic department budgets.
Take note Barta and Fran. Both have Tapped transfer U and also have had foreign players on their team. That is good roster management. Then on top of it they both are good defensive teams.
Didn't He just graduated 5 seniors the year before? I agree he'll have to reload, but he pulled one rabbit out of the the hat already.
Beard lost 5 Sr and an extremely talented freshman from last year.
When is the last time a Big 12 team not named Kansas made the Final Four before now? For some reason it feels like it was Big Country Reeves and Okie State in the mid 90s.
Yes it was.Ahh, thanks. It was a forgetful performance though.
For current Big 12 teams, WVU made Final Four in 2010 before they entered the Big 12.
OSU made Final Four in 2004
Texas made the Final Four in 2003
Every current Big 12 team has made an Elite Eight since 2000 except TCU but the Final Fours have been much more elusive (obviously)
Fully aware of that, but the grad transfers really pushed them over the top. He will have to troll the grad transfer scene to replace Mooney and Owens.
Tech has two studs on campus redshirting in Khavon Moore and Kevin Mcculler. They also have a great recruiting class signed including the #1 ranked JC. Beard will look at grad transfers but not sure he will have to take any unless they are really really good.
I’ll be at that tourney! Haven’t seen the Hawks play in person for a long time in b-ball.
That’s awesome! You should get to see some good hoops
Lubbock Texas, great recruiting area? Are you kidding me?
Other than equally remote Amarillo 100 miles north, there is nothing within hundreds of miles of Lubbock Texas other than brush and dried out soil. You have to drive hours to even get to Oklahoma City and that is the only population center even close.
No, there is not a great amount of basketball talent, or people within a several hour drive of Lubbock TX. Houston is 9 hours away, and Dallas is about five hours away at best.
Many Iowa fans like to pull the "recruiting hotbed" card and poor Iowa is in the middle of no where. Kentucky has had crappy coaches and when they have their program was not very good. UCLA is in a recruiting hotbed ask Stevie A. how that worked for him. Get a great coach and the elite players will come.
Then why is this the first Final 4 four Texas Tech? Texas Tech is not a traditional power.
Except the B12 POY who is a Soph and likely top 5 draft choice, went to HS in Lubbock. His name is Culver. The largest Tech alumni base is DFW.
But they ARE in the (state of) Texas. Texas is ALWAYS a humongous recruiting hot bed in every sport & @ TT they should always get their share of top talent that want to stay in state
No you are an excuse maker for why Iowa B-ball has been mediocre since 1987.
Gonzaga is in Spokane, which is 4hr 18min drive from Seattle. The coach goes over the globe to get studs.
Lubbock sucks in its own right. The Mooney kid that transferred from Dakota is from Illinois.. Iowa City is in driving distance to Chicago, St. Louis, and Minneapolis. Iowa Athletic Budget towers over both schools. It is about prioritization...Barta and FRan together get you .500 in B1G
What you have in Texas Tech and Gonzaga are examples of superior coaching making the programs elite.
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Spokane is about the same size as Des Moines and no other metropolis in the general vicinity of Spokane unless Pullman is considered a metropolis.
