TEXAS TECH
Arkansas ends Red Raiders’ run 68-66.
Texas Tech men’s basketball coach Chris Beard sat at the podium at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis following his team’s secondround, 68-66 loss to No. 3 seed Arkansas (24-6).
The look on his face told the story of a coach disappointed his team couldn’t avenge its overtime loss in the 2019 national championship. For the first time since 2017 — Beard’s first season in Lubbock — Red Raiders will not be among the teams in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.
“It’s a hurt locker room right now,” Beard said. “To me, that’s one of the great things about athletics. You get to feel the high of the highs, and these lows hurt. But the competitiveness in these guys and the teamwork and the caring, a lot of tears in that locker room right now, and it just shows that these guys are elite people.”
Like it has all season, Texas Tech (18-11) battled to the end.
The Red Raiders fell behind by as many as 13 late in the game, a deficit that seemed insurmountable against the seventh best team in the country in scoring offense and kenpom.com’s No. 11 team in adjusted defensive efficiency. But finally, after struggling to score for most of the first 12 minutes of the second half, the floodgates opened.
Kyler Edwards knocked down a 3-pointer with 8:11 to halt the run, and drilled another the next trip down the floor. Kevin McCullar scored a layup on the next possession, and then Terrence Shannon Jr. took his turn to nail a 3-pointer. After Moses Moody answered with a jumper, Chibuzo Agbo banked one in from deep to cut Texas Tech’s deficit to one.
At the end of the game, the Red Raiders had their chances to take control.
With 1:15 left and Texas Tech trailing by a point, Mac McClung stepped to the free-throw line with a chance to tie or take the lead. A minute later, Edwards got the ball at the top of the key with the Red Raiders trailing the Razorbacks by two and a chance to send it to overtime.
Both times, Texas Tech fell just short.
“Coach just told us ‘don’t foul and defend,’ ” Shannon said. “He told us we we’re gonna win the game on the offensive end if we get stops, and that’s what we did, but we didn’t capitalize at the end.”
Instead of dwelling on what went wrong, however, Beard continued to sing the praises of his team.
Players like Shannon, who put up a team-high 20 points when his team needed it; Edwards, who took his team’s fate in his own hands in the last possession; Agbo, who’d hit just six 3s all year but made two clutch ones to keep the Red Raiders in it.
“I just have so much respect for these players,” said Beard, who paused for a few seconds to hold back his emotions. “It’s a season unlike any other season ever. … These guys, they made our city so proud, our university.
“I love those guys in that locker room. They gave us everything they could this year.”
In a normal season, Beard said he would keep the postgame speech about the seniors. He would tell them thank you and that he’ll be there for them wherever their journey takes them.
But with the NCAA granting an extra year of eligibility because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Beard doesn’t know who will come back. So instead, he reminded his team about how much they overcame this season, on and off the court.
“It just stings when it’s over,” Beard said, “but, in my opinion, it always stings unless you’re out there on that final Monday night with that confetti. I’ve been there, but the confetti wasn’t coming down on us, so that’s the deal. I won’t stop trying to do everything in my power until we win that whole thing one day.”