Texas Tech basketball: Looking closely at the Red Raider roster

Texas Tech basketball is underachieving with a veteran group this season. What does the future hold for the Red Raider roster?

Texas Tech basketball has one of the most experienced teams in the country with six seniors scheduled to graduate this spring. The Red Raiders are still just 5-10 in the Big 12 and 17-11 overall despite that veteran core. Chris Beard’s team has struggled mightily in conference play partly due to a horrendously weak nonconference schedule. The roster has plenty of talent, but they weren’t consistently tested prior to the rigors of the nation’s toughest conference.

We still don’t know a lot about Beard’s overall coaching ability. He is a solid 47-16 in his career, but  has only coached one full year in DI  prior to his current stint at Tech. Otherwise his experience has been as an assistant at multiple stops including North Texas and then under Bob Knight in Lubbock.

What we do know is that Beard appears to prefer larger rotations to spread minutes around. His Little Rock Trojans used ten guys in the majority of the team’s games. This year’s Red Raider squad uses about the same number. A few players exceed 30 minutes a night, but, overall, Beard does a good job rotating players. Next season will be a huge test when he has to replace five guys who have played in at least 20 games and no fewer than six overall.

What does the current and future roster hold for the Red Raiders?