Texas Tech Basketball: Is this the best Red Raiders team ever?
Texas Tech has just two losses this season, with a legitimate chance to end Kansas’ long reign atop the Big 12.
Before the start of the 2017-18 season, the folks at Busting Brackets had relatively low expectations for the Texas Tech Red Raiders.
Mea culpa.
All the Red Raiders have done this season is romp through non-conference play practically unscathed, then win four of their first five Big 12 games. That includes a road victory at No. 10 Kansas and a home win over No. 2 West Virginia.
Texas Tech virtually locked up a bid to the NCAA Tournament weeks ago and they’re battling for a legitimate shot to knock the Jayhawks off their conference perch.
The only remaining question is where these Red Raiders stand in a historical ranking of the program’s best teams.
First, the current best team in Texas Tech history needs to be decided on. Only once have the Red Raiders zoomed past 25 victories and only once has the team finished in the Top 10 of one of the sport’s significant polls: the 1995-96 season. That team also made the Sweet Sixteen, a round the Red Raiders have not moved past in their history.
The team went undefeated in Southwest Conference play, their last year in the league. They lost to Georgetown by just eight points in the Sweet Sixteen. But it was also a year that ushered in sanctions against the program, which would prohibit them from the tournament the following year.
Take a look at this year’s Texas Tech teams. They’re ranked No. 8 in the country, one spot behind the school’s highest ranking of all-time (which came during the 1995-96 season). They could still eclipse the school win record and win the Big 12 for the first time; they’ve never finished higher than third.
The current Red Raiders also have advantages, according to Sports-Reference. They have the best SRS in school history and a significantly better SOS than the 1995-96 squad.
There are plenty of games left for Texas Tech to move the needle in either direction.
As it stands now, however, Chris Beard is in good shape of leading the Red Raiders to the best season in program history.