Texas Tech Basketball: Why Keenan Evans is the MVP of the Big 12

Texas Tech basketball continues to surprise the country after a win over Texas. Keenan Evans has been the key reason why.

The Kansas Jayhawks are currently in first place in the Big 12 conference with a 7-2 league record. They’re certainly the favorite to win the league but it is by no means a foregone conclusion.

That’s because of Texas Tech (18-4, 6-3), who has already defeated the Jayhawks in Allen Fieldhouse with a home rematch in Lubbock coming on February 24. Considering that the Red Raiders have yet to lose at home, the conference race could tilt to their favor by season’s end.

The key reason for this team’s success has been the extraordinary play of Keenan Evans, the team’s leading scorer at 18.6 ppg, good for second in the league. He’s been great all year but has really excelled in the last three games, averaging 31.7 ppg and is coming off of a career-high 38 points in an overtime win over Texas, including the game-winning shot as time expired.

Evans has been a good shooter overall with a 50% rate, but his specialty has been getting to the free throw line, going 40-for-45 in his last three games from the charity stripe.

The Big 12 this season is a guard-heavy conference with the top four players arguably all being point guards. Those four are Kansas’ Devonte’ Graham, West Virginia’s Jevon Carter, Oklahoma’s Trae Young and Evans of Texas Tech. All of them have their special ways about them, with Carter being a defensive specialist, Graham having that winner’s mentality, and Young being the all-around shooting and passing superstar.

All of them have a legit case to make of being the Most Valuable Player of the Big 12. Yet, I’d like to focus on the senior for the Red Raiders, the least known name nationally of the group. Here are a few reasons why I think of Evans so highly.

Defense

Normally, this is where Carter of the Mountaineers would be placed as the top point guard based on his career work. But actually, the Red Raiders led by Evans are the best defensive team in the conference. They are ranked in the top five nationally in most categories while West Virginia’s defense has been slipping, including giving up 93 points to Iowa State

Importance to team

While OU’s Young is far and away the biggest point producer for his team, Evan’s numbers compared to his team’s totals are higher. Take the last three games for example. Evans has scored 95 of the Texas Tech’s 218 total points, good for 44% of the team’s output. If he doesn’t have these kinds of games, Texas Tech loses.

That’s not the case for Graham of Kansas, who has had a few off games so far, only for the Jayhawks to still win. That’s because they have a couple of other All-Big 12 players on the team, far different from the Red Raiders. Texas Tech struggles to score in general, with only Evans averaging more than 11 ppg.

Balanced effort

Right now Young is the favorite for both the league and the national Player of the Year, and I wouldn’t object. But Evans at the least shouldn’t be far behind, with numbers that are actually favorable compared to the star freshman.

In the raw stats, Young dominates, leading the Big 12 in many categories. Young is also No. 1 in PER, Offensive rating, win shares, and box score +/-. He has the advantage over Evans, who’s in the top five in those categories. But where Young isn’t anywhere listed at is all the defensive categories, an extreme weakness for him.

Evans is much more balanced, ranked in the top five in defensive +/-, win shares, and defensive rating. That’s allowed him to win games for the Red Raiders even on an off performance, whereas a bad night for Young has meant certain doom.

Next: Big 12 Mid-season recap and awards

If the Texas Tech leader had a higher name ID, he’d be getting a lot more praise. Meanwhile, he’ll just have to keep his team in contention for a possible league title, which will force everyone to give him his deserved credit.

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