Mark Adams was Chris Beards’ longtime assistant, both at Little Rock and Texas Tech Basketball. He was elevated to the head chair in Lubbock after Beard left to take over at Texas. In his first head-coaching season since 1996-97 at Texas Pan-American (now Texas Rio Grande-Valley) he won 27 games and led the Red Raiders to the Sweet Sixteen.
When the players arrived back on campus this summer after conference rival Kansas cut down the nets, Adams probably required nametags because aside from super-senior Kevin Obanor, the only returning production for the Red Raiders accounts for four points and 4.5 rebounds per game. Nine new faces arrive in the program for this season. The four freshmen that arrive give Adams the 16th best freshmen class in the country according to 247sports and the five transfers that arrive with them are the No. 1 transfer class in the country.
If you want big-name transfers, Texas Tech has them and has them in spades. In the frontcourt alone Kerwin Walton and Jaylon Tyson arrive from North Carolina and Texas respectfully. They also landed one of the best centers in the portal with Fardaws Aimaq from Utah Valley. In the backcourt point guard, De’Vion Harmon comes from Oregon and D’Maurian Williams is a shooting guard from Gardner-Webb.
With so many new faces there will always be questions, but a lot of those questions can be alleviated by bringing in talent, and Adams has definitely done that. Here’s a look at what we can expect in Lubbock this season.