When Does Texas Tech Basketball Play Again
SAN DIEGO — Bryson Williams cracked a smile.
The Fresno, California, native has plenty of reasons to be happy, the first being his No. 12 Texas Tech squad was selected to participate in the NCAA Tournament.
At 12:45 p.m. Friday, Williams will also participate in March Madness for the first time in his collegiate career as the Red Raiders take on Montana State in the first round of tournament action.
More so, he gets to do it in front of friends and family who will make the five-hour trek to Viejas Arena.
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"It's important, definitely," said Williams, who is averaging a team-best 13.7 points to go along with 4.3 rebounds. "I'm from Fresno, which is only about five, six hours away from here. My mom and them are able to drive down and come watch the game.
"It's a big thing. And also it being my first NCAA Tournament game, this is a blessing to be on a team that continues to be able to play for a national title. And it's just a blessing."
Williams, along with Davion Warren, will debut in the NCAA Tournament on Friday. They're part of a seven-player Division I transfer group that not only helped transform the Texas Tech men's basketball program but helped it continue on its upward ascent — which included trips to the 2018 Elite 8, 2019 NCAA championship and the second round in 2021.
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Less than a year ago, newly minted as the head coach, Mark Adams took the court with Terrence Shannon, Jr., Kevin McCullar, Clarence Nadolny and Marcus Santos-Silva. He was also joined by Sean Sutton, now an advisor to the head coach, as a skeleton crew formulating a plan to get the Red Raiders back to the postseason.
Adams, the lead assistant the past five years, knew he had a good foundation built on hard-nosed defense to go along with postseason success and, most important, a fervent fan base.
"And that's a great start," Adams said when asked about how they returned to the NCAA Tournament. "The problem was it was just Coach Sutton and I in an empty office. We had to put that staff together. And so together we had the vision, look, let's put together a championship team to go along with this — we knew it would be a championship program. We didn't know it would happen this fast."
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If you're being technical, the timing may have been close to about 45-60 days as Adams built out his staff and recruited players whose unknown names would become acknowledged after coming together and claiming wins over several ranked opponents.
"So much goes back to the credit of the guys we recruited, seven transfers, that they believed in each other," Adams said. "These guys wanted to be coached. We did our due diligence and found guys that loved basketball and were coachable and wanted to be coached hard. And that was a great fit for us. And again so blessed that I get to experience that. And again honored and privileged I get to coach these guys"
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The big one, physically and literally, was Williams, who was focused on becoming a better defender and 3-point shooter. He had plenty of guys to learn from including 3-point ace Kevin Obanor (Oral Roberts), Warren (Hampton), Adonis Arms (Winthrop), Daniel Batcho (Arizona) and Mylik Wilson (Louisiana-Lafayette). Sadaar Calhoun, a Florida State transfer, entered the transfer portal Jan. 11 and is no longer on the team.
"It's about embracing the moment," said Obanor, who's averaging 9.9 points and 5.0 rebounds while making a team-best 45 3-pointers. "It's a family-hood at the end of the day. I know how far we go will determine the bond we have. It just makes us closer and closer. This is when players make plays, and this is the big moment and just to keep us closer and just really go far."
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Texas Tech basketball ready for a new challenge
The Red Raiders (25-9) will attempt to make another deep postseason run, advancing to the Elite 8 both times they were ranked a No. 3 seed, when they face off against the Bobcats (27-7), who are making their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1996.
Head coach Danny Sprinkle, who has led Montana State to three-straight winning seasons, is hoping his squad can play well against the defensive-minded Red Raiders.
"I want to come out and be aggressive and compete. And let the cards fall where they may at the end," Sprinkle said. "But for that 40 minutes, we don't have to be better than Texas Tech for the season. We just have to be better for 40 minutes is all that matters."
The Bobcats tout a trio of 1,000-point scorers during their college careers in Amin Adamu, Jubrile Belo and Xavier Bishop. At 13.9 points per game, Bishop leads the team in scoring, followed by Belo (13.0) and Adamu (11.6) to round out the double-digit scorers.
"They pretty much rely on their defense to win games," Belo said. "Like we need to know, take care of the ball and rebound. And by doing these certain things, we'll be able to eliminate the pressures of their defense and just make sure that we know how to get open and catch the ball, really, make plays."
NO. 12 TEXAS TECH VS. MONTANA STATE
When: 12:45 p.m. Friday
Where: Viejas Arena, San Diego
Records: Texas Tech 25-9. Montana State 27-7
TV: TNT
Radio: FM 97.3
Notable:Texas Tech and Montana State played for the first time in program history at a neutral-court game in Oklahoma City in 1939 — the first for the NCAA Tournament.
Game coverage:Follow @cmsilvajr and @annierice_photo on Twitter for live updates, with postgame recap and interviews to follow on www.lubbockonline.com.
Source: https://www.lubbockonline.com/story/sports/college/red-raiders/2022/03/17/texas-tech-basketball-ready-march-madness-vs-montana-state-2022-ncaa-tournament/7078191001/
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