In case you didn’t know…on Tuesday night in Waco,the Texas Tech Red Raiders ended defending champion Baylor’s 20 game winning streak with a hard fought wire to wire game.
Here’s Coach Adams at the pre-season Big 12 presser as he discusses the transition from being Chris Beard’s associate head coach for five years prior to landing the Texas Tech job.
This is a no frills interview of which only college basketball junkies might enjoy. Mark Adams looks more like a pastor than a college basketball coach, but don’t judge the cover…he can flat out coach.
Coach Adams at various college levels was a head coach for twenty-five years and won a junior college national championship along the way. He was also with Chris Beard in Little Rock before Beard made the move to Lubbock.
Coach Adams was the associate head coach at Texas Tech for the previous five years and was elevated to the head coach position when Chris Beard took the Texas job last spring.
Mark Adams is a Texas Tech alum and this is his dream job. He’s one of these guys who fly under the radar screen, but was a huge part of Texas Tech’s run to the national championship game three years ago.
Coach Adams is also known as a coach who has transformed the Big 12 into this basketball monster conference which boasts tough man to man switching defense. Coach Adams has been known as a guy who’s tweaked it to perfection in the Big 12. Kind of like Ron Adams in the NBA as far as being a defensive guru.
Interestingly, O State former head coach Sean Sutton has been on the staff with Coach Adams for several years now and stayed in Lubbock after Chris Beard departed for his alma mater in Austin.
Tonight in Lubbock…the Red Raiders host Oklahoma State in what should be a defensive grind it out type of game.
One would think if Tech wins this game coupled with its upset of Baylor–the Red Raiders will be headed up into the Top 12 or so of next week’s poll. I’m circling Texas Tech as a March Madness Cinderella possibility.