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Pop Isaacs, Texas Tech basketball returners achieve March Madness dreams in turnaround campaign
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- Pop Isaacs, Texas Tech basketball returners achieve March Madness dreams in turnaround campaign
Robert Jennings released a deep sigh as he considered how to answer.
How did the Texas Tech basketball team get here? Jennings and the Red Raiders had just wrapped up a win over then-No. 11 Baylor in the final game of the regular season , securing a tie for third place in the Big 12 Conference standings a year after it appeared the team, the program as a whole, was about to unravel.
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Last March, the Red Raiders concluded their worst season in almost a decade. Gone was the glow of the 2019 Final Four run, the smooth transition from Chris Beard to Mark Adams as head coach and a slew of lottery-caliber NBA Draft prospects from the recruiting scene.
Adams resigned after a late-season suspension . Players left and right headed for higher ground, be it through the transfer portal or starting their pro careers early. Jennings was one of the few who stuck around, though he himself put his name into the portal to see what else was out there.
Jennings ultimately decided to stay. After meeting newly installed head coach Grant McCasland, the Desoto native liked what he heard enough to withdraw from the portal and return.
One of six returning players from the disastrous 2022-23 campaign, Jennings wasn't quite sure just how to sum up the last 365 days or so. A lot happened in that window of time. The conference expanded. A new scheme, coaching staff and — that old cliché — culture was installed.
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All of it led Texas Tech from what was a ninth-place finish in a 10-team conference to being considered one of the top 25 teams in the country, earning a 6-seed in the 2024 NCAA Tournament and a trip to Pittsburgh to take on 11-seed NC State on Thursday.
"I feel like last year," Jennings said, "it hurt. That's a feeling nobody wanted to feel that was coming back. We didn't want to feel that feeling. When we said we were coming back, we were going to fight with the team that we had.
"I feel like that was the thing we were confident in. That wasn't going to happen again."
Pop Isaacs and Darrion Williams #5 of Texas Tech react during the second half of the game against the Texas Longhorns at United Supermarkets Arena on Tuesday, February 27, 2024 in Lubbock, Texas.
Plenty can be said about last year's team. Players who stuck around in the transition either won't, can't or don't want to get into the details of it all. Whether it be poor play on the court or skulduggery off of it, the end result was the same either way.
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A complete overhaul was needed.
"We not having that this year," Lamar Washington said. "... If you have anything to say, you stand in front of each other and say it. We're gonna be a family and we're gonna win. We set that standard at the beginning of the year."
Chance McMillian said the returning players filled him and the other newcomers in on the tawdry details. They vowed to kindle the flame of Red Raider basketball that seemed to have been extinguished.
"We just wanted to let them know," Pop Isaacs said, "that we didn't want to feel that surreal feeling again."
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As much as Isaacs and the returners wanted to have a better outcome, they also wanted to assist their new teammates in keeping their winning pedigrees alive.
All five of the transfers brought in during the offseason — McMillian, Joe Toussaint , Darrion Williams , Warren Washington and Devan Cambridge — played in the 2023 NCAA Tournament. McMillian, Toussaint and Cambridge — who suffered a season-ending knee injury in December — have multiple March Madness appearances in careers (as does Kerwin Walton, another returning player from last season).
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Each of these new faces said their goal was to get Texas Tech back into the NCAA Tournament, to make sure one bad season didn't bleed into another.
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"We wanted to help them be able to feel that NCAA Tournament feeling again," Isaacs said. "That's what we did."
Dressed in posh white sweat suits, the Red Raiders joined a collection of fans in United Supermarkets Arena on Sunday to hear their names called on CBS. A formality more than anything, Texas Tech has long before cemented itself as a March Madness-worthy team, the shindig allowed the team to feel the elation of the moment together.
"It feels amazing," Isaacs said. "Obviously we had a rough year last year. I decided to come back and put all my chips into this, and it's worked out for me. It's worked out for this team, and I'm super happy that I decided to come back and be part of this."
Like Jennings, Isaacs had a chance to leave what appeared to be a sinking ship . He opted to stick around, McCasland having put his faith and the program into Isaacs' hands, an honor not lost on the Las Vegas native. Isaacs became a lead recruiter for McCasland, helping bring in the teammates that have turned the tides of a program in search of stability.
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Reaching the NCAA Tournament, be it for the first time or once again, meant a lot to the Red Raiders. It's also bigger than just their individual desires.
"The city of Lubbock deserved more," Jennings said. "We wanted more for ourselves and that was never something we were going to settle for. I feel like we held that standard throughout the year and it's helped us throughout this season."
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech basketball returners achieve March Madness dreams in turnaround campaign
