Texas Tech’s Chris Beard laments ‘self-inflicted’ loss to No. 5-ranked Kansas Jayhawks
Texas Tech’s Chris Beard is 2-7 in head-to-head matchups against Kansas coach Bill Self during Beard’s five seasons as the men’s basketball coach at the West Texas school.
Two of the Red Raiders’ setbacks to the Jayhawks have been by one point, including Thursday’s 58-57 nailbiter before 4,250 fans at United Supermarkets Arena. In addition, the Beard-led Red Raiders have lost to KU once by two points, once by three and once by four. The Jayhawks have also won by 17 and 16 points and lost by 12 and 29.
“We’ve had some real battles with Kansas in our five years here,” Beard said. “We’ve been involved in some of these one-possession games. (This one was) a little different to me because I think a lot of it was self-inflicted.
“We been in a lot of these games. Sometimes you just tell your team in the locker room, ‘OK, let’s put ourselves in a position next game — great fight tonight.’ I don’t feel that way about this game. Nothing disrespectful to Kansas, obviously, but I thought we had chances to win the game and we didn’t win the game.”
Beard gave reasons for his No. 14-ranked team having “a hurt locker room right now — a lot of frustration” — following the narrow loss to No. 5 KU.
“No disrespect to Kansas. They step up there and make 95% of their free throws. We’ve got guys that make 60. That’s really frustrating,” Beard said after KU went 14 of 15 at the line to Tech’s chilly 11 of 18.
“I’m not going to sugarcoat this. (We’re) extremely disappointed,” he added.
Texas Tech led by seven points with 9:55 to play. The Red Raiders (6-2) were unable to close out KU (7-1) partly because of two huge plays by the Jayhawks.
KU junior guard Ochai Agbaji accepted an inbound pass from senior point guard Marcus Garrett and converted a layup that erased a 57-56 deficit with 12.8 seconds remaining.
“What happens with Kansas, there’s a lot of screening going on underneath the basket. You’ve got to find a way to switch under, force people to pop out and hit jump shots to beat you, not layups,” Beard said.
On the other end of the court, Terrence (T.J.) Shannon had a 12-foot jumper in the lane blocked by Jalen Wilson with three seconds remaining. Had the shot fallen, Tech would have won the game, which was the league opener for both teams.
“I’d have to watch the film. It wasn’t set up for T.J. to drive right and shoot a jump shot — I can tell you that,” Beard said.
The Jayhawks, who next meet No. 8 West Virginia (6-1) at 8 p.m. Tuesday at Allen Fieldhouse, have won four games this season by four points or less.
“It’s what they do,” Beard, whose team next plays Oklahoma at 6 p.m. Tuesday in Norman. “People in the media, you could write a book how many great games Kansas gets in that are one- and two-possession games and what their winning percentage is with Bill Self (in those games). It’s amazing.
Tech’s Kyler Edwards was 0-for-9 and Marcus Santos-Silva 0-for-2, both failing to score in 37 and 19 minutes, respectively. Jamarius Burton had two points on 1-of-4 shooting and Nimari Burnett two points on 1-of-6 shooting. Both played 21 minutes.
“You’ve got to give them a lot of credit,” Beard concluded. “But I didn’t feel tonight should come have come down to the last play. We’ve got veteran players that are zero across the stat sheet. That’s not going to get it done. ... Give Kansas credit. We just didn’t get it done.”
Remarkable feat for KU
KU won its 30th consecutive Big 12 opener. That includes 18 league openers on the road and 12 at home.
“Winning at home is a big deal, obviously,” Self said. “You kind of have an advantage winning at home sometimes because of your crowd. Of course, not this year.
A maximum of 2,500 fans are allowed for each KU home game right now because of the pandemic.
“Winning on the road … if you split that (30 games) in half, 15 times on the road is remarkable,” Self said. “We’ve got a lot of numbers like that. This is 18 on the road in a row (in league openers). That is something I don’t know if anybody in America can say.”
This story was originally published December 18, 2020 at 2:32 PM with the headline "Texas Tech’s Chris Beard laments ‘self-inflicted’ loss to No. 5-ranked Kansas Jayhawks."
