Texas Tech starts the 2021-22 season on November 9th taking on the North Florida Ospreys. The game will be on an ESPN platform. I’m excited to see this team. With that being said, I’m going to have a nice old-fashioned link roundup to get some of these preseason links that I’ve been saving up and/or found at some point for your reading pleasure. Enjoy!

CBS Sports’ Kyle Boone | Big 12 expert picks 2021-22: Projected order of finish, bold predictions, most overrated and underrated teams

Should mention here that Texas Tech is picked to finish 5th by CBS, which I think is a sweet spot, 4th or 5th seems to be what most people think.

Most underrated team
Texas Tech
Chris Beard gets the majority of the credit for Texas Tech’s success in recent years, and rightfully so, but we should keep in mind here that the program’s best asset of late, its defense, has been credited largely to new coach Mark Adams. Now Adams takes the reins and inherits a star to build around in Terrence Shannon Jr. along with two Kevins in Obanor and McCullar. I trust this program will continue humming along at a nice pace even under a new coaching regime.

ESPN | Big 12 2021-22 men’s basketball predictions: Stacking Kansas, Texas and Baylor in title race

Apart from Beard, the Big 12 has new coaches at Oklahoma (Porter Moser), Texas Tech (Mark Adams) and Iowa State (T.J. Otzelberger). Which member of this trio do you see making the biggest immediate impact?

Lunardi: He might not make the biggest impact right away, but I’m going with Moser. If Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione is right — and there are a boatload of reasons to think he is — the Sooners are embarking on a special era.

In pretty much every sport, all the Sooners do is win. Big. Four different coaches have taken Oklahoma to a Final Four. One day, Moser will become the fifth.

Borzello: It’s hard to really gauge which one will make the biggest impact in Year 1, because I think Mark Adams took over the best situation of the three, but because I have Texas Tech finishing highest of that trio, I’ll go with Adams. It helps that Adams is familiar with the Red Raiders, the school, the roster and the system, and it also helps Adams has helped lead a top-20 defense in Lubbock, Texas, for four straight years.

Several guys entered the portal following Beard’s departure for Texas, but Adams was able to keep Terrence Shannon Jr., Kevin McCullar and Marcus Santos-Silva, among others, and then landed seven transfers — at least five of whom are capable of making an immediate impact. The most promising of the group are NCAA tournament star Kevin Obanor (Oral Roberts) and Bryson Williams (UTEP). I think Texas Tech is an NCAA tournament team and should finish in the top half of the Big 12.

Gasaway: What Borzello said: Adams is walking into the best situation of these three coaches, so he’ll win the Immediate Impact award. Oklahoma was about as strong as the Red Raiders on a possession-for-possession basis in conference play last season, but Moser doesn’t have as much in the cupboard in Norman as Adams does in Lubbock. Bear in mind Loyola Chicago didn’t become the sensational Sister Jean-meme-spawning machine we all know and revere until Moser had been in place on the North Side for a few seasons. And as for Otzelberger, his work in Ames, Iowa, will begin with building a cupboard, period.

Medcalf: Borzello and Gasaway are both right. It’s definitely Mark Adams. I wonder why more teams don’t take this approach, if they can, and hire a trusted assistant in those situations. You don’t always need a big name. Adams has been coaching in Texas since the early 1980s. He has worked with Chris Beard for years. The players who remained on the roster approached Texas Tech athletic director Kirby Hocutt and pushed for Adams after Beard left for Texas. That says a lot about this group and its level of comfort entering the season.

Here’s another thing to consider: Adams was in charge of the defense with those great Texas Tech squads. I think these teams will look a lot like the squads that were coached by Beard. And that’s a good thing for the fans in Lubbock. I think Moser and Otzelberger will get there eventually, but Adams is walking into a favorable situation.

Athlon Sports | Texas Tech Basketball: Red Raiders Team Preview and Season Prediction 2021-22

Perhaps no team in college basketball has a greater range of possible outcomes than Texas Tech — the product of a coaching staff and roster that enter the 2021-22 season mostly unproven in their current roles.

Texas Tech promoted assistant Mark Adams after Chris Beard left for the Texas job in the offseason, and while Adams deserves immense credit for developing Texas Tech’s clever “no-middle” defensive scheme — it’s been so effective that other schools like Baylor and Kansas have copied parts of it — he still faces major questions as a 65-year-old with previous head-coaching success at lower levels but not in Division I.

The Red Raiders’ rotation also is difficult to project outside of mainstays Terrence Shannon Jr., Kevin McCullar and Marcus Santos-Silva. More than half of Adams’ roster is made up of transfers, with a majority of them profiling as scorers at non-Power 5 schools who will now get a chance on a bigger stage.

Inside The Red Raiders’ Austin Massey | Texas Tech Basketball Preseason Superlatives

Newcomer of the year: Davion Warren. Since I wrote about Obanor above, I’ll go ahead and pick Davion Warren to be the newcomer of the year for Texas Tech. Warren is a 6-foot-6 guard that can do a little bit of everything. He’s a solid three-point shooter, is excellent when attacking the rim, and rebounded at a reasonable rate for a guard last season. He was one of the leading scorers in Division I basketball last season at Hampton and has all the tools to be a good defender. Warren was relied on heavily at Hampton to produce on the offensive end, which often led to forced shots and a high turnover rate. Luckily for him, he will not be relied on or focused on by opposing defenses nearly as much, and I think this will ultimately benefit his productivity. Look for Warren to be a starter or get starter caliber minutes next season.

Red Raider Sports’ Chase Champlin | Mailbag: Your Questions on Texas Tech Basketball

There is a very high chance we finish off the class of 2022 with RJ Godfrey and Lamar Washington. I expect both to commit this month as the early signing period begins next week (Starting November 10th). Mark Adams will fight for Yohan Traore but as I have said in the past it will be a hard fight.

24/7 Sports Riley Gates | Big 12 basketball: Top 10 players in 2021-22

Obanor became a popular name in college basketball thanks to Oral Roberts’ surprise run to the Sweet 16. But fans likely should have known who he was prior to that, as Obanor nearly averaged a double-double for the Golden Eagles last year. The 6-foot-8, 225-pound transfer averaged 18.7 points and 9.6 rebounds per game last year and shot over 50% from the floor. Starting a new regime of Texas Tech basketball, Obanor is going to quickly become familiar to Big 12 fans.