Jarrett Culver’s journey from an intriguing freshman on the bench of a loaded Texas Tech program last season to the first option on an NCAA title team just a year later was nothing if not surprising.
After losing eventual Philadelphia 76er, Zhaire Smith, and key players like Justin Gray last season, Texas Tech got only six votes in the Preseason AP poll, which sounds like a lot until you remember that the team with the highest count to not make the poll received 162.
They were probably going to make the tournament, sure, but this was probably going to be a down year relative to the season they had before.