Today, the Texas Tech basketball team received a bid to the 2016 NCAA Tournament marking the program’s first appearance in the sports biggest event in nine years. Head coach Tubby Smith and his team are the No. 8 seed in the Midwest Region and will face No. 9 seed Butler on Thursday at 11:40 CST.
After being picked in the preseason polls to finish last in the Big 12, Texas Tech ended the year seventh in the league with an impressive 9-9 conference record. The Red Raiders’ journey to the NCAA Tournament is one of the more surprising stories of the 2016 NCAA basketball season so let’s look at five of the main reasons that Texas Tech surpassed expectations this year.