Texas Tech basketball can turn page to future while celebrating real past achievements

As nearly 4,000 fans filled the stands prior to Wednesday night's Air Raiders victory to open the Lubbock Regional of The Basketball Tournament, it was a celebration of the past, present and future.

On the court were 11 players from three different decades of Texas Tech basketball joining forces on the way to picking up an 83-64 win over Purple Hearts. While that was going on, a slew of other notable former Red Raiders spent the evening shaking hands, signing everything in sight and smiling for so many pictures that weaker men would have needed a facial massage afterward.

There was Jarrett Culver, Bryson Williams and Adonis Arms. Zhaire Smith and Norense Odiase and so many others whose fingerprints are all over the identity of Tech basketball.

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Eight minutes before tip-off, the entire current Tech roster and coaching staff filed down the aisle to cheer on the Air Raiders. The present supporting the past, just as the past has uplifted the program to its current state.

It was, as expected, a family reunion.

Many former players in attendance Wednesday are responsible for the banners in the rafters of United Supermarkets Arena. None of them, though, were responsible for the one that was missing.

For the past three years, the USA featured a banner that signified the Red Raiders "qualifying" for the 2020 NCAA Tournament. Of course, there was no tournament in 2020.

An odd sight, to be sure: a banner for a mythological berth nobody can confirm or deny right next to the very real 2019 Final Four banner. Then-head coach Chris Beard was adamant — insistent, even — had there been a 2020 tournament, the Red Raiders would have been in the field.

It was a bit of a sticking point for Beard, even bringing it up throughout Tech's also real 2021 tournament run. Nobody can really blame Beard for trying to pad the stats. If he was right, if the Red Raiders would've made it to March Madness in 2020, it would've given him four straight NCAA Tournament bids at a school where that sort of consistency has never happened before.

Even when Beard left for Austin, the banner remained in the rafters during Mark Adams' tenure. Adams can't be blamed for leaving it up, either. Sure, it was silly, and a fib, but it wasn't hurting anybody. Prideful décor, at most.

But those banners are more than just cloth hanging from a ceiling. They're historical markers of achievement, there to remind present and future generations what those before them were able to accomplish. The goal is to add more banners, to motivate players to leave their own mark in history.

Those banners are earned.

Fans take great honor in seeing them when they walk into the arena. It's why when the NCAA hands down sanctions that call for forfeiting victories, schools take down banners that were earned from games that, based on official records, never actually happened.

So it stands to reason why so many Texas Tech fans — turns out, a lot more than I expected when I tweeted the photo out — took umbrage with the 2019-20 banner at all. It represented a fantasy, something that, based on official records, never actually happened.

Would the Red Raiders have made the tourney in 2020 were it not for COVID-19? Sure. Maybe. As I recall, they were firmly on the bubble most of the season. Their 18-13 record and four-straight losses to close the regular season weren't great, but with a win or two in the Big 12 Tournament, Tech would've had a decent case.

Except there are only 12 teams that have legit claims to have qualified for the 2020 tournament: Gonzaga, Winthrop, Liberty, Hofstra, Northern Kentucky, Bradley, Utah State, Robert Morris, Belmont, Boston University, East Tennessee State and North Dakota State. Each of these programs won their conference tournament and secured an automatic bid before the rest of the postseason was canceled. Texas Tech never had the same claim to make.

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Removing the ill-advised banner isn't just moving on from the past. In a way, it's an official turning of the page for the Tech basketball program. Fictionalized past achievements are removed to make way for whatever the team can achieve in the future.

As much success as there was during the Beard and Adams eras, it is time for the program as a whole to look to the future. The real achievements will still be remembered. They happened, and are well-documented. There was no need to add a fake accomplishment to the mix.

If all goes well under Grant McCasland's watch, a new banner will fill that hole in short order. He's already got a lofty task ahead of him in trying to rebuild the Red Raiders almost entirely from top to bottom.

He doesn't need somebody's ego and imagination clouding things for him, especially when fans never acknowledged the "achievement" to begin with.

A new chapter has already begun. Turn the page.

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech basketball can turn page to future while celebrating real past achievements