Much like the North Carolina Tar Heels of men’s college basketball, the Lady Raiders of Texas Tech have grown accustomed to seeing their name at the top of their conference standings.
This season however, both have fallen into the middle of the pack in their respective divisions. The elite team of their conference, the Lady Raiders have never finished lower than third in the Big 12, much to the credit of legendary head coach Marsha Sharp. This season, the Lady Raiders are standing in seventh place by way of a 6-6 conference record with only four conference games remaining.
Despite their middle-of-the-road conference record, the ladies of Texas Tech are currently ranked 16th nationally, thanks to their solid play amid one of the toughest schedules in the country. Not only are six other teams in the Big 12 currently ranked in the top 25, Texas Tech has the second-highest strength-of-schedule rating in all of women’s basketball.
It’s been described as a roller coaster of a season for these ladies of Lubbock, but Sharp believes the Raiders are improving.
“[We] are a better team now than in November,” Sharp said.
Wins against highly regarded teams such as Vanderbilt and division rival Baylor are coupled with disappointing losses to New Mexico and Missouri.
With a conference as tough and as athletic as the Big 12, wins and losses can’t be predicted.
“The Big 12 has better athletes and better teams out there, maybe better than there has ever been,” Sharp says.
Now in her 20th season, Sharp is nine years removed from her national championship season of 1993. Then led by forward Sheryl Swoops, the 1993 Lady Raider team finished 31-3 and earned both Sharp and Swoops the NCAA coach and player of the year awards, respectively.
The notoriety that season brought to Lubbock has been unrivaled until the spring of 2001, when Texas Tech hired coaching legend Bobby Knight to command the sidelines for the Red Raiders men’s team. But Sharp doesn’t feel overshadowed by the hiring of such a coaching luminary as Knight.
“The goal of Texas Tech is to put as solid of two teams as [the university] can out there,” Sharp said. “The university looks to lead the nation in combined attendance, and each particular year we have a chance to do that.”
Much like Knight, Marsha Sharp looks for not only great basketball players but also for great students. Sharp takes great pride in the 99 percent graduation rate of her players. Over her 20 seasons the Lady Raider players have made the Dean’s list a remarkable 43 times.
“Not only are we looking for great basketball players, we’re looking for the complete package,” says Sharp in an exemplary Texas drawl.
Sharp is so exceptionally committed to the academics of student athletes at Texas Tech that, in 1997, she made a $10,000 donation to the university, organizing the construction of the Marsha Sharp Center for Student Athletes.
Sharp and her Lady Raiders host the Badgers Monday in a late-season non-conference game. Both teams are gunning to salvage the rest of their seasons, and a win would help both teams in terms of seating for the March tournament.
Despite Wisconsin’s current decline, Sharp is not dismissing the Badgers’ game.
“Personally here at Texas Tech, if we go through a period of time where we are not playing well, we just try to go back to basics and try to stay as positive as we can about everything ? we circle the wagons, and try to be each other’s biggest supporters,” Sharp said. “Jane [Albright] has done a great job, and I’m sure they’ll work their way out of it.”
Both the Badgers and the Lady Raiders will attempt to circle the wagons on national television Monday night. The Badgers are 0-3 all-time against Texas Tech, including a second-round meeting in the 1995 NCAA tournament.
