Stevenson picks Texas Tech

Chris Beard and his staff added the first signee of their tenure on Tuesday morning in Seward County C.C. shooting guard Niem Stevenson, who signed with the Red Raiders after visiting Lubbock over the weekend.

In fact, the Seward County prospect had plans to visit NC State and Oregon on the docket for this week, but his visit out to Lubbock went so well that he decided to nix both and go ahead with his decision to and ink with Texas Tech.

I had a good vibe when I went down there, and everything just felt right," Stevenson said. "The atmosphere, just the fans, meeting all the coaches, and it just felt like a family."

Stevenson is a two-time NJCAA All-American, scoring 24.7 points per game this past season and shooting 51 percent from the field in the process, the second best percentage by any of the top 10 scorers in NJCAA this year. He scored more than 30 points seven times and more than 20 points 23 times throughout his final campaign at Seward County.

Stevenson is hoping to continue that scoring rate as a Red Raider, and seeing as he's already been running a motion offense at the JUCO level, the guard feels like he'll fit right in from day one at Tech.

"It fits me because I ran a motion offense at Seward County, so it will be easy for me to fit right in."

The relationship and connection he felt with the players already on the roster at Tech while on his visit sold him on the Red Raiders, too.

"I met Justin (Gray), Keenan (Evans), and I pretty much just met the whole squad," he said. "That's why I chose them. I want them to be my teammates. They're a good group of guys, not just on the floor. I know what they can do on the floor, but also it was just about their character."

Stevenson signed with Tech over offers from Oregon, Texas A&M, and NC State this morning.