Takeaways: Texas Tech hoops officially underway with start of practice

Texas Tech fans....

Tuesday marked the beginning of basketball season as the Red Raiders took part in the first official practice of the new season.

- On Thursday, Davide Moretti will take part in the "first kick" at the Texas Tech soccer game. The whole team will be out there as well cheering on the soccer team. Beard said one of the first things they did when they arrived in Lubbock was checkout the other programs. He looks toward Tom Stone and his team as an example on how to build a successful program in Lubbock.

- "As we start the season today just kind of some staff updates," Beard announced. "W'e're really pleased this year with the staff we put together – starts with our full-time assistants. Pleased to announce Mark Adams has been promoted in terms of title. He still buys my lunch from time to time, which I appreciate, but he'll now be the associate head coach on paper – something he's been executing since the first day we were here. But, I was pleased to show him this respect and a well deserved honor for him. I've said it before and I'll say it again, he's the best coach that I've ever known in basketball. He's done so much for us here not only on the court but as a mentor for our players. He's somebody that I trust completely."

- On October 12, Texas Tech travels to El Paso to take on UTEP in a charity exhibition game for El Paso Strong fund. It's open to the public with every dollar going to the campaign following the tragedy in El Paso on August 3.

"Ridiculous tragedy that happened out there," Beard said. "This will be real dollars to help some of those families. I want to invite all Texas Tech people, Red Raider nation to come to El Paso that night."

- November 5 Is opening night for Red Raider basketball and fans can expect tons of fun. Beard said they'll have Final Four banners like they did a year ago for the Elite Eight run.

- Two things: Beard expressed his thanks to season ticket holders. He wants to get 100 percent scanned tickets for season ticket holders by making sure those that can't attend fill their seats some how. They'll be giving out promotions and gifts throughout the year as well.

Secondly, Kentucky visits Lubbock in January. Beard said students are very important to this team's success. So, students – attend the first four home games and the first home conference game following the semester break and you'll be guaranteed a seat for the Kentucky game.

Beard said if youth was a big deal In winning then everyone would go out and get a bunch of 25-26-year-olds to do that. However, with how young his team is, he does see a correlation between experience and success.

The freshmen, he's calling them right now, will come in play sooner rather than later. Beard said if a guy plays a lot of minutes by the time Christmas rolls around then he's basically a sophomore in Beard's mind.

Beard said he's a big believer in experience over age, classification, etc.

"These guys are all getting experience," Beard said. "All seven of them contributed in the Bahamas. They played real minutes. They got offseason under their belts, they got fall practices and now today we start official practice with these guys."

Beard went on to say the returners, including the transfers, only help in the progression of the slew of freshmen.

"Yes, we're a young team but no excuse," Beard said. "We're a no excuse culture. We Intend to be a part of the fight this year regardless of what classification of guys are on our roster."

Here's how Beard answered that question.

"We're always trying to get better, try new things," he said. "I think obviously we're going to play defense. We're going to share the ball. We're going to try not giving it to the other team. We're going to try to not beat ourselves. We're going to play hard. That's our culture, that's not going to change.

But from year to year, I think it's no secret this year with our length and athleticism we're really going to press the tempo defensively – probably be a team that presses more than the past.

Offensively, we'll have the ability to get out in the open court. Probably the bets of our four teams here at Tech in terms of getting easy baskets because of our athleticism. Hopefully the culture stays in tact but every year we're going to do what we have to do to give ourselves the chance to be successful and every team is different."

TJ Holyfield joined the Red Raider roster as a graduate transfer. The Albuquerque, New Mexico, native played three seasons at Stephen F. Austin before missing an entire year In 2018-19 due to a dislocated shoulder, torn labrum and a lot of little bumps in recovery.

Holyfield already has produced 1,081 points, 595 rebounds and 134 blocked shots in his collegiate career. He said the transition for him has been good since joining the team.

"I think It's been a good transition from where I was at," he said. "It's obviously a different program, different set of rules. I guess transitioning into more of a perimeter player. At my last school I played a lot around the basket. I posted up most of my game and I'm transitioning more into a perimeter player."

He mentioned his fit and role on this team has felt like others throughout his playing time. He broke it down by saying he feels like his playing style can be plugged In seamlessly.

Holyfield said one of the reasons he chose Texas Tech is because they're a senior led program that has had success with graduate transfers. Holyfield added the success with Mooney and Owens was big for him.

One of the things Holyfield wants to get out of this experience Is learning to become more of a student of the game. He knows Beard can get that done for him.

Holyfield said he tries to be a leader wherever he goes. He wants the newcomers that haven't played in a collegiate game before to lean on him for advice.

On Monday morning, former Texas Tech basketball star Andre Emmett was shot and killed outside of his residence in Dallas. Beard continued to express his condolences and thoughts to the Emmett family.

Here's what he said on Tuesday about the tragedy.

"Yeah, I just don't understand why these things happen. I think most people would agree with me on that. This is where faith kicks in and just the day hasn't gotten any easier today. Actually heard from Andre's mom this morning. All former players are calling in and we're basically just trying to rally for Dre's family now. As you know he's a father. Just making sure that we're doing everything we can do from our point of view.

You know, two things about Andre – first the player, which is really minimal and unimportant right now but last 24-36 hours been thinking a lot about Andre. Obviously, the world knew his talent and arguably probably the best player to play at this school, maybe the best player to ever play in the Big 12. Best scorer, I've ever coached, competitive. But the thing I always come back to with Dre is how confident he was. I tell our players confidence is one of the things you have to have. You earn it through your work, your mental and all elite people have confidence ... Andre just had a confidence around him and it bled into other people. He made me a better coach. At least once or twice a week we do something with our team that I learned directly from Andre Emmett. So, the basketball player was special.

But more importantly – let's talk about the man.

His relationship with his mom that I saw the first time I ever met Andre when he played for coach Knight and I was here as an assitant. I hope that I'm the kind of kid to my mom and dad that Dre was to his mom. That was a special bond. To see what kind of father he was just special. Every time I talked to him he talked about his kids. When he came to Lubbock he was so proud of his kids. Just the family guy he was, the sone he was, the father he was and then you know basketball Is just a small part of Dre's life. Most recently he was investing time and finances in his foundations that were helping kids. He was so proud. He would burn me up asking for not only my help but everybody's help to try to help and support his causes. He was so proud to say the things he was doing to help kids. Again, publicly, I represent a lot of people when I say this, our deepest sympathies to Dre's family. As time goes on here we'll start to celebrate his life. Obviously, it's going to take a long time or we'll never get over this but I tend to just think about how short this life is that we're all living and just try to celebrate Dre and all the great things he represented and the man he was."