The first time I went to a women’s basketball game at Texas Tech, I took a cab from the hotel. The cabbie was listening to the pregame show on the radio and, of course, knew exactly when tipoff was. Didn’t everybody in Lubbock know that?
For a long, long time, opposing teams felt about visiting Texas Tech the way you might feel about visiting a faulty nuclear power plant.
“Um, really? We have to go in there? We HAVE to? Uggggghhhh.”
Because playing at Texas Tech was brutal for opponents. The crowd – at Lubbock Municipal Coliseum and then United Spirit Arena – was huge and loud and energetic. The fans created one of the best atmospheres in the country for women’s basketball. They were an enormous part of the reason that recruits wanted to come to Texas Tech.
There was a feeling for foes when they walked in that they weren’t just playing Texas Tech’s basketball team. They were facing Texas Tech Nation – several thousand red-and-black clad fans who would whoop and holler and shoot their imaginary “guns” and, typically, wear down or take the heart right out of the visitors.
When the Big 12 formed, Texas Tech – already an established program – soon became the boss of the conference, and the fan support for women’s hoops there was the envy of everyone in the league. It was a town and a school where women’s basketball really mattered and carried weight; in that, Texas Tech led the way not just in the Big 12, but was also one of the national leaders. Tech graduates felt real pride in what the program did. It represented the values, the dignity, the heart of the region. There wasn’t much of that, “Oh, it’s just women’s basketball” condescension so prevalent at other places.
So it’s rather painful for anyone who cares about the sport to witness nights like Wednesday in Lubbock. The top team right now in the Big 12, Nebraska, came to town. The announced attendance was 7,020, but there weren’t that many people at United Spirit Arena. Season ticket-holders, once loathe to miss a minute of action, aren’t showing up regularly anymore.
And by the end of the Huskers’ 89-47 destruction of Tech, many of those who had come were already out the door. Who could blame them? It was an epic defeat, and no amount of “Nebraska’s better than it’s ever been” – regardless of how true that is – could keep such a margin from looking and feeling horrendous to Tech followers.
In the previous home game, on Jan. 16, Tech had allowed its biggest rival, Texas, to scramble out of what looked like a sure loss and then win in double overtime. Any Texas Tech fans who sat through that agony and then the entirety of the Husker debacle probably have to wonder if it’s prudent to go anywhere near United Spirit Arena in the near future.
But alas, Texas Tech is back in action at home Saturday, as Oklahoma visits. It’s not overstating the case to say that Tech is on the edge of a cliff here, and desperately needs a victory to keep from going over. Because the first five games of February are extremely tough: at Iowa State (the North trip the Southern schools most dread for having to face Hilton Magic), at Texas, vs. Texas A&M, at Oklahoma State and at Baylor.
Not to foretell doom for Tech, but with just one league victory and facing this kind of schedule, the end of program’s NCAA tournament drought seems unlikely. Tech made the Big Dance every season from 1990-2005, which included the 1993 NCAA title, but hasn’t gone in the last four years.
As for why this has happened to Tech, it’s a combination of things. Longtime coach Marsha Sharp resigned after the 2006 season, citing the desire to work in another capacity for the university and pursue other interests. She is currently the executive director of the Kay Yow/WBCA Cancer Fund.
Kristy Curry was hired from Purdue in March 2006 to take over, but the Big 12 world she entered was vastly different than the one that existed when the conference began in 1996. For the first several years of the league, Baylor and Texas A&M simply were not competition for Tech either on the court or in recruiting. During that time, if a player from Texas really wanted to stay in state and play at the highest level, she was typically choosing between Texas Tech and Texas.
But Kim Mulkey taking over at Baylor and Gary Blair at Texas A&M totally changed the landscape. Texas has not yet been any more successful under Gail Goestenkors than the Longhorns were for most of their Big 12 days under Jody Conradt, but it’s not as if the program has gone downhill, either. They’re already frustrated at Texas because Goestenkors couldn’t manage to win a national championship instantly, but there’s nothing like a feeling of desperation in Austin.
Unfortunately, though, it might be getting that way in Lubbock. While the pecking order among the Big 12’s four Lone Star State schools once clearly had Tech on top, the program is now on the bottom.
Add to it that Oklahoma – which has successfully recruited from the West Texas area that Texas Tech once ruled – has made two Final Four trips in the last eight years, and Oklahoma State has upgraded in coaching and facilities.
But … does all that have to be seen as completely negative for Tech? Isn’t it a good thing when so many of the teams you face are powerful, too? Shouldn’t it energize the fan base to see their team going against the likes of Danielle Adams or Brittney Griner or Brittainey Raven or Danielle Robinson or Andrea Riley? Well, sure it does … provided Tech wins some of those matchups.
Tech just seems to have lost too much of the connection it used to have with its longtime loyal fan base. Certainly, not winning is the biggest part of that. And no matter what she did, Curry was never going to replicate Sharp’s near-sainted popularity with the fans. However, I thought, after a time, more of a bond would develop between Curry and the fans.That doesn’t seem to have happened very well.
And let’s face it – now that won’t happen until Tech seems like it’s back on a path toward the NCAA tournament, at the very least.
So it’s distressing, really. The sport simply doesn’t have enough places like Texas Tech used to be. There is no easy solution for how to get back there. The talent pool continues to grow, but that doesn’t do much good unless Tech can tap into more of it and – this is just as important – develop those players into the kind of successful, fun-to-watch team that excites people in that region and makes games the can’t-miss events they once were.
Tech has a very, very proud history. But the present and the future are both things to worry about.
Thanks Mechelle…although it makes me very sad.
I was remembering the first time I saw Tech play Texas – I heard that roar and I got goose bumps. So, many games in my 6 years in Lubbock…I only missed 4 in 6 years. Even that last hard year, we lost, but we were never out of the game.
Family in Lubbock who bleed red and black who are Tech boosters are not pleased with Curry. She hasn’t seemed to understand the work it took for Marsha to develop that program and that relationship with the fans. It seems like Curry took it for granted and didn’t nurture it and work on it.
Now it’s almost gone.
And once again she’s embarrassed in how the team played and disappointed in them. And the kids say we just have to work harder. I didn’t see the game, but I’ve heard about the broken hearted looks on those kids faces. They all dreamed of playing for the Texas Tech you described.. Curry needs to take her share of responsibility for that loss. I’m disappointed in her and not because the team is losing.
I hate losing, but it’s the way Tech is losing that’s so painful to watch. I know as painful as it is for us fans, it’s even worse for the players and the Curry’s.
Thanks for caring about Tech!
First, Thank you for a very objective article that communicates and empathizes with the changes in collegiate women’s basketball.
Second, just a suggestion — perhaps the pressure on players, coaches, and schools to perform as farm clubs for the WNBA needs to be confronted. The history of women’s BB is made up of a bigger percentage of good players who loved the game, the fans, and their schools — but never played beyond college. The few that continue are minimal and are, for the most part, not the average height, weight, athlete, and are groomed for the professional game. I would love to see ESPN champion the “little” players and their magnificent stories.
Mechelle, with this article, you really nailed the state of the Lady Raiders team and the Lady Raiders Nation! In the ’80’s, I watched the Lady Raiders struggle against the far-superior teams that Jody Condradt fielded at Texas, and was envious of UT. When Tech began to field competitive teams, and then actually begin to beat Texas, I was amazed. Then when Tech won it’s national championship, and continued its domination of the old Southwest Conference (until it’s demise) and the newly formed B-12 Conference, the pride of the Lady Raider Nation was unsurpassed in this area of the country. Now, to see the team fall so far, so fast, with no hope of climbing back up soon, it is just sad, sad, sad. In four years, Coach Curry has not been able to field consistently competitive teams. As you point out in your article, she also has done absolutely nothing to keep the fans in their seats, nor to win them back. Just sad indeed!
Interesting piece on a significant story of WBB history I knew little about. Thanks.
Rhetorical question here: Is this kind of thing an inevitable phenomenon that is bound to play itself out, sooner or later?
Neophytes of this game we love may only know of programs such as UConn, Tennessee, Stanford, et.al., as the standard-bearers of success. But what about the leaders of years gone by? What about rise and fall of former powerhouses such as Old Dominion, LA Tech, Immaculata or Virginia?
I don’t know the specifics on any of these other schools…is TX Tech’s story similar or different in its basic components?
I am a long-time Red Raider and one-time Lady Raider season ticket holder. I am saddened by the decline in Lady Raider basketball, but I also believe we’re one step from a real chance at returning to those glory years. However, I think that one step is to fire Curry and hire former Lady Raider great, national champion, and current West Texas A&M coach Krista Kirkland Gerlich.
There were some who thought Kirkland should have gotten the job when Sharp retired, and though I really thought she’d someday be a great coach for Tech, I did think the Curry hire was a good move by Myers. Now I think we should have gone the other way and we can still do that but now we’d be getting a proven winner with head coaching experience.
http://www.gobuffsgo.com/sports/w-baskbl/spec-rel/012710aaa.html
http://www.gobuffsgo.com/sports/w-baskbl/mtt/gerlich_krista00.html
This story is sad to read. As a long-time Lady Vol fan, I remember the 90’s when the Lady Vols used to travel to Lubbock to play the Lady Raiders. The intensity and passion of the crowd were incredible. I’ve known that the program was having problems but it’s sad that it’s effected the fan base as adversely as you say.
Mechelle — Your comment about Kristy Curry not being able to develop a bond with the Texas Tech fans struck a chord for me, but it relates to Kansas women’s basketball. I think that’s a big part of the problem at KU — not much connection between Bonnie Henrickson and the fans. To me, she’s just a fast-talking — literally — x’s and o’s coach. The mouth is way ahead of the brain. And where’s the heart?