Week 10 Player of the Week – Terrence Shannon Jr.

Photo CC: Stephen Lew – USA Today Sports

After taking all of the ninth week off due to a couple of programs being in Covid protocol, Tech resumed action with two tough road games at West Virginia and LSU. The two contests could not have ended more differently than they did. After being up 12 in Morgantown with just over seven minutes to go, the Mountaineers hit a game-winning shot with six seconds left to seal their comeback. However, in an even more dramatic fashion on Saturday, the Red Raiders went on a 12-0 run in the final minute to overcome a seven-point deficit and emerge from Baton Rouge victorious. Scoring the go-ahead bucket with 29 seconds remaining was week 10’s player of the week, Terrence Shannon Jr.

Shannon Jr. volunteered himself for the current role of the sixth man that he finds himself in. Quoted as one of Chris Beard’s most important roles on a basketball team, Shannon excels in bringing high energy off the bench. In the win against LSU, he provided a team-high 23 points to go alongside his game-winner and also recorded his first career double-double with 10 rebounds as well. Shannon Jr. embodies the type of player that fuels Beard’s program at Texas Tech, he puts the team first and does what is asked of him to help give the program its best chance for success. It’s not every day that the second-leading scorer and third-leading rebounder on a team come off the bench, but Shannon seems to take pride in his role and is impacting the game tremendously on both ends of the floor.

Coming up for Texas Tech are two games in which they will be favored to win. A welcome sight after three of their last four has come against top 15 opponents. With that said, every Big 12 game is a battle and nothing can be taken for granted in the league. First up is Oklahoma in Lubbock where the Sooners will look to continue their red hot streak of five straight wins and three in a row over top 10 teams. Then, the Red Raiders will travel to face a struggling Kansas State team currently sitting at 1-8 in the conference. With two victories this week, they would be sitting at 6-4 in Big 12 play and 14-5 overall with just seven games remaining in the regular season.