Following a first round victory in the Big 12 Conference
Championships against West Virginia and then a beat down from Kansas to end the
2013 season for the Red Raider basketball team on Thursday, changes have
already started for the future of the Texas Tech men’s basketball program.
According to the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal the entire men’s
basketball coaching staff except interim head coach Chris Walker have been
relieved of their duties during a meeting with Tech Athletic Director Kirby
Hocutt on Saturday morning.
Following a debacle in the fall following reports surfacing
of NCAA violations by Texas Tech under former head coach Billy Gillispie,
health issues forcing Gillispie to step down and leave the program on September
20, the person to lead the program into the season was not yet known.
After a few weeks of searching, Hocutt announced they would
stay in-house making Chris Walker the interim head coach on October 4.
Since that point Walker led the Red Raiders to an 11-20
overall record and 3-15 mark in Big 12 play, including a series sweep against
TCU and Iowa State.
With the announcement on Saturday morning, Texas Tech is
parting ways with assistant coach Jeremy Cox and assistant coach Bubba
Jennings, director of basketball operations Craig Wells, assistant director of
operations Jim Shaw, director of video production Josh Mills and assistant
director of video production Derrick Jasper according to a report by the
Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.
Cox was in his first season with the Red Raiders following a
stint at the University of Nebraska and brought 21 years of coaching experience
to the table.
Cox spent 10 years as an assistant coach at the Division 1
level and eight as a junior college head coach and was a part of four Division
1 post-season appearances and nine post-season appearances in the NJCAA.
Jennings leaves the Red Raiders basketball program after his
12th season with the team, spending time as an assistant in the Bob
Knight, Pat Knight, Billy Gillispie and finally the Chris Walker eras.
The Clovis, New Mexico native was also a decorated player
while at Texas Tech before joining Gerald Myers’ coaching staff as a graduate
assistant in 1985. He then went through a string of high school coaching jobs
including time at Coronado High School.
Wells was in his 10th year with Texas Tech
athletics and was the first assistant athletic director of basketball
operations, Wells joined Texas Tech in 2002 and oversaw external operations
most recently.
Walker is the only coach to be retained on the staff and is
a prime candidate to take over as the head coach, but the decision has not yet
been made if he will have the interim tag removed or not.
More coming on this story in the coming
weeks as it continues to develop.