Texas Tech associate head coach Adrian Walters earns national recognition as the Lady Raiders’ defense powers a historic season and NCAA hopes.
Texas Tech women’s basketball is having a season that nobody predicted, and associate head coach Adrian Walters is getting national attention because of it.
Walters was recently named to the ABIS Basketball Coaches Watchlist, a recognition that highlights some of the top coaching minds in college and professional basketball.
For the Texas Tech Lady Raiders, the honor reflects the dramatic turnaround that has pushed the program back into the national spotlight.
Texas Tech finished the regular season 25-7 overall and 12-6 in Big 12 play, tying for fourth place in a conference where the team was projected to finish 13th in the preseason poll.
It marks the Lady Raiders’ best conference finish since the 2012-13 season and the program’s most wins in more than two decades, dating back to the 2003-04 campaign.
Even more impressive, Texas Tech opened the season with a program-record 19-0 start and spent 11 consecutive weeks ranked in the AP Top 25, the program’s first extended national ranking since 2012.
Much of that success has come on the defensive end, where Walters has built one of the most disruptive defenses in women’s college basketball.
The Lady Raiders rank ninth nationally with 5.8 blocks per game and have turned their interior defense into a major strength. Opponents are shooting just 36.8 percent from the field and 27.1 percent from three-point range, numbers that rank among the top defensive marks in the country.
Texas Tech also holds opponents to 58.1 points per game, creating a relentless defensive identity.
Several players have become defensive standouts under Walters’ system.
Jalynn Bristow anchors the paint with 68 blocks this season, averaging 2.13 blocks per game, which ranks among the national leaders.
On the perimeter, Gemma Nunez and Denae Fritz have turned defense into offense with 67 and 64 steals, respectively, both ranking among the top theft totals in the Big 12.
The Lady Raiders now wait to see where their season continues.
With the NCAA Tournament Selection Show scheduled for Sunday, Texas Tech is poised to return to March Madness for the first time in 13 years ... a milestone that would further validate the work Walters and the Lady Raiders have put together this season.