Texas Tech Basketball Position Preview | Shooting Guards

There will be some roster attrition because right now, there are at least two more commitments who have signed a letter of intent than there are available spots. Unfortunately, we just don't know who is not going to receive a scholarship. The purpose of this exercise is to give everyone who is on the roster and speculate a bit about where these players might fit.

Jamel Outler | 6-2/178 | Sophomore

I'm not what to think of Outler other than I wish that he had been redshirted last year. Maybe this is something that I shouldn't have a problem with, but Outler's redshirt was removed so that he could play in 14 games and 76 minutes. Maybe I have too much of a football mindset when it comes to basketball players, but there wasn't a situation or a game last year when Outler was needed and those 76 minutes that he did play seemed to relatively worthless. So my question is whether or not we learned anything about Outler's game and I don't think that we did. He shot 38.9% (as an aside, there were only two players that shot over 50%, Robert Lewandowski and D'Walyn Roberts, while Jaye Crockett shot 49%) and he's supposed to be a shooter, like a lot of shooting guards. This doesn't at all mean that I've given up on Outler, it's tough transitioning from high school to college, which is why I wish he would have redshirted and I hope that his high school offensive game, which is spot-up shooting and driving to the basket, is pulled out of him from Gillispie.

Marshall Henderson | 6-2/160 | RS Sophomore

Do you think it's too early to declare Henderson the starting shooting guard next year? I'm probably being too optimistic, but as a true freshman for the Utah Utes, Henderson averaged 11.8 PPG, 37.4% FG and 33.5% 3FG. Henderson was not afraid to shoot, and although there's plenty of time that's passed, Henderson was the player that shoved/hit a BYU player during his freshman campaign. So what's Henderson been doing since he transferred from Utah after a pretty darned good freshman year? Well, last year he had to sit out because of transfer rules and that's considered his redshirt year so he'll have three years at Texas Tech. I hope like heck he's added some weight and would think that he's matured a bit and added 10 to 15 pounds. Henderson has attitude and he's passionate, so it will be interesting to see if and how much Gillispie will pull in on the reins, if at all.  This is the only video I could find of Henderson (besides the BYU incident).

A bit on freshman Gotcher, after the jump.

Toddrick Gotcher | 6-3/185 | Freshman

This is one of Pat Knight's commits and I think he's a good player. Despite what a lot of people think about PK, I do think he signed some pretty darned good talent when he was still the head coach and we'll know how accurate that is if Gillispie honors the letter of intent they all signed. In any event, Gotcher averaged 16.4 PPG; 2.4 APG; 7.4 RPG and 1.5 SPG for a really talented Garland Centennial team (they went 37-2 this year and finished #3 in the nation . . . that's right, the nation). I haven't seen any video of Gotcher, so I'm curious as to how he'll play, but at the very least, I think he's similar to Outler in that in high school he was a wing player rather than a shoot.  in that I'm curious as to how much time will be available, assuming that Henderson will see significant minutes as soon as the season starts.  There's been some thought that Gotcher will see time at point guard as well, but his high school numbers don't play out that thought, and with the glut of current point guards on the roster (there are currently four including Mike Davis, Javarez Willis, Ty Nurse and Kevin Wagner), I don't really see where there's going to be room there either.  Besides, as far as the current shooting guards are concerned, Gotcher does have the requisite height/weight that you like to see, whereas Henderson was 160 pounds coming into Texas Tech.