Krista Gerlich received messages of support following Texas Tech’s 36-point loss to West Virginia on Wednesday, with backers encouraging her to keep her head up.
She didn’t need them.
“I have a lot of people reaching out to me and telling me they’re behind me and to hang in there,” the Lady Raiders coach said Saturday. “I’m like, I’m gonna get back up and fight every single day. That’s what I do.”
That shouldn’t come as a surprise. That’s the approach Gerlich has always taken. It’s the type of player she was during the glory days of Tech women’s basketball in the ’90s. As the Lady Raiders enter another week on a four-game losing skid, one question could determine whether the team can recover from consecutive home blowouts.
Do these players have the same mentality?
Such wasn’t the case Wednesday, when Gerlich made several statements of disappointment over the team’s effort. To their credit, the Lady Raiders came out with a renewed passion Saturday against TCU. It was a back-and-forth opening quarter before the No. 11 Horned Frogs pulled away for a 69-43 win.
But it’s college basketball. Coaxing “fight” out of players shouldn’t be on a coach’s to-do list.
“Absolutely (the fight) was better,” Gerlich said. “I felt like we started the game with much more fight about us, much more competitiveness. We talked at halftime about not being satisfied with just playing them close, because that type of effort … that’s a non-negotiable. We have to have that type of effort every single night.”
Gerlich hinted Saturday it’s not a team-wide problem, saying “we’ve got to have everybody locked in.” Without naming names, Gerlich essentially said not everyone is pulling their weight. That’s part of the scoring struggles, which resulted Saturday in Tech’s lowest output of the season. The Lady Raiders (12-6, 1-4 Big 12) average 55.5 points in their losses.
Gerlich compared Tech’s offensive issues with those of the Dallas Cowboys — obviously not the group to emulate.
“I think we’ve got to have some buy-in,” Gerlich said. “Just some buy-in from everybody to know that when you play basketball, all five parts have to do their job to be able to score the basketball. We use this example all the time … you knew who the (Cowboys) wide receiver that was gonna get the ball because he ran his route really, really hard and the others didn’t. That’s a really easy scout.
“I think that happens sometimes with us. If we run a set play … we don’t all do our parts, so therefore it doesn’t execute at the right level. So I think you’ve got to really be locked in to everyone has to be working on the same accord.”
We should learn soon if the Lady Raiders have taken the rough week to heart. Hilton Coliseum is not kind to visitors, and Iowa State isn’t as “down” as some speculated, but maybe a competitive contest Tuesday can be a spark. Even though Gerlich isn’t content with close losses, after an average defeat of 25 points the past four games, it wouldn’t hurt.
There’s no reason Tech can’t follow with wins over BYU and Houston. Getting back in the win column could be the spark needed to make something of this season. The optimist would point out the Lady Raiders don’t have as brutal a stretch as the past three ranked foes the rest of the regular season.
However the next few games go, Gerlich will keep going to work. We’ll see if the team follows.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Column: Will Texas Tech women’s basketball battle like Krista Gerlich?
