Texas Tech trailed by 19 points at halftime of its first Big 12 tournament game last season. Once the team assembled in the locker room, coach Pat Knight quickly explained just what he thought of the mid-game score.

“Pat really chewed us out,” forward Mike Singletary said. “We just didn’t want that to be our last game. We didn’t want to get blown out, to (Texas) A&M of all people.”

Singletary’s response has become Tech basketball legend in the nine months since that game. The Aggies used a pair of free throws to stretch their lead to 21 points before Singletary went on a solo 29-point scoring drive, leading the Red Raiders into the second round with a 88-83 shocker.

Texas Tech and John Roberson have responded well in pressure situations this season, including an overtime win against Washington on December 3. (Merissa Ferguson/Avalanche-Journal)

Texas Tech’s record in Knight’s first season and a half as coach disappointed at 18-26. In that time, though, the Raiders won several games in high-pressure situations, something Singletary says helped him and fellow team leaders John Roberson and D’walyn Roberts lead to team to its first 9-0 start in eight decades.

“We love to come in and be the spoiler, create upsets, just come in and surprise people,” Singletary said. “This year it’s kind of different because we’ve been getting some recognition. We have the same mentality, but we have to come out and show people they’re not better than us.”

Tech’s 83-80 win against Texas, during Singletary, Roberson and Roberts’ freshman season, marked the first major victory of Knight’s tenure at Tech. Five weeks earlier, Tech lost 73-47 to the Longhorns while shooting just 36.2 percent.

When Knight took over for his father, Bob, two games later, the Raiders dropped road games at Baylor and Nebraska while adjusting to the new man in charge. The March 1 win against the No. 5 Longhorns, less than one month after Pat Knight took over, showed the Raiders had not collapsed under the mid-season change.

Singletary said Tech’s next game, a 109-51 loss at Kansas, burned a completely different feeling into his memory.

“Rough, that’s the only way to describe it,” Singletary said. “All the odds were against us that night. We came out, fought hard, and they ended up winning the national championship that year.”

The Raiders remembered that loss a year later when Kansas, ranked ninth, arrived in Lubbock. This time it was Tech’s senior night, and senior Alan Voskuil dropped 35 points on the visiting Jayhawks as Tech won 84-65.

Tech led the entire time.

Singletary said Tech’s many challenges through his first two seasons taught the Raiders how to thrive when they’re down by, say, 14 points, as they were at TCU last week.

“That’s not the time to panic, and veteran guys should know that’s the time to stay composed, know that’s not a big issue and we can come back from deficits like that,” he said.

Of course, things change when Tech becomes the team to beat. Now ranked 16th nationally, it’s become difficult to surprise opponents.

He’s heard people claim Tech is overrated. He’s heard it said about No. 23 Washington, which was ranked No. 12 when it lost 99-92 to Tech last month, a game that propelled the Raiders into the polls.

He said it doesn’t change anything.

“If they want to say Washington’s overrated, that we’re overrated, just let them talk,” Singletary said. “We’ll prove them wrong.”

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