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WICHITA, Kan. — Kirby Hocutt is willing to put any speculation about Krista Gerlich's future as the head coach of the Texas Tech women's basketball team to rest.
In an interview with the Avalanche-Journal on March 19, Hocutt said that Gerlich will remain as the leader of the Lady Raiders next season. Texas Tech wrapped up a 19-18 campaign with a 67-63 loss to Florida in the quarterfinals of the Women's Basketball Invitation Tournament on Thursday.
Hocutt confirmed Gerlich's return before the Lady Raiders began WBIT tournament play last week. Texas Tech then earned road wins over Wyoming and Virginia Tech before falling to Florida.
"Krista is going to continue to lead the Lady Raider program," Hocutt said. "We have high expectations for that program. Expectations of being relevant nationally. We need to get back into the NCAA Tournament with the Lady Raider program, and Krista would be the first to share that with you."
More: Kirby Hocutt believes Grant McCasland will be Texas Tech basketball coach 'a long, long time'
Gerlich's time at her alma mater has been a mixed bag. The 2024-25 campaign saw the former Lady Raider questioning her own team's willingness to fight throughout the season, though the team hit a hot streak at the end to salvage what appeared to be another lost season.
Texas Tech entered the Big 12 Conference tournament in Kansas City as the 14-seed in the field and wound up picking up wins over Kansas and Utah before falling to Oklahoma State in the quarterfinals. It marked the first time Tech won multiple games in the tournament since 2003, and it was the team's first appearance in the quarterfinals since 2019.
That late surge, part of a three-game winning streak after a nine-game skid, earned the Lady Raiders an invitation to the WBIT, the team's second postseason appearance under Gerlich. Hocutt was encouraged by what he saw to end the year.
"I was pleased to see while we didn't have a great year, that we did make the WBIT," the Tech director of athletics said. "I was proud of the girls for the way that they competed during the back stretch of the conference schedule as we were facing adversity, as the ball was not bouncing our way for us."
According to Texas Tech's official stats, the Lady Raiders averaged 4,831 fans in attendance for their home games, though a quick scan around the United Supermarkets Arena during such contests shows that figure may be misleading. This is a drop of about 600 fans per game from the 2023-24 campaign.
Texas Tech was also among the finalists to land Monterey's Aaliyah Chavez, the No. 1 overall girls basketball prospect for the 2025 recruiting class. Chavez announced Tuesday she will be joining the Oklahoma women's basketball team rather than staying home to play for the Lady Raiders.
The Lady Raiders are just 77-83 overall and 24-66 in conference play in Gerlich's five-year tenure. While the Big 12 was still a 10-member conference, Texas Tech never finished higher than seventh in the league standings and fell to 12th (out of 14) and 14th (out of 16) in the past two seasons.
The team won a total of four conference games in 18 tries during the regular season before earning four postseason wins in six contests.
More: Texas Tech athletics is having a moment, and Kirby Hocutt wants to strike while iron's hot
"Krista and I have talked since the season ended," Hocutt said. "There were just some unfortunate things that occurred over the course of the season that ... they are what they are, but it's not where we want to be."
Gerlich has two more years remaining on her contract. The extension she signed in 2022 calls for her to make $600,000 for the 2025-26 season and $620,000 for the 2026-27 campaign. The contract also calls for Gerlich to receive 60% of the remaining value of her deal if fired by the university. As of April 1, that figure would be around $720,000 to buy out the final two years of her deal.
In discussing Gerlich's status with the university, Hocutt said he and Gerlich "know there's got to be some changes." While he didn't have specifics in mind, he likened her situation to the one Texas Tech football coach Joey McGuire had at the end of the 2024 season.
"At the end of the football season, Coach McGuire sat down and evaluated," said Hocutt, who added he challenges all his head coaches to self-evaluate at the end of their respective seasons. "What had to change within the football program for us to get to Arlington and to be able to meet those goals? Coach Gerlich has got to do the same thing.
"And all of our coaches do that in years of success and years where we don't meet our goals. That's the responsibility of the head coaches, and I have the responsibility of having those conversations with them and make sure that we're looking objectively at every aspect of our program to do the things that we need to do to compete at the highest level that we can."
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Krista Gerlich to return as Texas Tech women's basketball coach
Continue reading...
In an interview with the Avalanche-Journal on March 19, Hocutt said that Gerlich will remain as the leader of the Lady Raiders next season. Texas Tech wrapped up a 19-18 campaign with a 67-63 loss to Florida in the quarterfinals of the Women's Basketball Invitation Tournament on Thursday.
Hocutt confirmed Gerlich's return before the Lady Raiders began WBIT tournament play last week. Texas Tech then earned road wins over Wyoming and Virginia Tech before falling to Florida.
"Krista is going to continue to lead the Lady Raider program," Hocutt said. "We have high expectations for that program. Expectations of being relevant nationally. We need to get back into the NCAA Tournament with the Lady Raider program, and Krista would be the first to share that with you."
More: Kirby Hocutt believes Grant McCasland will be Texas Tech basketball coach 'a long, long time'
Gerlich's time at her alma mater has been a mixed bag. The 2024-25 campaign saw the former Lady Raider questioning her own team's willingness to fight throughout the season, though the team hit a hot streak at the end to salvage what appeared to be another lost season.
Texas Tech entered the Big 12 Conference tournament in Kansas City as the 14-seed in the field and wound up picking up wins over Kansas and Utah before falling to Oklahoma State in the quarterfinals. It marked the first time Tech won multiple games in the tournament since 2003, and it was the team's first appearance in the quarterfinals since 2019.
That late surge, part of a three-game winning streak after a nine-game skid, earned the Lady Raiders an invitation to the WBIT, the team's second postseason appearance under Gerlich. Hocutt was encouraged by what he saw to end the year.
"I was pleased to see while we didn't have a great year, that we did make the WBIT," the Tech director of athletics said. "I was proud of the girls for the way that they competed during the back stretch of the conference schedule as we were facing adversity, as the ball was not bouncing our way for us."
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According to Texas Tech's official stats, the Lady Raiders averaged 4,831 fans in attendance for their home games, though a quick scan around the United Supermarkets Arena during such contests shows that figure may be misleading. This is a drop of about 600 fans per game from the 2023-24 campaign.
Texas Tech was also among the finalists to land Monterey's Aaliyah Chavez, the No. 1 overall girls basketball prospect for the 2025 recruiting class. Chavez announced Tuesday she will be joining the Oklahoma women's basketball team rather than staying home to play for the Lady Raiders.
The Lady Raiders are just 77-83 overall and 24-66 in conference play in Gerlich's five-year tenure. While the Big 12 was still a 10-member conference, Texas Tech never finished higher than seventh in the league standings and fell to 12th (out of 14) and 14th (out of 16) in the past two seasons.
The team won a total of four conference games in 18 tries during the regular season before earning four postseason wins in six contests.
More: Texas Tech athletics is having a moment, and Kirby Hocutt wants to strike while iron's hot
"Krista and I have talked since the season ended," Hocutt said. "There were just some unfortunate things that occurred over the course of the season that ... they are what they are, but it's not where we want to be."
Gerlich has two more years remaining on her contract. The extension she signed in 2022 calls for her to make $600,000 for the 2025-26 season and $620,000 for the 2026-27 campaign. The contract also calls for Gerlich to receive 60% of the remaining value of her deal if fired by the university. As of April 1, that figure would be around $720,000 to buy out the final two years of her deal.
In discussing Gerlich's status with the university, Hocutt said he and Gerlich "know there's got to be some changes." While he didn't have specifics in mind, he likened her situation to the one Texas Tech football coach Joey McGuire had at the end of the 2024 season.
"At the end of the football season, Coach McGuire sat down and evaluated," said Hocutt, who added he challenges all his head coaches to self-evaluate at the end of their respective seasons. "What had to change within the football program for us to get to Arlington and to be able to meet those goals? Coach Gerlich has got to do the same thing.
"And all of our coaches do that in years of success and years where we don't meet our goals. That's the responsibility of the head coaches, and I have the responsibility of having those conversations with them and make sure that we're looking objectively at every aspect of our program to do the things that we need to do to compete at the highest level that we can."
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Krista Gerlich to return as Texas Tech women's basketball coach
Continue reading...
