Ever since April Fool's Day, every single person associated with Texas Tech has waited for this week because they all feel like they were treated like fools.
It's neither fair, nor is it even right, but Chris Beard is the face of the betrayal every single Texas Tech fan feels towards the University of Texas.
In the span of four months last year, Texas Tech lost its revered men's basketball coach to Texas, and then its century-long conference affiliation with the Longhorns to the SEC.
Beard to Texas is "sports trauma." Texas leaving its conference relationship with Texas Tech is torture.
Beard flew with Texas Tech only to land at Texas, and now the coach who had the Red Raiders within seconds of winning a national title in 2019 returns to The Plains for the first time since UT announced his hiring on April 1, 2021.
The No. 14 Red Raiders will host Beard's No. 24 Longhorns on Tuesday night in the most anticipated college basketball game in this state since Feb. 11, 2008, when No. 11 Texas defeated No. 3 Kansas.
The Red Raiders have some things they need to get off their chest, and they couldn't do it last fall because their football game against the Longhorns was played in Austin.
"In the 30 years of covering it, I have never seen anything like this for a regular season game," said longtime Lubbock sports radio talk show host, Ryan Hyatt. "Heck, I haven't seen many football games that rivaled this anticipation level."
Beard better mask up. And wear a protective face shield. And put on gloves. And maybe a hazmat suit. After all of that is on, he should put on body armor, too.
This particular edition of Texas at Texas Tech is the rare instance when a basketball game in Texas feels like Tobacco Road in North Carolina when the Tar Heels play the Duke Blue Devils.
A local attorney in Lubbock hired retired wrestling star Ric "The Nature Boy" Flair to come to Lubbock to help promote a game that didn't need any of his trademark "WOOOOOS!"
This event does have a Vince McMahon, WWE-feel, but there is nothing scripted or staged about the animosity and anger Texas Tech fans feel toward Beard and Texas right now.
Texas Tech students started lining up outside United Supermarkets Arena on Saturday night for this game; don't worry, mom and dad, they got their homework done.
There is a GoFundMe to help out with the costs of food for the kids camping out at the arena.
Tickets on the secondary market for this game run anywhere between $235 and $1,859. You can normally get into a Texas Tech basketball game for $30 or so, maybe less.
If Texas Tech is able to do it, and the Red Raiders have the players to pull it off, they need to run it up. Don't clear the bench to let the walk-on hit the jumper with 45 seconds remaining in the game.
This game requires the Red Raiders to go full Billy Tubbs on Texas, and leave in all of the starters to score as many points as possible to humiliate Texas, and Beard.
Texas Tech will play at Texas on Feb. 19, but the Red Raiders will have this opportunity, this atmosphere, one time.
The feelings will start to fade after Tuesday night, so they need to do everything they need to do, say everything they need to say, and slam every dunk they need to dunk. Right now.
Everyone associated with Texas Tech needs to try to rid themselves of their anger at UT, and then celebrate what Mark Adams is doing in Beard's place.
There was nothing Texas Tech, athletic director Kirby Hocutt, or any member of the Tech board, could have done to keep Beard. He wanted to go to Austin.
He had a great run in Lubbock, and he's a wonderful steward for a sport in a state that needs more personalities like his.
Texas Tech has several reasons to channel its anger toward Beard and Texas, and Tuesday night is the Red Raiders' chance to let them have it.
Don't blow it, but then it's time to move on because that's exactly what they did.
