Mark Adams Wants All the Smoke

Mark Adams has been the head coach of the Red Raiders men's basketball team for about six weeks. The turnaround has been nothing short of amazing. It's one thing to completely rebuild a roster with a returning coaching staff, but to hire a brand new staff while simultaneously finding a brand new roster in the transfer portal is simply incredible.

Mark Adams has done that. The staff of Barett Peery, Corey Williams, Talvin Hester, Sean Sutton and Darryl Dora have been incredibly busy. The Red Raiders retained Kevin McCullar, Clarence Nadolny, Marcus Santos-Silva, and Chibuzo Agbo. They've added eight transfers as well to get to 13 players on the roster.

Get our free mobile app

New strength and conditioning coach Darby Rich and the coaching staff have the boys working.

Armed with his brand new staff and mostly brand new roster, Adams is scheduling the non-conference slate like he's got a contender ready to be sharpened into a finely tuned weapon. We already know that the Red Raiders will play an SEC team in January as part of the SEC/Big 12 Challenge and Providence as part of the Big East/Big 12 Battle.

Today, it was announced that Texas Tech would take on Tennessee in early December in Madison Square Garden as part of the Jimmy V Classic.

We've also recently had confirmation that the Red Raiders will take on Gonzaga at the Phoenix Suns Arena in Arizona in December as well. Those four games are making the Red Raiders' non-con schedule look like a team that means business.

The website d1docket is also reporting that the Red Raiders will play Incarnate Word in South Padre Island, Omaha and Arkansas State, all before conference play gets started. Throw in a multi-team event that will either be hosted or anchored by the Red Raiders and the Red Raiders will have plenty of opportunities to turn some heads heading into Big 12 action, which is some of the toughest conference action in the country.

Long story short: Mark Adams is afraid of no man and will play anybody, anywhere.