NCAA Tournament title game: Grad transfers Matt Mooney, Tariq Owens contribute to Texas Tech’s run

MINNEAPOLIS – With five of his nine rotation players having left his team after the conclusion of last season, including 76ers first-round draft pick Zhaire Smith, Texas Tech coach Chris Beard had to work to restock his roster right away.

He wasn’t going to accept just anyone, though. The Red Raiders came within one game of making the first Final Four in their history but lost 71-59 to Villanova in the East Regional final, and Beard wanted to assemble a team to continue the momentum into this season.

He accepted two graduate transfers – guard Matt Mooney from South Dakota and Tariq Owens from St. John’s – because he felt they “saw the opportunity to play on the big stage but also to make an impact,” Beard said Sunday.

The pair became starters and have played a pivotal role in the trip for Tech (31-6) to Monday night’s national championship game against No. 1 seed Virginia (34-3).

Mooney, who played his freshman season at Air Force and averaged 18.6 and 18.7 points in his two years at South Dakota, matched his season high with 22 points in Saturday night’s 61-51 win over Michigan State. He is the Red Raiders’ No. 3 scorer at 11.3 points per game.

The 6-10 Owens, who blocked 163 shots (2.51 per game) in his two seasons at St. John’s after one year at Tennessee, filled that same role for Texas Tech. He has 2.46 blocks per game to go with averages of 8.8 points and 5.8 rebounds.

Beard said the attraction with both Mooney and Owens was much more than their statistics.

“Both guys just wanted to talk about winning,” he said. “All they wanted to know was man, can we get back to the NCAA Tournament? Losing so much from last year’s team, did I really believe that we could get back to this stage? Those guys are two of the most unselfish people I ever recruited. It’s not about them.

“I remember a game in November. Tariq had only scored two baskets, gotten a couple of rebounds, didn’t play many minutes. You always wonder what that locker room is going to look like when you get in there. Tariq is jumping up and down like he hit the game-winner and hugging the guys that played more minutes than him. This unselfishness is not fluff. This is real.”

Mooney said he felt Texas Tech would be a good fit but that he would have to adjust to Beard’s defense-oriented style of play.

“I wanted to go somewhere where we could win and I’d have an opportunity to play,” he said. “I felt like that after they lost some of their guys, the opportunity was there for me. Then the next thing was, how good can we be? I saw they had other guys coming back. They were bringing in Owens. They were bringing in (junior-college) transfers and some talented freshmen. So I felt like it was a good fit and I believed in coach Beard.

“I really had to prove I could bring something to the table. I had to play defense and I was trying to distribute and make plays for others. You can’t play here if you don’t play defense so I really had to adjust on that side of the ball.”

Of the eight players in the Tech rotation, four are finishing their first season with the team – Mooney, Owens, Kyler Edwards (freshman) and Deshawn Corprew (junior college transfer).

Owens suffered a leg injury in Saturday night’s game. Beard said Sunday he had no update on his status for Monday and Owens was not in the locker room during players’ media availability.

Senior center Norense Odiase, a regular opponent for Owens in 1-on-1 games, said the contributions of Mooney and Owens have been huge.

“Whenever you go to a place not knowing what you’ll get, just their ability to follow and their ability to lead is what’s helped this team,” Odiase said. “They’re great guys, humble guys that early on were ready to do whatever it took. They made us stronger as a group on and off the floor.”