{"id":341510,"date":"2026-06-18T16:39:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T16:39:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/341510\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T16:39:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T16:39:13","slug":"bubba-jennings-found-his-place-at-texas-tech-june-2026-texas-tech-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/341510\/","title":{"rendered":"Bubba Jennings Found His Place at Texas Tech | June 2026 | Texas Tech Now"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the classroom to the basketball court, this former Red Raider athlete made a
\n difference as a player and continues to make one as a coach.<\/p>\n

\t\tCREATORS<\/p>\n

\"Portrait<\/p>\n

Bubba Jennings gave Texas Tech University<\/a> and Red Raider basketball<\/a> fans five memorable years. In return, the university helped prepare him for a lifetime
\n of successes, many of which came because of his love for the game.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a minute (or two) since Jennings was one of the most coveted recruits in
\n Red Raider basketball annals, coming to Texas Tech from Clovis, New Mexico, after
\n a storied high school career that included once scoring 75 points in a single game
\n (a formidable feat in the days before the 3-point line).<\/p>\n

Even more than 40 years since his last game here, he remains one of the purest shooters
\n ever to don a Texas Tech uniform (think Jimmy Chitwood from the movie \u201cHoosiers.\u201d)<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Jennings, a point guard and one of the program\u2019s all-time greats,
\n was inducted into the Texas Tech men\u2019s basketball Ring of Honor<\/a>. And, once again, for a while anyway, the Bubba Jennings stories were flying \u2013 just
\n like those beautifully arcing shots he launched over determined defenders.<\/p>\n

\"Bubba<\/p>\n

\u201cGrowing up, all I ever wanted to do was play basketball as long as I could and then
\n coach basketball as long as I could,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I\u2019m still doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, these days Jennings is the head coach of the Arlington Baptist University
\n men\u2019s basketball and golf programs. The Patriots compete in the National Christian
\n College Athletic Association, and Jennings, to no one\u2019s surprise, is working to build
\n a competitive program, where he just completed his fourth season at the helm.<\/p>\n

Before all that, though, Jennings was part of a wave of talented eastern New Mexico
\n players who competed at Texas Tech. Including Jennings, the Red Raiders signed six
\n consecutive New Mexico players of the year. Other familiar names from that stretch
\n include fabled Hobbs, New Mexico, standouts Kent Williams, Jeff Taylor, Vince Taylor
\n and Tony Benford.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like I had a great educational experience at Texas Tech,\u201d Jennings said. \u201cThere
\n were a lot of New Mexico kids who came over to Texas Tech and Coach (Gerald) Myers<\/a> He had some great assistants in Rob Evans, who was from Hobbs, and Brad Adkins.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adkins, who was just starting out as a college coach, built a relationship with Jennings,
\n his family and his high school coach Jimmy Joe Robinson during what became a hectic
\n recruiting process. Scores of other schools, like the University of Kansas, Southern
\n Methodist University (SMU), the University of Texas at Austin and the University of
\n New Mexico, were also looking to land Jennings.<\/p>\n

\"BubbaBubba Jennings with Brad Adkins and Quentin Anderson<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember Bubba went to Kansas for a visit, and this was a long time ago, they got
\n him out on the court to play in a pickup game,\u201d said Myers, who led the Red Raider
\n program from 1971-91. \u201cI don\u2019t think they realized how good he was until then, and
\n after that, they started recruiting him pretty hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ironically, Jennings remembers another pick-up basketball game that took place during
\n his recruiting visit to Texas Tech. The Robert H. Ewalt Student Recreation Center<\/a> had just opened, and it was a cold, snowy day. The basketball courts were packed,
\n and per pickup basketball rules, winners stayed on the court and kept playing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you didn\u2019t win, you\u2019d have to sit out for 30 or 45 minutes before you could get
\n back on the court,\u201d Jennings said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jennings and his teammates took the court against another team that had been having
\n great success that day, but the team with the prized basketball recruit wound up winning
\n the game. Then things got a little confrontational with one of the players from the
\n opposing team challenging Jennings.<\/p>\n

But the would-be conflict didn\u2019t last long.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I turned around, all I saw was this guy being picked up basically by the neck
\n and sort of being thrown across the court,\u201d Jennings said. \u201cAfter that, he and pointed
\n at me and said, \u2018Don\u2019t mess with this guy.\u201d\u2019<\/p>\n

Jennings\u2019 protector that day? Another all-time Texas Tech athletic great, football
\n player Gabriel Rivera<\/a>. It may not have clinched the deal as far as Jennings becoming a Red Raider, but
\n it was certainly a point in Texas Tech\u2019s favor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought Texas Tech would be a good place for me to come after that kind of support,\u201d
\n Jennings said. \u201cI always wanted to be a coach and a teacher, and I really enjoyed
\n the professors. I had a great advisor. They were all special people, and I enjoyed
\n going through the program and learning a lot about physical education and health and
\n those things.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Bubba<\/p>\n

In the end, Lubbock\u2019s proximity to Clovis was a decisive factor. Jennings wanted his
\n family to be able to watch him play, and the 100-mile drive down U.S. 84 wouldn\u2019t
\n be a heavy lift, no matter how many times they made it.<\/p>\n

\"BubbaBubba Jennings and Vince Taylor<\/p>\n

But the recruiting battle didn\u2019t end for some time, and both Myers and Jennings credit
\n Adkins for his tenacity as far as making sure Jennings knew the Red Raiders\u2019 interest
\n in him never waned.<\/p>\n

\u201cGerald told me that there was one kid he really wanted me to focus on, and that he
\n could be the single most important player they had ever recruited there,\u201d Adkins recalled.
\n \u201cI figured it must be a 7-footer or some big-time player from New York or Los Angeles,
\n somewhere way off.<\/p>\n

\u201cTurns out, though, it was like (former radio broadcaster) Paul Harvey used to say:
\n I didn\u2019t know the rest of the story.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, Jennings didn\u2019t quite qualify as a 6-footer. He was listed at 5-11 on the
\n official roster. But what he lacked in height, he made up for in heart, grit and determination.<\/p>\n

Adkins went about making sure Jennings, his family and his coach knew the Red Raiders
\n were extremely interested in seeing the standout sign with Texas Tech. Adkins estimates
\n he watched Jennings play as a high school senior somewhere between 20 and 25 times.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was there every time he turned around,\u201d Adkins said with a laugh. \u201cAs a result,
\n Bubba and I became very close. For a while there, no one had him coming to Texas Tech.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adkins\u2019 persistence eventually paid off. He recalled attending a Hobbs-Clovis game
\n and watching Jennings score between 40 and 50 points. Afterward, while visiting with
\n Robinson, Adkins said people around him were certain Jennings was going to attend
\n just about any school \u2026 except Texas Tech.<\/p>\n

Robinson looked Adkins in the eye, his face growing solemn with the sincerity of the
\n words he was about to speak.<\/p>\n

\u201cBubba loves you, and he thinks the world of Coach Myers as well as all the coaches
\n there, but he\u2019s not going to play at Texas Tech,\u201d he said. \u201cHe has to play somewhere
\n he can get up and down the court.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adkins was aghast. Robinson was convinced Texas Tech\u2019s more deliberate style of basketball
\n would work against the Red Raiders. The game was changing with more emphasis on pace
\n and tempo and fewer constraints around ball control and shot selection.<\/p>\n

\"Bubba<\/p>\n

As a result, the Texas Tech assistant coach also saw the wisdom in Myers\u2019 decision
\n to pursue Jennings and characterize him as such a vital recruit. He would be instrumental
\n in helping the Red Raiders increase their offensive pace.<\/p>\n

Shortly after that, Adkins asked Jennings straight up: Did he want to come to Texas
\n Tech and play basketball?<\/p>\n

Jennings didn\u2019t say yes, but he didn\u2019t say no. There was something about Texas Tech
\n that he couldn\u2019t shake. At last, in early May, which was way late in the recruiting
\n wars, Jennings signed with Texas Tech.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was official. He was a Red Raider.<\/p>\n

It was a big deal. Adkins arranged for Jennings to fly by private plane from Clovis
\n to Lubbock, and he had a Cadillac reserved to drive him from the airport to campus.
\n He also had another surprise planned.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe drove right by the football stadium, and there on the Double T scoreboard, we
\n had giant, flashing letters. They would come on the screen, get bigger, go off and
\n then repeat,\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n

The letters on the screen spelled out B-U-B-B-A.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember seeing that and thinking, \u2018Oh, my gosh,\u201d Adkins said. \u201cEverybody was excited
\n about him coming to Texas Tech, and you know what? Bubba was a great basketball player,
\n but he is an even better person.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Texas Tech, Jennings was a physical education major, which later evolved into exercise
\n and sports science and now would be a bachelor\u2019s degree in kinesiology within the
\n Department of Kinesiology & Sports Management<\/a> in the College of Arts & Sciences<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Bubba<\/p>\n

While Jennings considered the possibility of a basketball career after college, he
\n prepared in case that didn\u2019t pan out. His father, Brooks Jennings, was a coach, and
\n Bubba wanted to travel that path as well, once his playing days wrapped up.<\/p>\n

Jennings discovered the transition from high school to college was a challenge, and
\n he learned some tough lessons early.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t do very well my first year there,\u201d he remembered. \u201cI had a two-point something
\n grade-point average. After that, I realized I had to go to class every day, and moving
\n forward I don\u2019t think I missed very many classes. I just did what I was supposed to
\n do and had my GPA up near a 4.0 by the end of my career.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jennings enjoyed teaching the game to others, and he possessed a natural aptitude
\n for connecting with athletes, abilities that came through at Texas Tech as he was
\n the team\u2019s floor leader throughout his career.<\/p>\n

As a student-athlete, Jennings spent five years living on campus in Weymouth Hall<\/a>, which was a designated athlete dorm at the time. After earning a spot in the starting
\n lineup in his first season, Jennings broke his right foot only a few games into the
\n next season and redshirted.<\/p>\n

Regardless of the ups and downs, Jennings looks back on his time as a Red Raider athlete
\n as shaping him into the player and person he would become.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had the athletic dining hall, and all the athletes got along really well,\u201d he
\n recalled. \u201cWe ate together. We lived together, and it was a really enjoyable time
\n with all the programs supporting each other. There were just a lot of really good
\n people there at Texas Tech.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Jennings era turned out to provide a memorable stretch of Red Raider basketball.
\n With their floor leader in place, Myers and his staff turned their attention to surrounding
\n him with more talent. Progress was slow, and there were struggles the first couple
\n of years, but ultimately, one of the school\u2019s most talented teams was assembled.<\/p>\n

Jennings also kept his attention focused on academics, making sure he handled classroom
\n responsibilities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no question that Texas Tech prepared me,\u201d he said. \u201cFirst, just playing
\n for Coach Myers and having classes where professors focused on your development. Those
\n were beneficial for me.<\/p>\n

\"Bubba<\/p>\n

\u201cCoach Myers was great. I learned more about defense in my first year of basketball
\n there than I did the rest of my career. Still today, my own defensive philosophy is
\n based a lot around what Coach Myers taught. I have never, ever been around a more
\n competitive person than him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jennings started all 117 games of his career with the Red Raiders. By the 1984-85
\n season, his final year in the program, the team fashioned a 23-8 record and won both
\n the Southwest Conference (SWC) regular-season and post-season tournament titles, landing
\n the team\u2019s first NCAA Tournament berth in nine years.<\/p>\n

Jennings was a four-time all-SWC selection and was named the conference\u2019s player of
\n the year as a senior. That same year he was named the league\u2019s Athlete of the Year
\n and also received the Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award, given to the nation\u2019s outstanding
\n player under 6-feet tall.<\/p>\n

His 1,760 career points scored ranks him ninth on the school\u2019s all-time list, and
\n his career 85% free-throw shooting ranks fourth. He is also still among the program\u2019s
\n all-time top 10 in assists and steals.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think Bubba ever had a bad day shooting the ball,\u201d Myers said. \u201cHe shot the
\n ball and scored every day in drills at practice. He was so consistent and just the
\n kind of player you could mark down 20 points for in the scorebook every game. When
\n you have a player you can count on for 20 points, you can win quite a few games.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jennings was inducted into the Texas Tech Hall of Fame in 1995, and once the men\u2019s
\n basketball program launched its Ring of Honor, it was only a matter of time before
\n his impact and legacy were acknowledged.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt brought back so many memories, and I still get emotional when I think about it,\u201d
\n he said of the Ring of Honor induction that took place at halftime of a February game
\n against Kansas. \u201cIt really hit me, being with all my teammates and Coach Myers and
\n everyone. I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s sunk in yet. It feels good and humbling and rewarding.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BubbaBubba Jennings, his father, Brooks Jennings, and Gerald Myers.<\/p>\n

Jennings moved into coaching shortly after his playing days, first working as a graduate
\n assistant for the Red Raiders and then becoming head coach at Artesia, New Mexico,
\n where he won two state championships in basketball and one as golf coach during nine
\n seasons.<\/p>\n

From there, he became head coach at Coronado High School in Lubbock and then returned
\n to the Texas Tech staff, first as video operations coordinator and then as an assistant
\n coach on Bob Knight\u2019s staff. He left Texas Tech in 2013 during a coaching staff transition.<\/p>\n

For the first time in his life, he was away from basketball. Jennings said former
\n Red Raider head coach Tubby Smith had inquired about him joining the staff, but Jennings
\n thought a new season of a different type was just what he needed.<\/p>\n

He went to work for a Lubbock bank and spent five years collecting professional experiences
\n and broadening his resume.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved working in the banking business,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I was grateful for the job.
\n As I was doing that, though, I was also giving private and group basketball lessons,
\n and I missed being an actual coach with my own team.\u201d<\/p>\n

He returned to the high school ranks at Peaster, located northwest of Fort Worth,
\n and after three years there, he accepted the job at Arlington Baptist, where he also
\n coaches golf and lives close enough to spend regular time with his grandson.<\/p>\n

And while Jennings had an impact on Texas Tech, the same is true for the school\u2019s
\n impact and imprint on him.<\/p>\n

The memories remain.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still remember my first visit to Lubbock and Texas Tech,\u201d he said. \u201cEveryone was
\n so friendly. They may not know you, but they say hello to you, and I really liked
\n that. And once I got there and was living in the dorm and eating in the dining hall
\n with other athletes, it just seemed like we were one big family.<\/p>\n

\u201cThings were really good for me at Texas Tech. I started as a freshman, and I had
\n great teammates, and I just really couldn\u2019t have asked for anything better.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From the classroom to the basketball court, this former Red Raider athlete made a difference as a player…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39691,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-341510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}