On Monday, hundreds of students defied red flag conditions to gather in tents along the sidewalk of United Supermarkets Arena. Some struggled with their hair blowing in the wind, while others clung to their tents as they braved wind gusts of up to 40 miles per hour.
Many students began camp last week for the Texas Tech vs. University of Texas basketball game, a cherished tradition when the Red Raiders face one of their major rivals. Tuesday's game, set for 8 p.m., will be the last showdown between the two teams, at least for a while, before the Longhorns move to the Southeastern Conference in the fall (as announced by the university in 2021).
Texas Tech basketball team thanks students in camp ahead of visit from Texas
In recent years, the rivalry between the two teams has intensified following the sudden resignation of former coach Chris Beard. He returned to his alma mater in 2021, but was fired in 2023 after being arrested on a third-degree felony charge of assault. I was then fired. In an arrest affidavit from his December 2022 arrest, he cited strangulation/suffocation, or domestic violence, but his fiancee later released a statement denying the charges.
Beard's decision to leave Texas Tech came just after the coach led the Red Raiders to the NCAA National Championship game, where Texas Tech lost 85-77 in overtime to the Virginia Cavaliers. That was two years later.
On Monday, students stood amid sustained winds of 35 to 45 mph in conditions that the National Weather Service office in Lubbock issued a red flag warning of, likely wildfires and increased dust activity. . And those conditions are expected to return on Tuesday.
“It's definitely not the best time (to pitch a tent),” NWS Lubbock forecaster Drew Kolitzer joked.
He noted that on Monday in Lubbock, the maximum wind gust of the day reached 45 mph, but the maximum sustained wind speed (averaged over a two-minute period) was 35 to 45 mph. Wind gusts reached 57 mph in the northern South Plains and southern Panhandle.
