Corey Williams on Big 12: ‘It’s Not For The Faint of Heart’

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Corey Williams knows Big 8 and Big 12 basketball. The Texas Tech interim head coach has been around I since he was a player at Oklahoma State.
He played for the Cowboys in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He was an assistant coach there in between pro basketball stints. Then he joined the Texas Tech staff in 2021.
But even he’s blown away by the toughness of the Big 12 this season, a league that from top to bottom might be the best in America.
“Well, first of all, I mean, you get — you don’t get very much sleep at night knowing that you don’t have a dog game that you can look forward to that you feel like you can win,” Williams said. “Every game, every team is extremely competitive. And if you don’t rise to that occasion, you get your butt beat by anybody. But on the flip side, if you play well and your team plays well, you can beat anybody in this league as well. But this is an extremely competitive league, and it’s not for the faint of heart. And certainly you wish you had more teams that you could wake up in the morning feeling like you could get a ‘W’ on, but that’s not this league.”
The Red Raiders saw their Big 12 Tournament end with a 78-62 loss to West Virginia on Wednesday.
While at 16-16, the Red Raiders could qualify for the NIT, it’s possible they won’t go if invited.
Red Raiders Mark Adams was suspended on Sunday for what Texas Tech called an “inappropriate, unacceptable, racially insensitive’ comment to a player prior to Saturday’s game with Oklahoma State in Lubbock. On Wednesday, right after the Red Raiders lost the game, Adams resigned.
Texas Tech is already set to lose forward Fardaws Aimaq to the transfer portal. He tweeted on Wednesday night that he intended to transfer. The transfer portal window for basketball opens on Monday.
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard
