Texas Tech Student Manager Gets Into Game, Makes Huge Play On Senior Night

Texas Tech student manager Ty Larson officially cranked up March Madness a notch Thursday night during the Red Raiders' blowout win over Iowa State when he stood his ground and took a charge with just 24 seconds remaining. It was Senior Night for the Red Raiders and Larson's due to graduate in May, but he had one more thing to accomplish before his undergrad career comes to an end. He's the only Tech senior on the team or student coaching staff.

Tech head coach Chris Beard called Larson off the bench with under a minute to go and it was time for the undergrad who, according to his team bio, wants to be a future DI head coach, to show what he's made of.

It's not like Larson, who played two basketball seasons at Eastern Wyoming College is some Make-A-Wish case. He's just a student manager who looks like he's been crushing Busch Lights and making Costco runs for his wife. That makes for great theater.

"Ty is a college basketball player--he played junior college ball in Wyoming," Beard told the media after the game. "Like many of us in this profession, he knew his playing days were over, but a coaching career could be a real possibility with his love of basketball. He came here to be our student manager, student assistant. His role this year is the head manager, and he's done a great job.

"I talked to him a couple years ago about trying to get him in the game Senior Night if that opportunity presented itself. It's not like we're just putting guys out there who can't do it, Ty was a good player in junior college. He's done a great job in his role here. That was a nice thing I think for our fan base and for Ty. I'm super appreciative of all our student assistants, managers, GAs, all the guys at the front lines of our program. We only have the one senior this year with Ty. We have some other guys who have been in the program a couple years who have done a great job. We always want to recognize those guys on Senior Night. 'The Godfather' Cooper Anderson last year was recognized. Tonight I was able to keep my word and give Ty an opportunity to dress out."

A regular guy having some fun. That's a great story and something we here at OutKick can get behind. Great job by Beard, the Tech players and Larson.