Texas Tech Officially Hires Tubby Smith to Take Over Red Raider Basketball

The saga of the Texas Tech Red Raider Basketball coaching search turned into something befitting an April Fool's Day for Red Raider Basketball fans.

At 1:45p, Monday afternoon, the Associated Press (AP) reported that Tubby Smith would be hired by Texas Tech as the new head coach for Red Raider Basketball. Less than 30 minutes later, Texas Tech Athletics spokesman Blayne Beal took to Twitter to refute the AP report.

Then, about eight hours after stating reports of Tubby Smith's hiring as Red Raider Basketball head coach were inaccurate; Texas Tech Athletics called a Tuesday news conference to introduce Smith as the new Red Raider Basketball head coach.

Smith was fired on March 25th after six years at the helm of the Minnesota Golden Gophers. Before coaching at Minnesota, Smith was the head coach at Kentucky for 10 years, winning a national championship in 1997-98. He has a career record of 511-226.

On Monday night, Texas Tech officials didn't address the status of interim head coach Chris Walker, who is currently the only member of the Red Raider Basketball coaching staff.

SportsRadio 1340 The Fan will have live coverage of the Tubby Smith hiring press conference at 2p on Tuesday.