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Post Game Thoughts: Texas Tech 70, Nebraska 52

Basketball
Seth C

Post Game Thoughts: Texas Tech 70, Nebraska 52

Game Links

Game Recap

Tortilla Tossin’ Player of the Game: Your guy Jarrett Culver was absolutely terrific and this is why NBA people are salivating over him playing in the League. He’s so patient offensively, something that I credit Chris Beard for helping develop, finishing with 26 points on 9 of 18 from the floor, 6 rebounds, 2 assists, 0 turnovers and 1 block. So many daggers, especially in the second half and he caused Nebraska head coach Tim Miles to lose his cool and get a technical foul after Culver drained a three-point bucket, but Moretti got to shoot the free throws.

Defender of the Game: I’d really like to choose the entire team here because Texas Tech held what was a good shooting Nebraska team to shoot 35% from the floor and 22% from the three-point line. The Texas Tech defense clamped down

Multi-Purpose Player of the Game: I’ll give this to Tariq Owens, who only had 5 points this game, but he also had 8 rebounds, 2 blocks, an assist and no turnovers. He affected a lot of Nebraska shots and

Game Notes:

  • Kind of a weird game offensively for Texas Tech as there wasn’t a great flow to the game, but what did happen was that Texas Tech, namely Culver, hit a ton of timely shots, including 3 of 3 from the three-point line in the second half.
  • Don’t let anyone forget that Nebraska was favored by 2 heading into this game and was blown out by 18 points.
  • Texas Tech dominated the paint, despite not being the bigger team, but the Red Raiders were pretty relentless in driving to the paint. Texas Tech scored 34 to Nebraska’s 18 points in the paint and the Cornhuskers were bothered to a certain extent by how Texas Tech was taking it to the bucket. Texas Tech took 16 of their 20 free throws in the second half. Chris Beard poured it on.
  • I think Texas Tech is a much more physical defense this year compared to last year when they could rely on athleticism with Zach Smith, Zhaire Smith, and Keenan Evans. This year, it’s so much more of a team-thing and they are very good at the help defense.
  • Only one other player averaged in double-figures, Matt Mooney scored 15 on 5 of 11 with 3 rebounds, 2 assists, a block, 2 steals, and 3 turnovers. Mooney couldn’t hit an outside shot to save his life tonight, but he did score inside and drive to the bucket.
  • I thought that the bench would play a big role tonight as both teams were playing back-to-back games and Texas Tech scored 15 compared to just 3 for Nebraska.
  • Despite that previous statistic, Texas Tech very much relied on Culver, Mooney, Moretti, Owens and Brandone Francis for most of the game. All played over 24 minutes, and Culver, Mooney and Moretti each played 30+ minutes.
  • I remember last year when Texas Tech would just hit timely shots and I thought that so much of that was Keenan Evans just grinding things down, but maybe this is just how this tea is coached and they figure it out and work at it. It’s the darnedest thing to see how composed this team offensively most of the time as most kids are freaking out pretty well if the shot clock is winding down, but not this team.
  • Matt Mooney and Jarrett Culver were named to the Hall of Fame Classic all-tournament team.
  • As you probably know, Patrick Mahomes was at the game and no one loves Mahomes more than Chris Beard, via Kansas City Star’s Blair Kerkhoff:

    “He’s such an ambassador for Texas Tech,” Red Raiders Coach Chris Beard said. “Everybody in this state understands how talented he is, and what a great person he is, but like we tell our guys, don’t every forget where you come from. He might be the best example I’ve ever seen. He goes above and beyond anything Texas Tech asks him to do.”

  • Via the A-J Media:

    “Definitely not the way we drew it up,” Beard said of the early deficit. “But definitely proud of our guys. Just the poise. We kind of approached this like it’s a road game and we wanted to simply be in the game at the 16-minute mark. … Nebraska is just a good team. They make you pay when you make mistakes offensively. We were very fortunate to even be that close and then we started chipping away. Then certainly to have the lead at halftime was exactly where we wanted to be. And we really controlled the game in the second half.”

Highlights

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