Game Links
Tortilla Tossin’ Player of the Game
Eh, I’m not sure? I wasn’t real impressed with anyone’s play and we’ll get into this here in a second, but no one was really able to get off their shot for almost an entire half of basketball and most of the players were dominated defensively and offensively. I guess I’ll give it to Davide Moretti, who only had 8 points, but had 0 turnovers, which is important in a night when a lot of key players had a lot of turnovers.
The Motion
- Gosh, from the start of the second half until around 3 to 4 minutes mark remaining (I think that’s where Texas Tech started to press) where Texas Tech simply could not really muster a good shot. In the first half, things seemed okay, Texas Tech shot 43% from the floor and 40% from the three-point line, while in the second half, still not bad shooting from the floor, 44%, but 0-7 from the three-point line and only managed 4 free throws. In fact, there were only 8 free throws by this team all night long. And TCU did such a terrific job of guarding the perimeter that Texas Tech struggled almost the entire second half to get a decent shot. TCU simply did not care about guarding anything else, so they were out on Texas Tech from the three-point line extended.
- I don’t have the break-down of turnovers between halves in the box score, but in the play-by-play stats, it seems as if Texas Tech had 6 turnovers in the first half and 9 in the second (just counting them here). Jahmi’us Ramsey, Kyler Edwards, and Chris Clarke each had 4 turnovers. That’s four of your key players who contributed to a majority of the turnovers and that just can’t happen. And TCU had 18 points off of turnovers so they capitalized plenty (Texas Tech had 19 points off of 17 TCU turnovers if you’re keeping score at home).
- And as an aside, Chris Clarke looks out of sorts. He had the lowest number of minutes at 24 from the starters and something doesn’t look right. He only took one shot, a last minute affair if I remember correctly, he did have 7 rebounds, which was great, but 3 assists and 4 turnovers and just doesn’t look right. Not sure what it is.
- Of course, the other part here is that, why didn’t Beard start pressing earlier? Well, he doesn’t have the players to press for an extended period of time. Beard has essentially remained with a 7-man bench and there’s nothing left in the tank to play offense if you do that too early. He tried playing Clarence Nadolny, but a turnover within the minute he played and he was pulled.
- This is another situation where TCU dominated the boards, 11 offensive, and had 17, yes 17 second chance points. TCU crashed the boards with Samuel and Texas Tech didn’t have an answer. Samuel had 7 offensive boards just by himself, so yeah, there was no big to block out or take Samuel out of the rebounding equation. I should also mention that 7 of those 17 offensive boards were in the second half.
- The defense just wasn’t there in the second half either. Aside from grabbing a handful of second opportunities, Texas Tech simply had no answer for the TCU offense as they made 54% of their shots and they also went to the line 15 times, making 9 of them.
- Texas Tech simply did not have a defender who could stop Bane who had 27 points. No answer at all.
- Which leads me to my last big point, Texas Tech does not have a true 3-and-D guy, a player that can shoot, create off the dribble, which could lead to a foul situation or maybe dishing it to a mate. Texas Tech has players that can make buckets, but the Red Raiders don’t have a player that can create offense when the offense is stagnant. Ramsey, Edwards, and Moretti all are good shooters, but in terms of creating for others, there’s not really anyone there just yet. Shannon can create, but he’s not creating for others. Same thing with Ramsey. His handles aren’t good enough in traffic just yet. And that’s okay. It’s one of those things that takes time to develop.
- And one other reminder, winning on the road in the Big 12 is not easy.
- Avalanche-Journal’s Carlos Silva, Jr. with some quotes:
“I blame myself, and I kinda blame Holyfield. We didn’t play to our potential,” said Clarke, who finished with seven rebounds, four turnovers, three assists and zero points. “Like coach (Chris Beard) said. We’ve got to be tough, and that falls on the two seniors.”
With the loss, Texas Tech (12-6, 3-3) had a two-game winning streak snapped and was defeated by TCU (13-5, 4-2) for the first time in the overall series since a 62-61 setback back on Feb. 7, 2017 in Fort Worth.
“I thought Bane was fantastic. One of my favorite players in the Big 12. … He took the game over tonight. He was the best player on the floor,” Beard said. “I want to give TCU credit and congratulations. There’s a reason they won four Big 12 games already.
“I thought they were the more aggressive team tonight. They got to the free-throw line while we settled for jump shots. They were the more aggressive team defensively. So, definitely, they outplayed us in a 40-minute game tonight.”
- Up next: Saturday night at 5:00 p.m., Texas Tech hosts #15 Kentucky, who beat Georgia at home last night.
Highlights