Post-Game Thoughts: Texas Tech 101, Northwestern State 58

Game Links:

Tortilla Tossin’ Player of the Game: We’ll go with the transfer from Georgetown, Mac McClung, but honestly there were a a few guys that were worthy of receiving a tortilla. McClung scored 20 points on 6 of 9 from the floor, including 2 of 3 from beyond the arc, 1 rebound, 3 assists, 0 turnovers, and 3 steals. That’s a net positive.

The Motion:

  • That’s a pretty fun way to open the season. Score 101 points, allow the opponent to only score 58 points and only .744 points per possession (compared to 1.347 to Texas Tech). Holding the Demons to 34% from the floor and 22% from the three-point line. Just so many good things that we’ll never get to all of them.
  • Statistically, the Texas Tech offense was absolutely humming. Shooting 54% from the floor, 40% from the three-point line, shot 26 free throws, and the effort seemed effortless. I’d advise that Northwestern State was not a good defensive team, so grain of salt with all of this. Texas Tech only turned the ball over 10 times, which usually doesn’t happen in these sort of blowout games where things can get a bit sloppy at the end. Every player played double-digit minutes except for Avery Benson, who played 8. Everyone who was healthy played.
  • Marcus Santos-Silva grabbed 12 rebounds, scored 10 points on 4 of 6 from the field, and generally dominated the paint. A nice spin move and showed that he’s got some offensive game, Santos-Silva will be a force inside for sure. Oh, and of those 12 boards, 5 of them were offensive, so that’s 5 extra possessions that Texas Tech had because of MSS ability.
  • The revelation was probably the play of Micah Peavy. Peavy started for Kevin McCullar who was on crutches, but supposedly just has a rolled ankle, so hopefully this isn’t long-term. Back to Peavy, who scored 14 points on 7 of 10, grabbed 6 boards, had 3 assists, and a turnover and generally looked really comfortable handling the ball, throwing some passes into the post and having a few moves inside to create plenty of scoring opportunities. He looks refined I think and that’s pretty rare for a freshman.
  • Terrence Shannon, Jr. and Kyler Edwards looked like their old selves, but better versions of their old selves. Last year, they were being asked to do way too much, be creators and score at a consistent basis, and distribute the ball, and everything else. That’s just too much I think and much like everyone else, I think that this team compliments each other very well. Edwards scored 10 points on 4 of 7, but he had 6 assists, using the word effortless again because they were effortless and not forced. No turnovers for Edwards, which is also significant. Shannon scored 16 points on 10 shots, and also grabbed 5 boards and you can tell he’s working on that mid-range shot that I thought was improved.
  • Pssst. I think Joel Ntambwe is going to be this team’s best three-point shooter. Ntambwe was 3 of 4 behind the three-point line, so he scored 9 points, grabbed 7 boards, had 2 assists.
  • Some final numbers for you. Texas Tech had 31 bench points, which seems like a lot and is terrific. this team was pretty “starting 5 dependent” last year. Texas Tech scored 46 points in the paint. Somewhat insane. Texas Tech forced 19 turnovers and scored 31 points off of said turnovers. Texas Tech held a 51-32 rebounding edge over Northwestern State. Texas Tech had 19 fast break points. This isn’t a team that’s got a rim protector, so we’ll see how that plays out. Only 2 blocked shots.

Highlights

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