Post-Game Thoughts: Baylor 89, Texas Tech 62

Game Links:

Tortilla Tossin’ Player of the Game: Jaylon Tyson with another double-double, he seems to have a few and close to even more. Finished the game with 19 points, 10 boards, 2 assists, no turnovers, and a steal.

The Motion:

  • I didn’t get to watch, which happens a lot of the weekends. Yo had a basketball game, I had to keep the clock and only forgot to start it twice. I did have the other parent keeping the books how old Yo was and couldn’t believe he was only 11 and how strong he is. He is very strong. Then the boys had some friends sleep over and my time to watch anything absolutely disappeared.
  • I felt like I was only writing game recaps after wins and I didn’t want to get into that habit. After what looked like a great second half, the wheels fell off and into the gutter did we go. Before we get too far, Baylor is just deeper and better. They have better players. They just do. That’s not an excuse, but a criticism. There’s no reason why Baylor should have better players, and they are a deeper team, evidenced by their 26 points off the bench to just 4 for Texas Tech. Texas Tech is stretched pretty thin with Isaacs and Aimaq out.
  • And although the offense failed this team to an extent in the 2nd half, the defense is the real kicker here, allowing Baylor to make 58% of their field goals and 50% of 3-pointers. That’s a bad combination. Combine that with Texas Tech only making 37% of their field goals in the 2nd half and 25% of 3-pointers in the 2nd as well (same percentage in the 1st half), this team decided to double-down and shoot 8 in the 1st half and 12 in the 2nd, which means that nearly half of the shots taken were from outside. Granted, points needed to be made up, but getting to the line is supposed to be what you do and they only went to the line 11 times for the entire game.
  • Kevin Obanor had 3 shot attempts for the entire game. That’s sort of a problem that the staff seems to solve one game and then not solve another. That needs to be consistently something that happens, him getting at least 10 shots a game.
  • I’m generally okay with Harmon getting 18 shot attempts, but the other part of his job is to distribute, and he’s not a high assist guy, but he had 2 for the game with 2 turnovers. He’s got the highest usage rate on the team, 33.6%, which means he’s dominating the ball. If you’re curious, Luka Doncic has like a 35% usage rate and he dominates the ball and scores and involves teammates.
  • Part of me thinks that I hope that the staff is figuring out where they went wrong, part of it being talent as mentioned above. There are good athletes on the team, but maybe not good basketball players. Last year had both, Warren, Arms, McCullar, Shannon, they sort of did it all and that really didn’t get replaced with equal talent and athleticism.
  • Head coach Mark Adams: “It goes back to their guards. They are outstanding. Baylor is one of the best offensive squads in the country. They are so explosive. We were trying to keep them in check and did pretty good in the first half. The dam broke though and once they get going you have to start scrambling. It’s difficult to play Baylor from behind. You have to stay close or they’ll get away from you. We just didn’t play one of our best games and you have to give Baylor credit for that.”
  • Up next is Oklahoma State in Stillwater (which will be incredibly tough) on Wednesday, February 8th, tip-off at 7:00 p.m. and will be broadcast on ESPN+

Highlights

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