Game Links:
Tortilla Tossin’ Player of the Game: I am having a tough time picking a player given all of the turnovers which frustrate me so I’m picking the guy who had the most (obviously not logical), which is Darrion Williams who had 14 on 4 of 6 and 3 of 3 from deep, with 9 boards, 6 assists, a steal, and 5 turnovers.
The Motion:
- This was a rough game to watch. I happened to be off of work today. Both teams had 17 turnovers and UTA had 20 points off of Texas Tech’s TO’s and Texas Tech had 18 points. Texas Tech gave up only 11 offensie boards, but UTA took full advantage, scoring 16 to just 8 on 2nd chance points. The difference in this game? Probably just shooting slightly better, 45% from the floor and 37% from the 3-point line for Texas Tech, while the Mavericks shot 40% and 29% from 3.
- The turnovers were a really turnoff for me, it’s something we haven’t seen since early in the season, but that was a lot of unfocused play. Isaacs had 4, Williams had 5, and Toussaint had 3, which are your 3 leading minutes-guys. It felt like Williams and Isaacs were just trying to do too much, the kinds of passes were as a kid you think it’s a good idea, but as an adult you see that there’s no way that goes through.
- That 45% shooting for Texas Tech isn’t as fun as it seems, helped out by the 59% shooting in the first half, the second half became a slog, shooting just 33% in the second and nearly falling apart, while UTA shot 36% in the first half and 44% in the second. I think if they had made just a few more shots, we’re talking about a game closer than 11 points.
- I don’t normally dislike the way a game was called, but I hated the way this game was called. It seemed as if there were some fouls on both sides that should have been called that were not, then UTA seemed like they were gifted some phantom calls, and then the refs let things get out of control a bit.
- Kerwin Walton goes from being unstoppable to being held scoreless. I thought that one of his drives was a spot where he was fouled, but he couldn’t get a clean look.
- Thankfully, Chance McMillian has a different sort of game in that he can score off of a screen and a pop and he played well, 13 points on 5 of 11, while 3 of 7 from deep, with 3 boards, an assist, and just 1 turnover in 29 minutes.
- Warren Washington is always so close from a double-double, and yesterday he had 8 points and 10 boards, but he also had 4 assists, and 3 blocks. A very solid game from the big man.
- Pop Isaacs and Joe Toussaint both had high a volume shot game, Isaacs had 18 attempts and Toussaint had 15. When your total points is the same as your shots taken, that’s not usually an efficient scoring day, Isaacs had 18 points, making 7 of 18, and Toussaint had 19 on 6 of 15. the turnovers were a real killer for me, a bit disappointing end before the break. McCasland acknowledged that, maybe too many minutes led to too many turnovers, but McCasland always plays a tight bench. And Williams shouldn’t get a pass, although he did have 1 more assist than turnovers, 6 to 5.
- Head coach Grant McCasland: “Give UTA credit, thought they came out with a lot of energy. They play the game with force and they caused us problems just with their ability to switch at times. We’re not at 100 percent as a team, but I thought our guys had a gritty performance. We just got some guys under the weather that aren’t feeling great and for them to come out and compete. I didn’t do a good enough job as a coach of rotating us. I felt like we had some matchups that we wanted to keep and because we were turning the ball over so much, I tried to keep it consistent with some guard play, but it ended up working against us. I thought fatigue led to a lot of turnovers in the second half, not in the first, and then we didn’t do a good enough job on the glass.”
- Up next? Hosting Sam Houston State on Thursday, December 28th at 7:00 p.m.
Highlights