Game Links:
Tortilla Tossin’ Player of the Game: It’s fitting that Joe Toussaint’s return to West Virginia was the lede and it should have been part of the script. Toussaint finished with 21 points, 9 of 17 overall and 2 of 6, 7 assists, 4 turnovers, 3 steals, and 2 boards.
The Motion:
- Another game, given the stats, that I’m surprised that Texas Tech won. West Virginia shot better overall, 51% to just 48%, the teams were close on rebounds and similar in points in the paint. The problem for West Virginia is that they had their best half in the 1st half, making 62% of their shots to just 39% in the second half, made just 1 of 9 from deep in the 2nd half, and made just 6 of 11 of their free throws. The only reason this wasn’t a bigger blowout is that Edwards was 6 of 7 from the field in the 2nd half. Take that out and it would have been ugly.
- It helps that Texas Tech then caught fire in the 2nd half, making 41% of their shots in the 1st half and 57% in the 2nd and then proceeded to make 7 of 15 for 47% from deep. The punctuation point was Toussaint’s dagger at the end of the half to make this a 6 point game with 20 to play.
- In the 2nd half, McMillian was really had West Virginia in knots, making 4 of 7 overall and 3 of 5 from deep. The heat-check to take the lead at 52-50 was foreshadowing of what was to come for the rest of the game.
- Darrion Williams really is the glue that keeps this thing held together with bailing wire, another near double-double with 17 points on 6 of 10 from the floor and 9 boards, 4 assists, and just 1 turnover. Also thankful that Isaacs got some of his groove back, you’ll sort of take 4 of 12 with 5 assists and 2 turnovers.
- Some stats . . . West Virginia lost the turnover battle, 14-8 and for Texas Tech to have a sub-10 turnover game is one of those ingredients to success. Texas Tech had 8 offensive boards and can’t believe West Virginia only had 5. Texas Tech had 8 steals to just 1 for West Virginia.
- Yalaho made 3 of 3 from the floor, but had just 1 rebound. He’ll have to figure that out, but that’s 17 big minutes. Jennings picked up the rebounding deficit with 7 boards and had 5 points. I don’t know what’s happening to KyeRon Lindsay, but to just not make the trip is not encouraging, especially when Warren Washington made the trip in a boot. I don’t have a good feeling about this.
- How about McCasland getting a technical foul for something, it looked like someone got tripped
- Advanced stats say that your player of the game was McMillian with a box score +/- of +13.1, then Williams at +11.6, Toussaint +5.6, and then Yalaho at +1.5. The negatives were not too terrible, Isaacs at -1.4, Jennings at -6.1, and Walton at -6.6.
- Head coach Grant McCasland: “To start the game, we weren’t as engaged as we needed to be on a few things that we felt like were real foundations for the scouting report. The second half, I thought our defense really stepped up. They got some open looks, but they were really deep. I thought they were pushed out to where we wanted them to be. We made it difficult to get the ball inside and defended the 3-point line.”
- Up next? Oklahoma State at famed Gallagher-Iba Arena on Tuesday, March 5th at 7:00 p.m. on ESPN+.
Highlights