Game Links:
Tortilla Tossin’ Player of the Game: Chance McMillian is the only player that shot decently, or above 50%, going 5 of 8 from the field, 3 of 6 from deep, 5 boards (which led the team with Lamar Washington), 2 assists, and 2 turnovers.
The Motion:
- Youssouf had 2 basketball games last night (his team won both) and so I didn’t see a second of this game and Texas Tech hasn’t put out any highlights so considering this is a 20+ point loss, I can probably just let this one go.
- No Warren Washington and no Darrion Williams was a tough ask to beat the No. 1 team in the nation. I wasn’t sure that Williams wouldn’t play, but McCasland realized that there’s not a ton to play for.
- However, do you want a fun fact? No team has won the NCAA Tournament without winning their first conference tournament game. Ever. It’s important to care about it just a bit.
- Turnovers man. 19 turnovers led to 26 points off of turnovers. There’s only so many possessions you get and to give away 19 is bad for business. Yalaho had 5, which led the team.
- Texas Tech was able to hold their own on the Cougars rebounding the ball, 31 for the good guys and 30 for the bad guys. Again, considering the absolute lack of inside depth, that’s amazing.
- Texas Tech was down early and then battled back and then just didn’t have enough juice to finish the job.
- It also didn’t help that Houston went off from deep, making 43% of their 3-point shots, including Cryer going 6 of 11 and Sharp going 4 of 8. Houston got abnormally hot, but that happens.
- Advanced stats and the box score +/- said that Chance McMillian had the best game at +12.8, then Toussaint at +5.2, then Walton at +4.0, and Jennings at +7.1. Isaacs had the roughest game at -12.4.
- Head coach Grant McCasland: “We never tried to look forward. That is the truth with our team. We’ve really tried to be in the moment and try to figure out how we can be the best we can be. Now we get to turn the page at this point in the season. These guys were extremely diligent to be about how do we improve and that’s allowed us to get our name called on Sunday.”
- Up next? Selection Sunday where Texas Tech will find out where they’ll play in the 68-team NCAA Tournament. The actual Selection Sunday show starts Sunday at 5:00 p.m. on CBS.
Highlights