Game Links:
Tortilla Tossin’ Player of the Game: Chance McMillian gets it for me and those free throws (7 of 7 btw) to win the game plus the 23 points on 7 of 14, 2 of 6 from deep, 5 boards, 1 assist, 2 steals, and 3 turnovers. With 2 minutes remaining in regulation, McMillian absolutely took over other than the Williams 3-pointer with 26 seconds remaining. Not only that, but the bucket with 1:14 remaining in OT was tough.
The Motion:
- What a game. The drama is surreal and I’m not even sure where to start. If you haven’t seen the game, then start with the ESPN highlights at the 0:56 second mark where TJ Toppin’s pass out of a double-team led to a Flagrant 2 foul and had him ejected and then Grant McCasland ejected for protesting that this was not a severe foul, but just a pass out of the double-team and his leg kicked out as a result of Toppin throwing with his left hand. The commentators agreed that this was not a Flagrant 2 and it just wasn’t the definition. McCasland gets tossed for rightfully objecting to the play, but that was a quick whistle and the refs had some thin skin at that point and knew that they were in the wrong. They wouldn’t even have a conversation with McCasland. Before McCasland is taken to the locker room, McCasland goes back to his huddle and gives an impassioned plea as to the the rest of the game. The score was 8-7 at the time so that ended up being a 5-point event for Houston, 3 made free throws and then Houston gets their bucket coming off the 2 technical fouls. Obviously with the final score, Texas Tech didn’t back down. It was an incredibly fun back-and-forth affair where neither team yielded a huge lead and both teams traded buckets the entire way. The only difference is that Texas Tech had to do it without arguably their best player who had been wrongfully tossed from the game. Texas Tech answered every time.
- Texas Tech athletic director Kirby Hocutt released a statement after the game to express his complete disbelief and disappointment in that group of refs, which if you wanted to put them on your radar to see if they call any further games for Texas Tech, they are Bert Smith, Tyler Kumpf, Justin Shamion. Here is Hocutt’s full statement: “I am appalled and disappointed by the official’s egregious decision to eject JT Toppin from tonight’s game against Houston. This decision, made on a play that was clearly accidental and without intent, is unacceptable. Immediately after the ejection, I spoke with Commissioner Yormark, who assured me that the situation would be addressed and there would be accountability. On behalf of Red Raider Nation, we are extremely proud of our team and the leadership of Coach McCasland.”
- With Toppin out, Texas Tech would have to turn to Eemeli Yalaho for minutes and productivity and after the game, McCasland said that he couldn’t believe how fitting it was that Yalaho was the defender on Roberts who ended up stonewalling Roberts and forcing a travel. It was picture-perfect defense in that situation. Before we get to that, Yalaho was called for a foul on a near similar situation at the end of the game. Straight up, in front of your man and forced a bad play. Yalaho finished with 4 points, 4 boards, 2 assists and 2 turnovers. As an aside, Yalaho is having to guard Roberts because Darrion Williams and Federiko Federiko both fouled out.
- Texas Tech scored 1.171 points per possession on the No. 1 defense in the nation. Houston didn’t have an answer for Texas Tech’s offense and Texas Tech was definitely prepared for the Cougars wanting to rush at the ball-handler on the pick-and-roll, the ball-handler has to figure out how to pass out. Texas Tech was able to get the ball in space to hit open shots and fully utilize the drive-and-dribble to get into spaces and fouls. Houston plays bully defense and I mean that as a compliment, it’s not easy to play offense against them.
- I don’t know how you get to every player that played a huge part. I’ll just post a screenshot of the box score for you to look at. Houston only out-rebounded Texas Tech by 1 and the offensive boards were pretty even, 16-14 in favor of Houston. Houston had 42 points in the paint and they shot 27 free throws, while Texas Tech had 18 while they shot 34. Texas Tech is not a team that gets to the line so for them to do this is huge.
- Consider that Texas Tech had to do all of that work with Federiko only getting 21 minutes because of foul issues and although he finished with 6 rebounds, he was barely able to contribute. That means that Texas Tech played without a traditional big man for most of the time, and maybe that’s a key in beating Houston because it was Texas Tech’s shooting, 12 of 30 from deep that was one of the differences in the game. Houston only made 5 3-pointers and that just wasn’t enough.
- Kerwin Walton 14 points on 4 of 7, Williams with 13 on 5 of 11, Hawkins with 17 on 4 of 12, and Anderson with 10 on 2 of 8 were all huge. The entire coaching staff including acting head coach Jeff Linder and the whole group. It was S&C coach Andrew Wright that walked out Toppin and Kellen Buffington and Jonathan Botros that walked out McCasland.
- Head coach Grant McCasland: “We knew it would take everything we got to get this one done. We knew we would have to handle adversity too. I can’t remember being a part of one like this. It is like the most beautiful picture of what being a part of a team is about.”
- Advanced stats say that Walton was the POTG at +17.0, Williams at +13.7, McMillian at +11.3, Hawkins at +4.7, Yalaho at +4.3, and Anderson at +0.4. Federiko is the only negative at -3.9.
- Up next? Hosting Baylor on Tuesday, February 4th, with tip-off at 8:00 p.m. and on ESPN2.