Game Links:
Tortilla Tossin’ Player of the Game: This is unconventional, but Jaylen Petty played the entire 2nd half and his on-ball defense was critical to this team coming back. His stat line isn’t great, but he was 3 of 6 for 11 points, 3 assists, 1 turnover and he was running to beat offensive players to the spot in the halfcourt. That’s what you needed.
The Motion:
- That was tough to watch. The offense looks so disjointed and sloppy. I don’t know if the ball was slick because of the moisture, but the number of just missed passes was incredibly frustrating for me, I cannot imagine what it was like for Grant McCasland. I was shocked when it was just 14 turnovers on the game
- The pick and roll action with Anderson and Toppin is weird and one where Wake Forest was doubling Anderson and getting the ball out of his hands is absolutely what I would do as a defense and it wasn’t until really late in the game that the staff figured out to put Toppin in the middle of the court, not in the post, and it was so much better because Toppin is a threat. But for 3/4 of the game, Wake Forest kept getting the ball out of Anderson’s hands and that’s not what Texas Tech wants.
- The coaching staff also obviously told the team that they needed to crank things up defensively and that’s what happened. Statistically, I don’t know that the stats play this out. Wake Forest made 38% of their shots in the 1st half, and 56% in the second. And there were times where defensively the team just wasn’t covering simple actions and Wake Forest had easy layups.
- In the 2nd half, Texas Tech was just better offensively, they only had 6 turnovers (that means there were 8 in the 1st half) and made 48% of field goals and 50% of 3-point buckets with 12 assists. The offense was better, but for me, the offense can even be better than that.
- JT Toppin, Tyeree Bryan, Christian Anderson, and Jaylen Petty all played 19 of the 20 2nd half minutes. LeJuan Watts played 16, so that was pretty much who played.
- Donovan Atwell was great offensively, but his inability to not foul kept him on the bench. I’m not sure that Bryan is a good defensive player as he was getting lost at times, but he may be better than Atwell. That’s something I need to watch.
- Also helpful was the free throw and getting to the line in the 2nd half, only 4 free throws in the 1st half and 17 (made 14) in the 2nd half. Some other big numbers.
- Head coach Grant McCasland: “It says a lot about this group. Christian and JT’s composure at the end of the game was settling for us. Jaylen Petty was tremendous. He hit some big shots and I thought his on-ball defense was great. He only had one turnover and three assists. For a freshman to go in there and play almost the entire second half with the grit he showed really gave us a lift.”
- Advanced stats: Atwell +12.0; Petty +6.7; Bamgboye +4.0; Toppin +3.1; Anderson +2.2; Bryan +1.9; Watts -2.6.
- Up next? No. 1 Purdue is up next tonight with the game on CBSSN and tip-off is at 8:30 pm, which is really pushing my bedtime.
Highlights