Game Links:
Tortilla Tossin’ Player of the Game: I’m going with JT Toppin who scored 22 on 8 of 17 from the floor, including 2 of 4 from deep, and 4 of 4 from the line, with 9 boards, 2 assists, 3 turnovers, a block, and a steal. Toppin also had the only 2 offensive rebounds for the team.
The Motion:
- This felt like a couple of things that happened. Texas Tech played really good defense, but West Virginia took some absolute dog-doo 3-pointers from guys that should not be shooting, which means that guys weren’t taking shots because they were well defended. For the presser, Grant McCasland pulled in Jaylen Petty and Donovan Atwell because of their defense and they do give absolute full effort on defense.
- West Virginia was 2 of 22 from 3-point line and they had guys that normally hit, like Huff who is their leading scorer, miss all 8 of his shots, including 0-6 from deep. Eaglestaff wasn’t much better, just 1 of 5. There were some guys who looked really uncomfortable shooting 3’s and it just was a bad offensive possession as a result. They should have continued to pound the paint where the Mountaineers had a 38-20 advantage.
- With that being said, Texas Tech was on fire from deep, 13 of 24 for 54% overall and Anderson was the only player who shot below 50% from deep, 3 of 7, which I’ll take all day. Anderson did force some shots because West Virginia was not going to let him beat them, but that also opened up lots of other guys. Anderson didn’t have a bad game, a couple of bad turnovers, 4 total, but he was under a ton of pressure and scored 13 with 11 assists, and 3 steals.
- Opening up was Donovan Atwell, who went 4 of 6 for 15 points and Jaylen Petty who went 4 of 8 scoring 11 points.
- LeJuan Watts is in a weird place, he had 2 turnovers where he was taking extra steps, something that an 8th grader would know that he can’t do, and just looks uncomfortable. I’m not sure at all what it is. I don’t think he’s playing poorly, but it’s just odd.
- As mentioned above, Texas Tech had just 2 offensive rebounds to 9 for WVU. West Virginia is a bit of a pain to watch offensively, they just can’t create shots, and that showed when they had just 10 assists to 17 for Texas Tech.
- Considering how bad West Virginia was beating Texas Tech inside, I thought for sure that Josiah Moseley would get some minutes, but it was Bamgboye for 12 and Tyeree Bryan for 3, although McCasland said that Bryan threw up at halftime so he just wasn’t going to play anyone else.
- Luke Bamgboye can be an absolute disaster defensively. He doesn’t block out, gets in a bad spots, he fouls because he’s not blocking out, and then he goes and gets two blocks to basically ensure that Texas Tech wins the game within the last minute. We’ll all remember the 2 blocks, but the 3 fouls because he’s just not in a good spot is something that sticks with me a bit.
- Advanced Stats: Atwell +5.6; Anderson +3.8; Toppin -0.3; Bamgboye -0.3; Petty -1.0; and Watts -4.2.
- Up next? Texas Tech hosts Colorado on Wednesday night at the United Supermarkets Arena, tip-off is at 7:00 p.m. and the game is on ESPN+.
Highlights