Game Links:
Tortilla Tossin’ Player of the Game: I’m splitting this between Donovan Atwell and JT Toppin. Atwell finished with 20 points, leading the team, going 6 of 10 from the floor (all were 3’s) with 2 boards, and at this point, if he has a free look he’s nearly automatic. Toppin was 6 of 11 with 16 points, 18 freaking rebounds, 2 assists, a turnover, 2 steals, and 3 blocks.
The Motion:
- Colorado was simply dominated, such an awful performance for Colorado and that doesn’t even look like the same team that played in Boulder. Colorado made 29% of their shots, 24% of their 3-point attempts, and there really wasn’t anyone other than Inman in the 1st half that did much of anything. A large part of that was the Texas Tech defense, teams don’t just shoot bad on accident as easy as it would be to credit a poor shooting performance to just that.
- Luke Bamgboye ended up playing a ton, 18 minutes, and he sort of single-handedly changed the game because it looked like Colorado simply wasn’t ready to see a shot-blocker. Bamgboye looked ready and his foot-work and ability to be in the right spot was significantly better. Looking at his stats, he finished with 7 points, just 3 boards, a steal, and 4 blocks. Not overly impressive, but that will play.
- Anderson was pressured when Texas Tech went into their first action and Texas Tech was not ready for the double-team and that resulted in 5 turnovers from Anderson. The player setting the screen was not ready to receive the ball and Colorado did a really good job rotating over and leaving a Texas Tech player 2 rotations away open and that was a nearly impossible pass. It’s something to watch, the chess moves that Texas Tech plays along with defenses, but this had Texas Tech rattled with the addition of Bamgboye in the mix.
- Another game where LeJuan Watts doesn’t look comfortable offensively, but he was good otherwise. It seemed that Tyeree Bryan got a handful of Watts’ minutes. Both Watts and Bryan are giving full effort on defense, which is sort of the point of all of this I think. With Atwell, Anderson, and Toppin, there’s plenty of offensive firepower. I’d still like to see Watts get in a groove because I think it will be necessary at some point.
- Petty was looking for his shot a bit, and with the double-teams that Colorado was rolling with and couldn’t hit a shot from deep in the 2nd half, so it was a little painful to watch. He still finished with 12 points, but he had a rough day shooting.
- The exchange at the end of the 1st half where Colorado was taking fouls and then ended up fouling Watts should have been a sign for Colorado that things weren’t going to go their way. Just unable to execute properly.
- Texas Tech had 13, but Colorado had an uncharacteristic 16 turnovers. The rebounding advantage was significant, 47 to 30 and the offensive rebounds were relatively even, 17 to 13 in favor of Texas Tech. The other big stat was that Texas Tech had 21 2nd chance points to 0 for Colorado. Just sort of amazing that the Buffs didn’t get a single 2nd chance point. Colorado just didn’t make any points in the paint, 14 for them, and Texas Tech had 24.
- Head coach Grant McCasland: “I was on edge. I wanted our guys and everyone in the building to feel it. People can assume you’re going to win games, but that’s not how this works. There are two teams, they have a scouting report and you play for 40 minutes with a scoreboard. Whoever is the best team for those 40 minutes no matter who you think was going to win before it started, it’s all about that time you get. I see our team advancing in the right way and our energy is what it needs to be.”
- Advanced Stats: Atwell +8.7; Toppin +8.3; Bamgboye +4.1; Watts +1.2; Petty 0.0; Anderson -0.5; Bryan -2.1; and Mosely -0.7.
- Up next? No. 1 Arizona on the road in Tucson coming off the Wildcats’ only loss of the year to Kansas. I’m sure they won’t be motivated at all! ESPN Gameday will be in Tucson and tip-off is at 5:30 p.m. with the game broadcast on ESPN. Consider it a Valentines Day date!
Highlights