Game Links:
Tortilla Tossin’ Player of the Game: I’ll go with LeJuan Watts who led the team with 12 points, was 5 of 12, had 7 boards, 2 assists, and 3 turnovers.
The Motion:
- Woof. That was tough to watch. The Iowa State defense was absolutely dominating Anderson, Atwell and Petty and that seemed to be the plan, which was to not let them take a breath of air around the 3-point line and guard the heck out them and force the ball out of their hands. I am afraid that teams have found the way to defeat Texas Tech and I’d also say that McCasland’s comments after the game was one where he simply called his team out for the lack of physicality and rebounding.
- The other big item is that Christian Anderson tweaked his groin slipping on a glass floor. It was ridiculous to think that teams would play on a glass floor and there not be any injuries, but that’s not what happened. There were numerous instances players slipping and falling down during the game. The Big 12 did announce that moving forward they would use a wood floor. At the very least, they are making the change, that floor simply did not appear to be safe.
- Iowa State cranked up the defense in the 2nd half. Texas Tech shot 45% and things were looking good, but then they simply didn’t allow anything, just 6 of 27 for 22% in the 2nd half. And the rebounds was 18 in the 1st and 11 in the 2nd. Meanwhile, Iowa State cranked things up and shot 65% in the 2nd half, taking just 6 3-point shots and just pounding the ball inside. There was almost no resistance as well, Texas Tech didn’t have anyone in any real foul trouble and Iowa State shot just 14 free throws.
- Iowa State absolutely dominated on points off of turnovers, 17 to just 4 for Texas Tech and both teams had 10 turnovers.
- Texas Tech had just .855 points per possession compared to 1.172 for Iowa State. That’s a really low figure for Texas Tech.
- I don’t know how you squeeze more out of Luke Bamgboye. I thought that he wasn’t playing all that much because he was in foul trouble constantly, but McCasland restricted his minutes to just 22 and seemed to sub him and Moseley on the floor separately and not play together. In his 22 minutes, Bamgboye missed his only shot, made 2 free throws and grabbed 5 boards. That’s about it. Moseley has always been more active, he scored 6 on 3 of 7 with 4 boards. Not at all saying that Moseley played perfectly, but at least there’s something there.
- It’s been some time since Texas Tech has had their rear handed to them, but that’s what happened yesterday morning.
- Head coach Grant McCasland: “You could tell they had the right edge to win this basketball game,” Texas Tech coach Grant McCasland said. “We didn’t match the physicality or effort in the second half. I have to do a better job of helping our team to understand how important it is to get after it for the entire game. I loved our fight to start and made shots and got stops but the game wore on us with their size and athleticism causing us problems.”
- Advanced Stats: Anderson +1.7; Petty -0.9; Bryan -1.7; Atwell -2.0; Watts -2.1; Bamgboye -2.5; and Moseley -3.7.
- Up next? Texas Tech awaits its fate. The NCAA Selection Show is this Sunday, March 15th at 5:00 p.m. on CBS. The first games are March 17th & 18th. After yesterday, it wouldn’t surprise me to see Texas Tech drop to a 5 seed, but this is hardly my area of expertise.
Highlights