Game Links:
Tortilla Tossin’ Player of the Game: Damarion Dennis, come on down, you get the first tortilla of the year! Dennis was absolutely fun to watch and I think that some folks weren’t sure to make of Dennis when he transferred to Texas Tech, but he’s constantly moving and that’s a great thing for an offensive player. Dennis finished with 22 points on 8 of 12 including 4 of 8 with 3 boards.
The Motion:
- Let this sink in. Darrion Williams and Donovan Atwell went 0-11 on the night and this may be the only night that they actually go 0-fer and still won by 34 points. This is a better and more well-rounded team and deeper team than last year. Now, both Williams and Atwell were in a bit of foul trouble as well, but I don’t think that affected much of anything.
- I didn’t like the free throws, just 19 of 31 for 61%, but it’s the first game of the season and 3 of those misses were from Amari Barrett who likely won’t get a ton of burn.
- I absolutely loved the guard combination of Davis, Gibbs-Lawhorn, and Dennis. They can all play and I’m still figuring out what they do best and how they will all work, but Davis is the clear point guard, but Gibbs-Lawhorn isn’t far behind and having two guards that are excellent passers along with Williams makes an offense really hum.
- We’ve had some freshmen big men arrive and not be ready, but Bassala Bagayoko is going to be a force and not necessarily scoring, but he understands how to roll to the hoop, thanks to his years in Europe and he’s obviously going to be good defensively, he’s just got to figure out how to watch the fouls, especially ones where he’s not underneath the basket.
- Josiah Moseley is maybe a bit forgotten, but he’s rounding out his offensive game and it’s a good look. Some of what he did was a bit forced, but he was 4 of 6 from the field and had 13 points as well as 8 boards and just 2 fouls.
- We talked a bit about Cruz Davis, but he was highly efficient, 5 of 7 from the field and fearless going to the basket, for 15 points, 6 boards, and 5 assists with no turnovers.
- Texas Tech had 8 2nd chance points to just 2 for Jackson State and also had 47 bench points to just 15 for the Tigers. Again, this is more about the depth of Texas Tech and what I think we are in store for the year. McCasland is playing 8 players and that’s without Stillwell. This is going to be a really deep team.
- Texas Tech forced 24 turnovers and only had 10 themselves, which resulted in 29 points off of those turnovers. That’s a pretty dominant defense and I think that is largely the guards who make that happen.
- Advanced Stats: Davis +14.4, Dennis +8.6, Moseley +4.4.
- Up next? Thursday, November 5th at 8:00 pm on ESPN+, Texas Tech will host Bethune-Cookman.
Highlights