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Game Recap
Player of the Game: Jarrett Culver was fantastic in the first half and that was enough to make him the STP player of the game. Culver scored 20 points, hit 4 of 5 from beyond the arc, made all 6 of his free throws, grabbed 2 rebounds, dished out 4 assists, had 3 blocks and 0 turnovers. Heck yes.
High Flyer of the Game: Zhaire Smith gets this again, the alleyoop from Keenan Evans in the first half and the baseline dunk on the dive to the basket (I wish I could remember who got him the ball, probably Evans) were both highlight worthy.
Defender of the Game: Brodziansky had 18 points, but they all came a little too late so lets give the defender of the game to Noense Odiase and Tommy Hamilton who neutralized Brodziansky for the most part the first half and was able to hold him off in the second half.
Multi-Purpose Player of the Game: Let’s go with Niem Stevenson, who had 7 points, 2 rebounds, 4 assists and no turnovers. This is the first time in a long time that I remember a zero or low turnover game for Stevenson. Huzzah.
Game Notes:
- The three three-point buckets that were made in the first half, two by Culver and one by Stevenson, seemed to absolutely deflate the Horned Frogs for the better part of the first half. It seemed as if TCU couldn’t get their offense really going at all. Those two three-pointers by Culver were pure, pure as the driven snow and just terrific.
- TCU’s problems on offense were a direct result of the terrific defense that Texas Tech played. TCU had 17 turnovers for the game and I’d guess they were close to or over double-digit in the first half. They played just terrible offensively and there was no flow. At some point in the second half, they figured out that the defense can lead to good offensive play and TCU got back in a groove in the second half, but that 24 point firt half lead was way too much to overcome.
- As a team, Texas Tech shot 81% from the free throw line. I know this is really the easy and fan-friendly point to make, which is that if the team is missing free throws, they need to shoot more in practice and from everything Beard has said, they shoot free throws as much as anyone, but sometimes you’re dealing with yougn people that aren’t as consistent as some seasoned professional. I think they’ve have more good games than bad, but truthfully, they’ve got one really good free throw shooter, that’s Evans. Everyone else is hit or miss and that’s probably going to be regardless of how many free throws they shoot.
- Don’t tell me this team doesn’t have a rim protector because they had 8 blocks yesterday and that’s ridiculous (I’m kidding, they don’t really have a rim protector, but they’ve got kids that jump out of the gym).
- I was really happy to see Moretti get a little bit of time and he looked like his old self. Beard keeps saying that Moretti is going to have a break-out game and this wasn’t it, but he did score 7 points, was 1 of 2 from the three point line and he played okay in his time.
- This was not the typical game for Keenan Evans, who only ended up with 17, but it took him 14 shots to get there and wasn’t great shooting the ball, going 6 of 14 and 1 of 5 from the three-point line. This isn’t a bad thing and Evans isn’t going to carry the offense each and every game.
- Zhaire Smith had a ridculous line: 12 points on 5 of 8 from the field, 3 rebounds, 2 steals, 4 BLOCKS and 2 turnovers. You’re just not going to see a lot of players who are 6’5″ with 4 blocks.
- First place Texas Tech Red Raiders.
- That’s four in a row for Texas Tech, that’s two Big 12 road wins for your Red Raiders, 7-3 overall in the Big 12. Texas Tech hosts Iowa State on Wednesday night and let’s just go ahead and make it 5 in a row.
Highlights