Click here for —>BOX SCORE
Player of the Game | I was thinking early on about giving this one to Clarke, but McCullar really played his butt off even if his shots were not falling as well as I’d of liked to see. Nobody was better across the board, or scoring a lot in this matchup. KMAC had a line of 13 points, 5 rebounds, 4 steals, and 3 assists. He was the best all around player of the game for TTU.
Stat of the Game | 33.3% shooting on 21-63 shots, with 5-15 three pointers seem to stick out the most. I was tracking the shooting percentage and around 10 minutes into the game the Red Raiders were just barely over 20% FG shooting with ZERO three point makes. At the half we were shooting a measly 28% and were 2-7 from downtown while down by 10 points. Also, I will get more to it in the game observations, yet Ramsey going 0-8 and having ZERO points was a stat that just sort of puts this game into perspective for how poor we shot the ball.
How the Game was Lost | We came out flat and looked sloppy from the beginning whistle. OU was bigger, stronger, and more aggressive than our team. Texas Tech knows how to play small ball, and can beat bigger stronger teams on most nights… but, I did not see the usual scrappiness and determination we have become accustomed to witnessing the squad play with. We plain and simply got our butts whipped by the Sooners from the get go. TTU could not get the buckets inside, and weren’t draining much from outside the paint. A terrible combination. It seems that the Sooners studied our frontcourt weakness and exploited it on both ends of the court all game long.
Team Observations |
- Chris Clarke got in the game early off the bench, and looked like he was really trying to get some things going on both sides of the ball. I still am unclear what got him benched last game, yet he looked like a guy that was working to show he was going to help the team as best he could with his hustle. This is important, because Clarke is going to be a huge factor as our 6th man when it comes to the postseason. Glad he got things straight and is back on track.
- Alright, as everyone noticed our star Ramsey had one of the worst games I can remember while wearing a Tech uniform. Those 2 quick fouls to begin the game and putting him onto the bench really seemed to mess with his mentality the rest of the contest. He could not get the drives he wanted to the rim, and he was clearly misfiring his shots. It happens, and he will come back from this with a little more experience when he gets himself thrown off to start the game out. As I mentioned before, 0-8 shooting with 0-3 from beyond the perimeter with no free throws attempted. Obviously, just a complete and utter meltdown that could not be corrected this game. Big thing to watch against UT, I would assume he will put this game behind him and come out to prove a point against the Longhorns. Watch out UT, I predict a monster game for Ramsey.
- Reeves (for OU) was killing us in the first half nailing his jumpers, and our defense did not look like the typical Red Raider D that Coach Beard preaches. A step too late to close out on the opponents. Also, they seemingly beat us up inside and pushed us around however they wanted. Doolittle and Manek could put the ball on the floor and go up inside with ease. Their frontcourt made us pay for any time we looked timid or slow to create movement toward the ball.
- OU had a block party, stuffing us 10 times. It was painful for us Red Raiders.
- With approximately 12 minutes left in the contest, we had a chance to claw our way back. The momentum shifted in our favor as the Sooners started racking up offensive fouls. The only problem with that is we never went back and put the ball in the basket to chip away at their lead.
- I thought we still has a slim chance with 6 minutes left when we started throwing a full court press at them, but we still did not figure it out. The aggressive play and hard nosed defense was too little too late.
- Our squad is up and down over conference play, and these last 3 regular season games are going to be a massive factor into us getting in and having preferable seeding at the Big Dance. I do not at all feel we are going to give up, but right now we just got slapped down. We are going to have to be resilient and fight back to figure a few issues out before the end of the regular season. You all know the Red raiders are not staying knocked down for long. Let’s take it out on UT in Lubbock on Saturday.
Just couldn't get anything to fall.
Back home Saturday.
🔴#4To1 | #WreckEm⚫ pic.twitter.com/AzULkp8DBp
— Texas Tech Basketball (@TexasTechMBB) February 26, 2020