Game Links:
Tortilla Tossin’ Player of the Game: Going with Mac McClung again. He was the only player to who had a plus/minus over 30, had 20 points, on 8 of 13 from the floor, including 4 of 8 from the three-point line, 2 rebounds, 5 assists, a turnover, and a block.
The Motion:
- Nice to get the offense rolling again, but I think I want to see it against a high-level opponent. Not that this wasn’t nice, but Troy wasn’t a good defensive team statistically and Texas Tech was really tested by a hard-nosed defense in Houston.
- Statistically, the offense was scoring at a rate of 1.27 points per possession, which is great, and held Troy to .708, again, very good. Troy was terrible from the three-point line, only going 2 of 20 and the home-cooking for Texas Tech worked out well, as Texas Tech was 11 of 19 from the three-point line.
- Things I didn’t like? Well, I thought the interior defense wasn’t great. Troy had 18 points in the paint, compared to 20 for Texas Tech. Troy wasn’t necessarily big, but they certainly scored inside. Additionally, Troy grabbed 14 offensive boards and had 7 second-chance points. With Marcus Santos-Silva as the only sizable interior player, I think Texas Tech is really going to have to work on those aspects, keeping opponents out of the paint and limiting offensive boards. Troy didn’t have the firepower to hurt Texas Tech, but other teams will.
- Terrence Shannon and Kyler Edwards both got back on track, Shannon had 13 points on 4 of 9 from the floor including 5 of 6 from the three throw line and grabbed 5 boards. Edwards had 14 points on 4 of 6, 4 of 5 from the three-point line, 4 assists, 2 turnovers, and a steal.
- I don’t know that any other players really stood out, but that’s not necessarily bad, really kind of a collective thing from the rest of the guys. Santos-Silva led the team with 7 boards. Tyreek Smith had 7 points and 4 boards, with 3 blocks. Nimari Burnett looked more comfortable, scoring 7 points, had 4 boards, and 3 blocks, but he also had 5 turnovers.
- Vlad Goldin received his first minutes and looked okay, he’s got a good stroke, grabbed 3 rebounds, and scored 4 points in just 6 minutes.
- Some miscellaneous statistics, Texas Tech had 10 fast break points, had 31 points off of 22 Troy turnovers, and Texas Tech shot 55% from the floor, which is terrific and then shot 58% from the three-point line.
- Head coach Chris Beard:
“We got some offensive from our defense tonight,” Texas Tech coach Chris Beard said. “In the Houston game, we only had two baskets off our defense. That is just not the way we play our game or how you play in the Big 12. To get to a certain place on the board in this division, you have to get a certain number of points off your defense. There isn’t a single offense in our league, or in college basketball, that can handle 100 percent of the scoring load. We want to wish Troy University and Coach Scott Cross the best this season. We have worked really hard together these last couple of days to pull this game off. We are appreciative of them and will be pulling for them the rest of the season.”
- Up next is Grambling tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. at the United Supermarkets Arena.
Highlights