Game Links
Game Recap
Tortilla Tossin’ Player of the Game: Pretty easy decision from me, Kevin McCullar looked fantastic last night, making 7 of 12 shots, including 3 of 6 from beyond the arc, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, a steal and 3 unfortunate turnovers.
Multi-Purpose Player of the Game: Not the traditional way I give this out, but I thought Adonis Arms essentially filling in for Terrence Shannon was pretty terrific. Arms made 5 of 6 from the floor including 2 of 3 from deep, a rebound, 2 assists, a block, 2 steals, and 2 turnovers.
Game Notes:
- Going to have to make this quick as it is National Signing Day and there’s lots of things to get to. I did not like how this team didn’t play well down the stretch. The defense was scrambling to cover ASU players and I just didn’t think that they did a good job of holding the Red Wolves like they did in the first half. The 1st half saw ASU shoot 39% from the field and 26% from the three-point line, while the second half saw those percentages jump 10 points, 48% inside the arc and 33% from the three-point line. It just seemed as if the defense was scrambling to cover three-point shooters and have a bad feeling that Gonzaga is excited about that prospect.
- I thought the offense looked good and was relatively pleased with that effort. The team shot really well to start the game with Bryson Williams making a handful of buckets and then led by McCullar for the better part of the game.
- Davion Warren had a rough game, the first one that I can sort of recall. He missed all of his 3-point shots, 0-4, and was 4 of 14 from the floor. He just sort of struggled to find his groove and looked uneven.
- I’ve already mentioned Arms and I love watching him. He’s probably the most athletic player on the team for my money, which I know is debatable. His ability to do multiple things is really impressive and he can fill in at point if that’s an issue. His ability to do all of those things will be incredibly useful if Mylik Wilson and Terrence Shannon are out an extended period of time.
- Head coach Mark Adams said after the game that Wilson is dealing with a knee injury that may require a scope and will be out the next two games. Shannon had some back spasms that he’s dealt with previously and does not believe the injury is significant.
- Warren and Obanor were negative players statistically for the purposes of Net +/- yesterday and yes, that’s exactly right. your best players were Arms at +6.1 then McCullar at +5.1. The other positive players were Williams, Batch, and Santos-Silva. My problem is that there are no real wings in that group and if Shannon and Wilson are out, Agbo and Calhoun would presumably step up, maybe Nadolny at the point, but Nadolny has to improve his decision-making and I’m fine with Agbo shooting his way out of any slump he’s in because he’s a high effort guy.
- Texas Tech dominated the points in the paint, 40 to 12.
- Head coach Mark Adams: “There were times out there when we looked great, and we had some adversity. We went on some runs and we played well in the first half. Then in the second half they went on a run, and we couldn’t stop them. But we did hold on to get the win. I don’t want to take that away from our guys because Arkansas State is a good basketball team.”
- Kevin McCullar: “This was a great win. We always celebrate the victories. This was a dogfight, but tomorrow we will come in and clean some things up. We try to play with 10 or less turnovers. We would definitely like to clean it up. It’s still early and we are working every day especially on that.”
- Up next? Gonzaga on Saturday, December 18th in Phoenix, Arizona, at the Jerry Colangelo Classic with tip-off at noon.
Highlights