Game Links:
Tortilla Tossin’ Player of the Game: De’Vion Harmon had a tale of two halves. Going 3 of 10 in the first half with 3 assists, but in the second half, he was much more efficient, 4 of 6, and just 1 of those turnovers. Harmon’s final line was 20 points on 7 of 16, 3 boards, 4 assists, and 1 turnover.
The Motion:
- That was nice, for sure. The difference? Maybe a handful fewer turnovers and slightly better shooting (which conversely means that Texas Tech played better defense). This felt like a foul-fest and I typically don’t think that Texas Tech was up against some calls by the refs, but that’s how it felt during the game. Ultimately, K-State had 22 fouls called against them and Texas Tech had 24, so not as big a difference as I thought, although there were a few fouls called on K-Stat towards the end to intentionally put Texas Tech on the line, so the disparity was probably 5 rather than 2 (maybe?).
- We talked before the game about how Texas Tech had 3 guys without much help, Obanor, Tyson, and Fisher. Thankfully, yesterday, they did have some help. Lamar Washington magically found a bit of an outside shot and went 2-4 from deep and finished with 13 points. D’Maurion Williams had 5 points with a couple of assists, steals, and rebounds. I also would like to think that Robert Jennings, KJ Allen, and Fardaws Aimaq had positive minutes.
- Stars are born when a player consistently shows up for every game. Jaylon Tyson is starting to be that. He doesn’t force shots (maybe he should shoot more, but he’s good) and finished with 11 points, 5 boards, 5 turnovers, 1 block, and a steal. Tyson isn’t typically a high-turnover player so this is more an aberration than normal.
- Other than Washington, Kevin Obanor’s big boards towards the end of the game to seal the win were significant, especially for a K-State team that was feasting off of offensive boards. Finishing with 10 points, going 5 of 6 from the line to finish off the game with 6 boards, and 3 turnovers.
- A few numbers. Texas Tech’s biggest statistical advantage was that they had 28 points off of turnovers to just 14 for KSU. Neither team valued the ball, 18 turnovers for the good guys and 23 for the Wildcats. Both teams scored 26 bench points and points in the pain was pretty even, 26-28 in favor of Texas Tech. K-State did dominate the offensive glass, 12 to 6, and as a result had 11 2nd chance points to just 5 for Texas Tech.
- For the game, Texas Tech did shoot slightly better, 42% to 35% and K-State is not a good shooting team from deep, just 23% last night to 28% for Texas Tech. I should also probably mention that it’s very impressive to hold Keyonte Johnson to just 9 points and he had 5 turnovers as well. Johnson wasn’t the high turnover guy for the Wildcats, that was point guard Nowell who had 7, so forcing their point guard into a bunch of bad decisions and holding their best player to just 9 is a big reason for the win.
- Head Coach Mark Adams: “I’m just extremely excited for this team and it was great to see many of our guys make contributions into the game. We were just trying to be aggressive, and we told our guys when that opportunity presents itself just to go out and trap the ball. Let’s just pursue the ball as much as we could. We made some mistakes, but at least we’re aggressive doing it. It was good to see these guys attack the way they attacked tonight.”
- Up next? Monday! Texas Tech hosts No. 5 Texas with tip-off set for 8:00 p.m. and televised on ESPN.
Highlights