Game Links:
Tortilla Tossin’ Player of the Game: It sort of has to be Pop Isaacs, 32 points on 11 of 19, 6 of 9 from deep, 4 of 4 from the line, 5 boards, 4 assists, 3 steals, and 3 turnovers. Just absolutely filled up the box score and was unconscious from deep. I’d add one more thing, which is that last year I thought that Isaacs was gassed in the 2nd half, a true freshman playing big minutes just didn’t have much left in the tank and he’s definitely gotten stronger.
The Motion:
- What a game and what a comeback. Pop Isaacs said after the game that the team thought that this was sort of a must-win game, maybe because if the goal is to win the Big 12 that you have to try to keep pace and at least win those home games. That’s a bare minimum. It helps to have Isaacs be absolutely on fire, scoring 23 of his 32 points in the second half.
- We’ll talk about the offensive explosion, but the defense was outstanding in the second half and BYU was going to shoot from outside regardless as to whether or not the ball was going through the hoop. The Cougars shot 55% in the 1st half and 35% in the second, made 10 of 20 from beyond the arc in the 1st half and was just 3 of 19 in the 2nd. Whether or not that’s defense or BYU just going cold, I think the defense definition stepped up and because it had to.
- The offensive splits were equally impressive for the Texas Tech offense. In the 1st half, Texas Tech was 35% from the field and 36% from deep while the 2nd half saw Texas Tech make 63% of their shots and 50% from beyond the 3-point line. Add in 13 of 14 free throws and it was a near-perfect offensive half, which is exactly what Baylor did to BYU in one of their other losses.
- Texas Tech forced 12 BYU turnovers while only having 6 for themselves, and scored 22 points off of those turnovers, while BYU only had 4. Both teams had 32 points in the paint and that Khalifa was quite impressive. Despite BYU being a team that can get up and down, Texas Tech had 12 fast break points to just 2 for BYU. It also helps that Texas Tech had 18 free throw attempts to just 5 for BYU. Before you say that this as largely some home-cooking, BYU also had 39 3-point attempts. They were absolutely trying to dial-in from deep.
- BYU had 1.14 points per possession, which is really good, but when Texas Tech has 1.308, that’s absurd against a very good BYU defense.
- Warren Washington seemed like he was grabbing 100 rebounds, but the box score says that he only had 9 on the game. He was everywhere and he scored 19 on 8 of 12 from the floor.
- The two and-1 plays from Joe Toussaint and Darrien Williams were key moments. They didn’t have big games, but they were part of that comeback. Toussaint was just 1 of 10 and Williams was 2 of 5. However, Toussaint had 5 assists and just 1 turnover and Williams had 8 rebounds and 3 assists go to with his 7 points. Also feel like I should mention chance McMillian off the bench, 14 points on 4 of 7, including 5 of 5 from the charity stripe and 5 boards.
- Advanced stats in the box score +/- say that Isaacs was a +19.4, which is stupidly good, while Washington was a +6.8, McMillian was a +8.6, and Williams was a +3.3. Texas Tech doesn’t win this game without Isaacs going off.
- Head coach Grant McCasland: “Just a resilient group that gets challenged every day and they accept the challenge. It’s not fun to get challenged every day. You don’t want people telling you ‘This isn’t good enough’. It’s not fun, but these guys embrace that. And honestly, it’s brought them closer together. When you get in our practices and you see them and you’re around our guys, they’re really accepting of it being difficult and they want it to be difficult. Just to challenge them in that regard. And these guys love it. They do believe in that and it’s fun to watch them feel like we’re still going to win no matter what the odds are against us. Whatever you want to call it, physicality, three-pointers get rained on your head. I mean, just who wants to fight and play? I told them at halftime this is fun. If you don’t like doing this, then you should go sit in the stands. Like this is fun. So, we didn’t play great defensively. Let’s go figure out a way to win this game and that’s what these guys do.”
- Up next? This team has 7 days off and won’t play Oklahoma until Saturday, January 27th at the Lloyd Noble Center with the game broadcast on ESPN+ and tip-off is at 1:00 p.m.
Highlights