Game Links:
Tortilla Tossin’ Player of the Game: Chance McMillian! An absolute banger of a game, 10 of 13 from the floor and 6 of 8 from deep with 8 boards and just 1 turnover with 17 of those points in the second half.
The Motion:
- You’re telling me that Texas Tech came back from down by 9 and then seemingly down by 5 of 6 for the better part of thee second half, on the road and somewhat hostile environment with a win? That’s partly hilarious because that just shouldn’t happen. When Texas Tech was in that 55 to 60 range and Oklahoma was just sort of scoring I thought the game was over, but they kept battling and when it was 78-76 it was when Texas Tech basically didn’t look back.
- Biggest difference in the game? Free throws, particularly made free throws. Oklahoma actually had (probably not a surprise given the whistles) 24 opportunities at the line, but only made 15, good for 63%, while Texas Tech made 16 of 19. If Oklahoma makes their free throws, Oklahoma likely wins this game. Because almost every other stat was near even, both had 17 points off of turnovers, rebounds were 2 in favor of Texas Tech so not a big deal, Texas Tech had 1 point in favor in points off the bench, and Oklahoma had 4 more points in the paint, 38 to 34.
- McCasland said after the game that the second action off of the initial ball screen was key and yeah, lots of back-door and good passing resulted in some easy looks and that back-door action frees up McMillian from the outside as well.
- Isaacs struggled from outside, only 1 of 6, but was 4 of 11 overall and made 9 of 10 free throws and had it not been for McMillian, everyone would have struggled as Toussaint was just 1 of 5 from outside. Toussaint did have 4 steals, which is not something you see every day.
- Washington and Williams are so key to this thing. Williams didn’t shoot well at all, just 2 of 10, but had 11 boards, 5 assists, and just 1 turnover. Washington had 10 points and really doesn’t take a shot unless he’s pretty sure he’s going to make it, 5 of 6, with 7 boards, 2 assists, 3 blocks, a steal, and no turnovers.
- Texas Tech scored 1.288 points per possession and allowed 1.235. That second figure isn’t ideal, but the offense usually has someone step up and have a big game, whether it’s Isaacs, Walton, Toussaint, McMillian, Washington, or Williams. Either really fortuitous or the way it’s going to be.
- This really is a 6-man rotation with Washington and Jennings getting minimal minutes, just 6 and 5. There are still 12 conference games remaining and none of them are going to be easy. I worry a bit about the ability of these guys to play as many minutes as they are, on short rest some weeks, but this has been a winning combination.
- Advanced stats and box score +/- tell us that McMillian was unstoppable and his +19.5 was 0.1 behind Isaacs’ performance against BYU. Washington was +9.4, Toussaint was +4.4 and Walton was +5.2 with Isaacs and Williams both in the red, -2.0 and -4.7 respectively.
- Head coach Grant McCasland: “It’s about how you withstand the momentum swings. You can’t lose sight of that and panic offensively. When you get down, there can be a tendency to try to get it back too quick. I felt like our transition backs from Pop and Joe really helped us. Their defense is really good. They can get you in a ball-screen coverage that is hard to play against. They are well coached. You’re not going to score on the first ball screen, so quit trying. Get to the next action. Those transition baskets opened up the game and were big for our momentum.”
- Up next? The grind continues on the road again, this time at Schollmaier Arena to face TCU on Tuesday, January 30th at 6:00 p.m. and the game will be broadcast on ESPN2.
Highlights