Game Links:
Tortilla Tossin’ Player of the Game: Robert Jennings . . . come on down. I don’t know that he’s ever gotten this truly insignificant honor, but he scored 14 points on 7 of 10 from the floor with 6 boards, an assist, and a turnover. I’d love it if he turns the corner and is a bigger part of the rotation because it obviously needs depth.
The Motion:
- I didn’t have time to watch the game yesterday or early this morning. We had basketball yesterday and more basketball this morning so this is a statistical recap and you should know that I haven’t seen the game.
- After the game McCasland said after the quote below that the loss was unacceptable and the guys were upset about the performance, it just wasn’t good enough and they are upset about it.
- I don’t know what’s happened to Joe Toussaint, but this isn’t the same guy from a month ago. He was 1 of 3 from the floor with 4 assists and no turnovers, but 5 fouls playing just 26 minutes when the only back-up point guard, Lamar Washington was out sick. Apparently the rest of the team is dealing with some sort of sickness. There are no other options other than Toussaint getting better, maybe Lamar getting more minutes if he’s more productive, but there’s just no extra guards on the roster.
- I thought that Cincy would have a big advantage on the offensive boards and it was 17-16 in favor of the Bearkats, so it was pretty even, however, 17 is a lot of offensive boards. Same with points in the paint, it was 28 to 30 in favor of Texas Tech.
- Where Cincinnati just dominated was blocks, 8 to 0, Texas Tech is not a big team and Cincinnati’s length was obviously a problem.
- The Texas Tech offense was 9 of 23 on layups. Yeesh.
- The defense allowed 1.172 points per possession and Cincy was a pretty terrible offensive team, top third in the nation, but not great. I know the offense is struggling in spots, but the defense has to be better.
- Kerwin Walton and Jennings were the only players to shoot over 50%, Walton was 4 of 6 and 2 of 3 from deep, so the main guys who have been carrying this team like Isaacs and McMillian and Warren Washington weren’t feeling it. McCasland said that Warren Washington just sort of pushed his way though and was maybe having the same thing that kept Lamar out.
- Head coach Grant McCasland: “We had several guys that weren’t 100 percent in this game and I thought Cincinnati was just extremely physical. They kept putting pressure on us by rebounding the basketball offensively. They ended up with eight blocked shots and I thought they drove the ball to the rim several times. I thought our contests were solid and I loved our scrap.”
- Up next? Texas Tech hits the road on Tuesday February 6th at 8:00 p.m. on ESPN to face Baylor at the new Foster Pavilion.
Highlights
🎥 Highlights from our loss against Cincinnati #TTW | @Gatorade pic.twitter.com/VMPPm2Hnii
— Texas Tech Basketball (@TexasTechMBB) February 4, 2024