Game Links:
Tortilla Tossin’ Player of the Game: I’ll go with Joe Toussaint who snapped back to a much better form, 18 points on 5 of 10, with 6 assists, 3 boards, and 2 turnovers. I hated that last charge he had, that pretty well took the wind out of the sail to maybe win the game.
The Motion:
- This was the likely result when faced with a Baylor team that’s so good offensively. They scored 1.274 points per possession, which is extremely good, they scored 36 points in the paint and had 11 offensive boards, 10 of which were in the first half. I know that there are complaints about the foul calls, but when you take that many shots in the paint and you’re grabbing that many offensive boards and you’re trying to grab boards over an athletic 7-footer like Missi, then fouls are going to happen.
- To further this thought, Texas Tech only had 20 points in the paint, which normally doesn’t happen when Warren Washington is able to play, but he wasn’t there. He would have helped a ton on offense and defense and who knows how the game plays out if he does play. Thinking about it, the only player shooting in the lane was Joe Toussaint, maybe the smallest player. And this was really a matter of Texas Tech not being able to keep pace, only scoring 1.123 points per possession, which is good, but not good enough, and not having the defensive anchor of their team.
- Not only that, but Texas Tech was still without Lamar Washington, so both Washingtons were out and that meant the guards really couldn’t take a break because there was no one to really give them a break. That’s going to wear you down and I think that’s what happened at the end, just not enough juice. If Texas Tech was going to win this game, they had to shorten it and not get into a track meet, which really didn’t happen.
- I liked the play of Kyeron Lindsay, he had some defensive lapses and couldn’t stay out of foul trouble, 4 in just 12 minutes, but I like his athleticism.
- I think I would have been fine with Chance McMillian and Kerwin Walton taking more shots, McMillian had 15 on 6 of 10 while Walton was 3 of 5.
- Darrion Williams was also asked to do a bit more and he sort of got back on track and was seeking some shots. He was 6 of 9 from the floor, 2 of 3 from deep, but he only had 2 rebounds on the night and that was probably his biggest issue is that he wasn’t part of the rebounding solution.
- Despite those 11 offensive boards, Baylor only had 6 2nd chance points and either Baylor just didn’t shoot well or Texas Tech played good defense, but the Bears were only 28% from the 3-point line. Remember, before the game, they were shooting 40% overall, so they weren’t hitting like they normally do. Baylor had 9 steals to just 3 for Texas Tech.
- The advanced stats say that Chance McMillian was the best with BPM of +9.6, which led the team, then Toussaint with +8.8, then Darrion Williams at +7.9. Isaacs, Jennings, and Lindsay all had negative numbers, Isaac was -1.0, Lindsay -3.3, and Jennings -14.5.
- Head coach Grant McCasland: “Over the course of the game, I thought we had good feel for it but then there was that stretch in the second half when we couldn’t get a stop. Their switching caused us problems and made us panic a couple of times. We did a better job rebounding in the second half but we couldn’t guard. That is a really good team and we didn’t play our best. We have to play better in order to win, especially on the road.”
- Up next? Texas Tech will go back home to host UCF on Saturday, February 10th at 3:00 p.m., game broadcast on ESPN+.
Highlights
Fought but fell at No. 13 Baylor.
🎥 Highlights from the game pic.twitter.com/oUu5ugegmA
— Texas Tech Basketball (@TexasTechMBB) February 7, 2024