Game Links:
Tortilla Tossin’ Player of the Game: Kind of between Williams or Kerwin Walton and am going with Walton who scored 18 on 6 of 12 including 4 of 9 from deep, 2 boards, an assist, 1 steal, and 1 turnover.
The Motion:
- I was afraid this was going to happen. UCF is so good defensively and without Chance McMillian and a healthy Warren Washington it wasn’t good enough. McMillian helps with spacing because you almost can’t sub out Isaacs, Toussaint, or Walton because you need their spacing in order to have some space to have something inside, and then without one of the bigs being an offensive threat, whether that’s Jennings or Lindsay or Yalaho, it’s really tough.
- I felt like by the end of the game, Isaacs, Toussaint, and Walton were gassed. they played nearly every minute and UCF had 10 guys that rotated in and out and Texas Tech was completely worn down and worn out. Darrion Williams played all 40 minutes and was probably gassed too. This team isn’t deep enough to play without 2 starters.
- UCF had 32 points in the paint to just 12 for Texas Tech. That might be a season low for Texas Tech. I’m surprised that the rebounding was even, 36 all and UCF didn’t have many offensive boards.
- Isaacs and Toussaint are just terrible right now and that doesn’t help. Isaacs was 1 of 8 from deep and 3 of 12 overall. Toussaint was 0 for 6 from deep and 1 of 7 overall. That’s not going to cut it. It seemed like Toussaint settled for some outside shots and he also had to take a few with the shot clock winding down. Knowing that Texas Tech had nothing inside, UCF could really focus on the perimeter, which they were already great at guarding in the first place.
- Kyeron Lindsay played 1 minute. He had a turnover within that minute and never saw a never second of time and I don’t know what to think about that. Yalaho had 3 turnovers in 17 minutes. Robert Jennings had 5 personal fouls in just 10 minutes so Texas Tech could have used the depth. I guess we’re teaching lessons here.
- It didn’t help to have 14 turnovers to just 8 for UCF.
- Eemeli Yalaho played fine, he hit 3 late 3’s, but he was pretty well frozen any time he got the ball inside and immediately looked to pass it to someone else. He was not a threat offensively and this team sort of needs that with so many players out.
- Advanced stats say that Williams’ double-double was the best game, having a BPM of +13.7, Walton had a +11.4, and Yalaho had a +11.6. Negative numbers are bad, Washington was -19.4, Isaacs was -10.6, and Toussaint was -4.4 for the guys who played the majority of minutes.
- Head coach Grant McCasland: “Anytime we felt like we were kind of getting close, one of their guys stepped up and made a really great play. Ultimately, in these games, we need to make threes and counterpunch. We weren’t able to do that. UCF had a lot to do with that. Their defense caused us problems and we had problems keeping them out of the paint. Their length and athleticism caused us problems all night.”
- Up next? Texas’ last game (possibly) for the Longhorns at the United Supermarkets Arena on Tuesday, February 27th with tip-off at 8:00 p.m. on ESPN.
Highlights