Game Links:
Tortilla Tossin’ Player of the Game: Chance McMillian continues to shine, regardless of opponent. McMillan scored 23 on 7 of 14, including 5 of 10 from deep, 5 boards, 1 block and 2 turnovers.
The Motion:
- I really wanted to watch this game, but I just wasn’t home. Youssouf had a tournament in Rockwall, ended up playing the #2 team in the nation (supposedly) called Team Loaded from North Carolina. If those kids were 13 then I’ve got a bridge to sell you because they were likely 8th graders, maybe even freshmen. That happens all of the time and not a huge surprise as kids “reclassify” and get held back just so they can be in a better class and look better to recruiters. Showtyme did stick with them and lost by 3, which is pretty good (and Showtyme didn’t have one of their better players as he couldn’t make it for the tournament). As an aside, this Team Loaded beat some poor team 100-26 the game before so for Showtyme to lose by 3 isn’t bad. Granted, Showtyme is probably a top 20 team in the nation, but that’s difficult to tell because if you think the AP poll is subjective then AAU basketball is even more subjective. I think that Yo maybe had 16 or so points. We don’t really keep track of it, but he had a good amount of points and was relentless even though the other team was much bigger across the board.
- You’re not here to hear about 7th grade AAU basketball. Since I didn’t see the game, I’ll just talk about numbers.
- The biggest issues were the turnovers, offensive rebounding (which is also 2nd chance points), and points in the paint. Without JT Toppin, this is a team that will struggle with a team like TAMU, who has really good size. Texas Tech could not keep TAMU off the offensive boards, the Aggies had 18 offensive boards to just 9 for Texas Tech. Toppin solves a lot of those issues.
- And that also goes along with 2nd chance points, 15 to 7 in favor of TAMU, the more offensive opportunities, the better that you are. And I mentioned before the game that the Aggies struggled to shoot the ball and they maybe made shots early, but regressed to the mean and made just 38%. That’s probably more than their season average, but not by much. I also want to add the fast break points, which was 15 to 7 in favor of TAMU. That’s transition defense and that’s also a problem that isn’t solved or not solved by Toppin. That’s effort.
- Texas A&M had 26 points in the paint to just 18 for Texas Tech, again, an issue that Toppin likely solves because that’s pretty much all he shoots. It’s tough to run an offense when the defense doesn’t have to concern itself with anything inside. Texas Tech ended up taking 31 3-pointers and that sure seems high.
- We wouldn’t be doing this correctly if we didn’t talk about turnovers, which Texas Tech had 18 to just 9 for TAMU. The biggest issues were Elijah Hawkins with 6 turnovers, which is way too many for him and that’s way too careless with the ball. Darrion Williams had 5 and the same goes for him. You can’t have your high usage players struggle to hold onto the ball like that and I should also mention that 29% of Texas Tech’s possessions ended with a turnover. I also feel like I need to mention Kerwin Walton just not being able to do much of anything in 18 minutes. He took 1 shot (which he missed) and had 1 rebound. that’s it. He’s not contributing at all and I don’t know what to do about that.
- Kevin Overton also had a really good game, 6 of 13 from the field, 4 of 9 from deep, 5 boards, and a block with 2 turnovers.
- Advanced stats say that Federiko had the best game at +16.5, then McMillian at +11.9, then Yalaho at +6.3, Overton +2.9, and Williams at +1.0. Hawkins (-2.5), Anderson (-8.4) and Walton (-6.4) had negative numbers
- Head coach Grant McCasland: “We got off to a bad start in this one and looked uncomposed. We just didn’t have the level of grit that we needed to have to win this basketball game to start. I thought A&M’s change of defense, length, athleticism and switch ability – we just didn’t have enough inside-out presence to put pressure on the basket consistently. I loved our team’s fight. Just too many turnovers, and ultimately, they got too many offensive rebounds that led to extra possessions.”
- Up next? Texas Tech hosts Oral Roberts on December 16th at 7:00 p.m., so there’s a full week off for finals (I presume) and to get healthy. There is is just 1 more non-conference game, Lamar, before conference play starts, which is against UCF on December 31st.
Highlights