Game Links:
Tortilla Tossin’ Player of the Game: Darrion Williams was a damned cheat code down the final stretch. Williams scored 18 points on 7 of 11, made 2 of 4 free throws, 7 boards 4 assists, 2 steals, and 3 turnovers. But it was down the stretch where Williams was posting up like Mark Aguirre or Adrian Dantley with a nifty array of moves to get buckets to seal the win. Just amazing.
The Motion:
- This is why you don’t write off a team after a bad loss like UCF, especially if everything points to this team being a good team, which is what they are. They are very good, elite offensively, and this is going to be a tough team to beat. To get a win on the road in the Big 12 isn’t easy and this is a significant win for Texas Tech.
- Elijah Hawkins was great too, an absolute stunner of a game and continues to shoot and make shots. I was concerned about him after the UCF loss, just not being a tough player, making plays and getting the offense organized, but he’s shown up in the Utah road trip. Last night, 22 points on 7 of 12, 6 of 9 from deep, 4 boards, 5 assists, and 1 steal. No turnovers from your point guard.
- Because I’m limited in time, I’m not going to get as deep as I usually do. The broadcast let us all know that Texas Tech just didn’t shoot all that well, 37% in the 1st half, including 31% from deep, while in the 2nd half Texas Tech made 54% from the field and 42% from deep. Add to this equation that Texas Tech had 9 turnovers for the evening, 4 in the 1st and 5 in the 2nd, that’s something you can live with. That resulted in 1.18 points per possession, which is great. Anything above 1 is usually pretty good, against Utah it was 1.5.
- Texas Tech out rebounded BYU by 3, but it was close, 39-36, and the offensive boards were 14-13 in favor of Texas Tech. BYU had 40 points in the paint to just 30 for Texas Tech, and the Cougars had 18 2nd chance points to just 7 for the Red Raiders
- All of this was done really without TJ Toppin, who was in foul trouble for a chunk of the game, but this just wasn’t his game. That happens, especially after coming back from injury. He had trouble playing the bigger players for BYU, they pretty well pushed him around and didn’t let him get in a good scoring position.
- There were some weird no-calls and it’s easy to complain about the refs after a win, but they certainly let them play. I thought Williams had a couple of more and-one opportunities or was hacked pretty good, as was Toppin. Not related to the fouls, but BYU’s length across the top of that zone defense is really tough. That’s just not something you see often.
- Also need to mention Chance McMillian, a couple of huge 3’s late in the game, his ability to produce points and stats is pretty amazing, especially for a player his size. 16 points on 5 of 9, 2 of 6 from deep, 8 boards and 1 turnover.
- Head coach Grant McCasland: “Our team stayed the course and controlled tempo. We came up with timely plays. It starts with Elijah Hawkins, Darrion Williams and Chance McMillian. Those guys just hung in there. Chance broke the game open with a couple 3s. Our ability to limit BYU’s 3-point makes and beating them on the glass is what I thought was the difference in the game. It was a tremendous college basketball game in a remarkable environment.”
- Advanced stats say that Hawkins was your best player, +26.3, then Williams at +16.9, then McMillian at +7.8. The rest were negative, which the rest of the team did have minimal effect on the game, -12.6 for Toppin, -10.8 for Anderson, -8.2 for Overton, and -2.6 for Federiko.
- Up next? Texas Tech gets to host Iowa State, the No. 3 team in the nation, on Saturday, January 11th at 1:00 p.m. with the game on ESPN.
Highlights