Game Links:
Tortilla Tossin’ Player of the Game: I’m going with Christian Anderson, who was one of 3 players who scored 18 points, was 6 of 11 from the field, 4 of 4 from deep and perfect from the free throw line. He had a terrific bounce pass as part of his 2 assists, but he also had 2 steals and 3 turnovers in 38 minutes.
The Motion:
- My initial thoughts really are not burdened by anything other than me watching the game and for me, if Darrion Williams, Elijah Hawkins, or Chance McMillian hit one extra free throw, this is a win for Texas Tech. It’s that simple. And maybe reducing it to something as 3 free throws isn’t fair, but I think the outcome is in favor of Texas Tech if any one of them hit the front end of their two-shot free throws. And these are excellent free throw shooters, but they missed when they couldn’t afford to do so.
- And to be clear, Texas Tech shot 79% from the charity stripe. That’s just fine, but in as the BYU game, Williams essentially closed the game down, I wish that would have happened yesterday.
- Biggest stats disparity was that Texas Tech was out-scored with points in the paint was 50-32 and fast break points, 22 to 5 in favor of the Cyclones.
- I don’t know how you all feel about the foul calls or non-calls, but in watching Youssouf play in pretty high level youth basketball, this is how officials are calling fouls nowadays. Letting a lot of stuff go and making players prove it. I can’t tell you the number of times that an official will put his arm around Yo and tell him that they won’t make a call to teach him a lesson. They let a lot of stuff go unless it is blatant and most people watching feel like your team is being hacked, but the reality is that it is largely pretty even. The personal fouls for this game was 19-19. If anything, I’d tell Elijah Hawkins and Darrion Williams to move their feet better, stop reaching, and get to the spot defensively rather than get beat. Lots of times, it is the same thing that you are telling anyone who is playing defense.
- After the game, McCasland said that Iowa State played with more urgency and more desire to pound the ball down low than Texas Tech and I’d agree. That’s exactly what happened.
- Do want to give credit to the play of Chance McMillian and TJ Toppin, Chance had 18 points on 6 of 11, 1 of 3 from deep with 8 rebounds and 3 turnovers. Toppin was 8 of 16 with 9 boards.
- Other than the guys what scored 18, the rest of the crew struggled to find the basket. Hawkins was 1 of 6, Williams was 5 of 14, Overton was 1 of 6. You need better shooting from those guys. I think I also would have played Federiko more minutes, but McCasland said that he should have done better with his rotations and Iowa State played a lot of 4-guard lineups.
- Head coach Grant McCasland: “Iowa State obviously has a great team, a physical team, a mature team. You could see the grit they play with, especially down the stretch. I loved a lot of the things we did as a team this afternoon, but when it got down to winning time and possessions as the game went on, you could sense their urgency with paint touches getting us right to the rim. We weren’t making them take fade-away 3s to beat us. They put it on us and got to the free-throw line and made them. Their physical, downhill mentality and ability to turn us over and make us play away from the rim was the difference. Give them all the credit. They came in here and beat us.”
- Advanced stats say that the only negative player was Overton at -14.9, which seems odd. If you take the net into the equation, Anderson was +5.0, Hawkins was +2.9, and Federiko was +2.2. That’s probably a result of McMillian and Williams not getting stops defensively, dragging down their +/-.
- Up next? Texas Tech is on the road against Kansas State on Tuesday, so no time to feel sorry for yourself. Tip-of is at 8:00 p.m. and the game will be on CBSSN. Go see if you have that on your listings.
Highlights