Game Links:
Tortilla Tossin’ Player of the Game: I’m going with Christian Anderson, who you have to remind yourself that this is a freshman. Anderson was 5 of 9 overall, including 4 of 7 from deep, 5 boards, 3 assists, 3 steals and no turnovers. He’s such a good shooter and I hope you appreciate watching him play.
The Motion:
- The defensive rotations, particularly of Kerwin Walton and Kevin Overton got them yanked early, but Overton’s ability to hit shots kept him in the game and he got better defensively (I don’t know that he had a choice) and the statistics played that out. The 1st half for Cincinnati, they shot 60% from the field and in the second half that figure dropped to 44%.
- A couple of huge keys was the fact that Cincinnati can’t shoot the ball from deep and in the first half that wasn’t a huge deal, just 1 of 5, but then in the 2nd half, they were 2 of 9, which means that was 9 shots that had a low chance of getting into the bucket. The other item that was brought up in the presser was that Cincinnati had very few offensive boards, perhaps 1 for most of the game, but the Bearcats ended up with 3 total. Texas Tech ended up with 10 offensive boards.
- Darrion Williams is in a funk. A handful of drives into no where and getting lost in the trees with no one to pass to or clear idea of what he wants to do, which resulted in 4 turnovers, half of the team total, and then just didn’t shoot well at all, just 1 of 6. He’s best when his back is to the basket or available for an open 3, not trying to create in a halfcourt.
- Of Anderson’s 18 points he scored 13 in the first half and it was him and Kevin Overton that kept the team afloat as he had 12 of his 14.
- In the second half, it was the Chance McMillian and TJ Toppin show. Toppin scored 14 of his 20 in the 2nd half and McMillian scored 12 of his 17. Both shot incredibly well, McMillian was 3 of 6 with 4 of 4 from the charity stripe. Toppin was 6 of 10 and was unstoppable in the post.
- Without Williams to score points in the paint, Cincy had 40 to just 26 for Texas Tech. Both teams didn’t turn the ball over, just 8. Texas Tech out-rebounded another bigger team, 34 to 27.
- The off-the-bench combo of Overton and Anderson along with Federiko, who didn’t score yesterday, but that’s okay, is a tough combo to beat. I don’t know if the starting lineup should change, things are rolling pretty well and this was supposed to be a really deep team that’s now basically an 8-man rotation.
- Head coach Grant McCasland: “I thought we were really playing the game in a way that gave us a chance to win. We didn’t get our best game from a few of the guys we’ve been counting on, but that’s what makes a team great. Young guys like Christian Anderson and Kevin Overton coming through in an environment on the road. My favorite part was that they didn’t come into the game trying to get a feel for it. They were aggressive from the jump. It takes everybody. They fight for each other. I thought we had a great effort defensively and our ability to get defensive rebounds and not have turnovers was the difference.”
- Advanced stats say that Anderson was +19.4, then Overton +17.8, Toppin +11.4, and McMillian at +10.0. Williams was -13.5, Hawkins -0.1, Walton is -2.5, and Federiko is -4.0
- Up next? Texas Tech hosts Oklahoma State on Saturday, January 26th with tip-off at 2:00 p.m. and the game on ESPN+.
Highlights