Game Links:
Tortilla Tossin’ Player of the Game: Kerwin Walton showed up and I’m glad he did. Normally you don’t give a tortilla to a guy that scores just 7 points, but he scored 7 points in 25 minutes, had 4 assists, including a alley-oop banger to Federiko, with no turnovers and in Darrion Williams missing he made an impact when he had not done that very much recently.
The Motion:
- Really a weird game and a replay of the Oklahoma State game in a lot of ways. A tough, physical game that required a lot of effort on Texas Tech’s part and a TCU team that’s really scrappy defensively (credit to them). But after the game, head coach Grant McCasland hugely praised Kerwin Walton for staying ready. Mentioning that after the Oklahoma State game where he didn’t play very much was working out and shooting after that game all by himself. Praised Walton staying ready to play 40 minutes even when he does not. He deserves his flowers.
- We all saw the 14 offensive rebounds which was a huge reason why TCU stayed in the game (although they only had 5 2nd chance points), and despite those offensive boards Texas Tech did out-rebound the Frogs 34-33. A couple of those boards came off of free throws, which is something you normally don’t see and McCasland said that this was largely because of missing Darrion Williams.
- TCU’s final offensive stats show a tighter defense in the 2nd half, TCU made 41% from the field and 60% from deep in the 1st and in the 2nd it was 30% and 15%. Huge improvements and that was the real reason for the win. TCU also can’t make free throws, something that we knew coming into this game and they were 12 of 22, 55%.
- JT Toppin was doubled from the baseline almost the entire game and despite all of that, he still scored 18 points, leading the team, on 6 of 9, with 14 boards, 3 assists, 1 turnover, 1 block, and 1 steal. Toppin was able to pass out of the double-team and that’s good, but you can expect to see more of that, especially if he’s stationed on the block. When he gets in the lane, he can operate without the double so the staff may need to re-think how he gets fed because that will be a thing moving forward.
- Chanc McMillian always shows up. He just does. McMillian made 5 of 11 and Texas Tech doesn’t win this game without his presence. He played 38 of 40 minutes and he and Toppin both played 38 minutes. They carried the load for sure.
- It was also good to see Elijah Hawkins snap back just a little bit, scoring 13 points, but shot just 3 of 9. He had missed so much from deep, but went 2 of 5, and I’d also add that his offensive game was important, but his defensive presence is so good. He is tireless. Add in 5 assists, 4 boards, 3 turnovers, 2 steals and that was a day.
- Texas Tech scored 1.183 points per possession, another game scoring over a point per possession and TCU was at .919 and that’s a pretty good effort all the way around.
- Head coach Grant McCasland: “That’s a really physical TCU team. They rebound and scrap. I thought we weren’t matching their physicality early but as the game went on, I loved our team’s defensive fight and aggressiveness. We got it going offensively. We missed Darrion Williams and it took us a little while to get in a rhythm and flow, but Kerwin Walton was awesome and gave us a lift. It was a good team win from a competitive defensive standpoint.”
- Advanced stats say that Toppin was +16.1, Walton +7.5, McMillian +6.4, Hawkins +5.3, Overton +6.7, and Federiko +1.4. Anderson was the only negative at -3.9.
- Up next? No big deal, just going on the road to face No. 6 Houston on Saturday, February 1st with tip-off at 5:00 p.m.
Highlights