Welcome back to my pregame breakdown and another huge opportunity for Texas Tech welcoming Texas into the USA. There are so many ways I can go about this but let me just dive right into some thoughts before breaking down numbers and personnel again.
To me, going into this game I feel very much the same as I did heading into the TCU game. Going into that one I felt like regardless if Warren Washington was playing or not, it was ultimately going to come down to what Tech was able to do in the game.
Maybe I have a biased viewpoint of the action because I’ve watched this team so much, but there have been very few games where heading into them, it felt like Tech was going to have to overwhelmingly exceed their abilities in order to win. Games like Houston or Iowa State, for example. Every other game, though, even Kansas (because of injuries), I’ve steadily gone in thinking “Okay, what can Tech do to control this one?”
And I look at it this way because, yes the conference is stacked, but this team has proven they are capable of competing with anybody. It is pointless, in my opinion, to continuously taper expectations when they have shown they can win. While I don’t go into every game expecting Tech to win, I certainly have conditioned myself to at least expect them to compete. So how does this all pertain to Tuesday’s action?
At full health, is Tech better than Texas? Yes, they proved that comfortably in Austin.
What about without Warren Washington? Debatable, but still a yes from me.
What about without WW and Chance McMillian? Now it looks a lot more even.
You think back to that game at the Moody Center, McMillian and Washington were either the X-Factors or flat-out the reason Tech won, pick your side. Take them out of the equation now; it really seems like Pop Isaacs and Joe Toussaint, who played great games in the first meeting, are just going to have to figure it out. There’s no way around that. I think matchups size-wise are not necessarily favorable, but at least on a level playing field with Abmas (6’0) and Hunter (6’0). The shooting slump, at least from Isaacs, has to end eventually, and I think if he can find those matchups he will put himself in a lot better situations to get quality shots off.
Now, the bigger issue at hand is guarding Dylan Disu and what should we expect to see from Tech defensively? Disu was inserted in Texas’ starting lineup the next game after these two first met and he has been on a tear since then. It wasn’t like this was completely unexpected, Disu started 36 games last season before injuring his foot in the postseason and Rodney Terry played the long game getting him back onto the court.
Foot injuries to big men are pretty serious, I reckon.
What makes Disu so deadly is his ability to both body people down low and also stretch the floor. Disu is currently second in the Big 12 in points per game, averaging 18 a night on 50/55/81 percent shooting splits. 55 percent is an absurd mark from the three-point line that is quite skewed from a lack of volume– Disu is 33/64 on the season from the arc– significantly less attempts than other high mark shooters.
I think Disu’s ability to be a threat from so many spots on the floor makes a matchup like Darrion Williams look preferable in my eyes. It would not surprise me to see Robert Jennings on Disu to make up for length, but Darrion is more than capable as an on-ball defender on the perimeter and down low if Disu drives it into the lane.
Used to you might not focus so much on individual matchups because of the switchability of a team, but especially right now, I don’t think Tech has that privilege and McCasland has acknowledged that in the past. I’d much rather have D5 guarding Disu and leaving RJ/EY/KyeRon to guard guys like Dillon Mitchell, Brock Cunningham and Kadin Shedrick who are not very viable threats from deep.
I think the Tech -4.5 line is a little generous but this will surely be a very, very interesting game tonight.
To me, going into this game I feel very much the same as I did heading into the TCU game. Going into that one I felt like regardless if Warren Washington was playing or not, it was ultimately going to come down to what Tech was able to do in the game.
Maybe I have a biased viewpoint of the action because I’ve watched this team so much, but there have been very few games where heading into them, it felt like Tech was going to have to overwhelmingly exceed their abilities in order to win. Games like Houston or Iowa State, for example. Every other game, though, even Kansas (because of injuries), I’ve steadily gone in thinking “Okay, what can Tech do to control this one?”
And I look at it this way because, yes the conference is stacked, but this team has proven they are capable of competing with anybody. It is pointless, in my opinion, to continuously taper expectations when they have shown they can win. While I don’t go into every game expecting Tech to win, I certainly have conditioned myself to at least expect them to compete. So how does this all pertain to Tuesday’s action?
At full health, is Tech better than Texas? Yes, they proved that comfortably in Austin.
What about without Warren Washington? Debatable, but still a yes from me.
What about without WW and Chance McMillian? Now it looks a lot more even.
You think back to that game at the Moody Center, McMillian and Washington were either the X-Factors or flat-out the reason Tech won, pick your side. Take them out of the equation now; it really seems like Pop Isaacs and Joe Toussaint, who played great games in the first meeting, are just going to have to figure it out. There’s no way around that. I think matchups size-wise are not necessarily favorable, but at least on a level playing field with Abmas (6’0) and Hunter (6’0). The shooting slump, at least from Isaacs, has to end eventually, and I think if he can find those matchups he will put himself in a lot better situations to get quality shots off.
Now, the bigger issue at hand is guarding Dylan Disu and what should we expect to see from Tech defensively? Disu was inserted in Texas’ starting lineup the next game after these two first met and he has been on a tear since then. It wasn’t like this was completely unexpected, Disu started 36 games last season before injuring his foot in the postseason and Rodney Terry played the long game getting him back onto the court.
Foot injuries to big men are pretty serious, I reckon.
What makes Disu so deadly is his ability to both body people down low and also stretch the floor. Disu is currently second in the Big 12 in points per game, averaging 18 a night on 50/55/81 percent shooting splits. 55 percent is an absurd mark from the three-point line that is quite skewed from a lack of volume– Disu is 33/64 on the season from the arc– significantly less attempts than other high mark shooters.
I think Disu’s ability to be a threat from so many spots on the floor makes a matchup like Darrion Williams look preferable in my eyes. It would not surprise me to see Robert Jennings on Disu to make up for length, but Darrion is more than capable as an on-ball defender on the perimeter and down low if Disu drives it into the lane.
Used to you might not focus so much on individual matchups because of the switchability of a team, but especially right now, I don’t think Tech has that privilege and McCasland has acknowledged that in the past. I’d much rather have D5 guarding Disu and leaving RJ/EY/KyeRon to guard guys like Dillon Mitchell, Brock Cunningham and Kadin Shedrick who are not very viable threats from deep.
I think the Tech -4.5 line is a little generous but this will surely be a very, very interesting game tonight.
