The dawg days of Texas Tech are not over by any means!
This team was ready to go. Contrast this game to any road game last season. It was clear from the tip that there had been preparation, there had been scouting, there had been walkthroughs, there had been team meetings about this game. Win or lose, a person can tell by watching the game that Texas Tech was ready to play. They knew who they were playing and they knew how to play them. Those games can still be lost and in the Big 12, on the road, they often are.
Robert Jennings, I hardly know ye. This guy was a real problem for Texas, I'll tell you why I think that. When he comes in the game, according to conventional wisdom, this is when the other team should be taking advantage and getting down low and scoring and on the other end of the court they should be cleaning up the glass. Neither of these things happened when Jennings was on the floor. In fact I would say the opposite actually happened, Jennings elevated his team's play and negatively affected Texas's play. I have to wonder, did Texas even scout him? They acted like they had no idea how to play him. And to his credit, Jennings made them pay for not knowing anything about him. He punished them.
Did Warren Washington actually end the game with no rebounds? I am driving and dictating this post and can't look at the box score. Rebound or not, he had a huge game. His defense I think is underrated a little bit because he does not always get the actual blocked shot that shows up in the box score and on the highlight films. But he changes a lot of shots and he changes a lot of passes. He is longer I think than people realize and he is quick as a cat.
I don't know what to say about Pop Isaacs. This was the perfect recipe for him to have a terrible game, instead he had a really fine game. I think he led Texas Tech in scoring? That is crazy, surprising in some ways, and completely unsurprising in other ways. Nobody is a bigger competitor than Isaacs, he is a dawg among dawgs.
As Joe Toussaint goes so goes Texas Tech. I have said that before and I will keep saying it. He's not a particularly good shot, but he is particularly good at hitting timely shots. He is a superior defender. He is excellent at getting where he wants to be on the floor. He is a communicator and a leader, in the leadership pantheon of Texas Tech basketball he is the best leader the Red Raiders have had since Norense Odiase. Every team in the country should have been after this guy when he was in the portal, and for all I know they were.
Did Kerwin Walton even score a point? There's a guy that Texas most definitely did scout and most definitely did pay attention to last night. Longhorns spent a lot of time and effort to be sure that Kerwin Walton did not get loose against them, and he didn't. Texas did not have it in them to do the same for anyone else. This Red Raider team has a lot of ways to beat an opponent and last night we saw that. Walton did not even score I don't think. Washington I don't think had a rebound and Tech still won by 10 points.
Chance McMillian, Derrion Williams, Lamar Washington... I don't want to short these guys but I am almost at my destination. Someone asked me how does a guy like McMillan end up playing at Grand Canyon, and my response was where did Dennis Rodman play? Good basketball players can be found everywhere, and I think part of the reason is because the rosters are small and the pool of basketball players is gigantic. Doesn't matter to me where he was, matters to me where he is. And he is on the Red Raiders team and last night he was sticking it to Texas. You love to see it. I also love to see the horns down, and both he and W. Washington flashed it last night and I love it.
Looking back at the game, for Williams it is almost like he was just waiting to take his turn to get his hooks into the Longhorns. And there came a stretch toward the end of the game where he rose up and punished them a little bit and kind of kicked them in the teeth at just the right time. Do not sleep on this guy, he looks like he can do everything well. He was not a stat sheet stuffer last night, but those games will come. He will have a conference game this season where his high level play is reflected in the box score. It will be fine by me if that game is Tuesday night.
After the entire non-conference schedule and one conference game it sure looks like the Texas Tech guards are as good as any guards in the conference.
This team was ready to go. Contrast this game to any road game last season. It was clear from the tip that there had been preparation, there had been scouting, there had been walkthroughs, there had been team meetings about this game. Win or lose, a person can tell by watching the game that Texas Tech was ready to play. They knew who they were playing and they knew how to play them. Those games can still be lost and in the Big 12, on the road, they often are.
Robert Jennings, I hardly know ye. This guy was a real problem for Texas, I'll tell you why I think that. When he comes in the game, according to conventional wisdom, this is when the other team should be taking advantage and getting down low and scoring and on the other end of the court they should be cleaning up the glass. Neither of these things happened when Jennings was on the floor. In fact I would say the opposite actually happened, Jennings elevated his team's play and negatively affected Texas's play. I have to wonder, did Texas even scout him? They acted like they had no idea how to play him. And to his credit, Jennings made them pay for not knowing anything about him. He punished them.
Did Warren Washington actually end the game with no rebounds? I am driving and dictating this post and can't look at the box score. Rebound or not, he had a huge game. His defense I think is underrated a little bit because he does not always get the actual blocked shot that shows up in the box score and on the highlight films. But he changes a lot of shots and he changes a lot of passes. He is longer I think than people realize and he is quick as a cat.
I don't know what to say about Pop Isaacs. This was the perfect recipe for him to have a terrible game, instead he had a really fine game. I think he led Texas Tech in scoring? That is crazy, surprising in some ways, and completely unsurprising in other ways. Nobody is a bigger competitor than Isaacs, he is a dawg among dawgs.
As Joe Toussaint goes so goes Texas Tech. I have said that before and I will keep saying it. He's not a particularly good shot, but he is particularly good at hitting timely shots. He is a superior defender. He is excellent at getting where he wants to be on the floor. He is a communicator and a leader, in the leadership pantheon of Texas Tech basketball he is the best leader the Red Raiders have had since Norense Odiase. Every team in the country should have been after this guy when he was in the portal, and for all I know they were.
Did Kerwin Walton even score a point? There's a guy that Texas most definitely did scout and most definitely did pay attention to last night. Longhorns spent a lot of time and effort to be sure that Kerwin Walton did not get loose against them, and he didn't. Texas did not have it in them to do the same for anyone else. This Red Raider team has a lot of ways to beat an opponent and last night we saw that. Walton did not even score I don't think. Washington I don't think had a rebound and Tech still won by 10 points.
Chance McMillian, Derrion Williams, Lamar Washington... I don't want to short these guys but I am almost at my destination. Someone asked me how does a guy like McMillan end up playing at Grand Canyon, and my response was where did Dennis Rodman play? Good basketball players can be found everywhere, and I think part of the reason is because the rosters are small and the pool of basketball players is gigantic. Doesn't matter to me where he was, matters to me where he is. And he is on the Red Raiders team and last night he was sticking it to Texas. You love to see it. I also love to see the horns down, and both he and W. Washington flashed it last night and I love it.
Looking back at the game, for Williams it is almost like he was just waiting to take his turn to get his hooks into the Longhorns. And there came a stretch toward the end of the game where he rose up and punished them a little bit and kind of kicked them in the teeth at just the right time. Do not sleep on this guy, he looks like he can do everything well. He was not a stat sheet stuffer last night, but those games will come. He will have a conference game this season where his high level play is reflected in the box score. It will be fine by me if that game is Tuesday night.
After the entire non-conference schedule and one conference game it sure looks like the Texas Tech guards are as good as any guards in the conference.
