Tech's offense is 41st in the country per Kenpom. And if the season ended today, that would be our 3rd highest finish since the 2003 season. Contrary to popular belief, we might have an effective offense. I would agree that we don't have a great half-court offense and we usually struggle to make jump shots. But it's not terrible... plus we score off of defense, kill people in transition, and we generate a lot of trash points from offensive rebounds and Nadolny-created rugby scrums. Add it all up together, and this team is scoring way more efficiently than the national media or even the rank-and-file Tech fan would have you believe.
We scored 1.2 points per possession last night. That's the most Baylor's allowed against a Big 12 team since their 2019 Big12 tourney loss to Iowa State (who had maybe the best offense in the country that year). Last night's game was the most points per possession that Tech's scored against a Big 12 team since a bizarre 87-88 loss in Morgantown last year, when WVU literally made like 15 shots in a row or something crazy.
Bryson Williams has the quietest 15 or so point games I've ever seen. Baylor did a decent job of denying him the ball, but I thought he took up so much of their attention that it created driving lanes and open shots for others. There are no weaknesses to his game. He's top 30 nationally in 3PT%, he turns the ball over at a really low rate for a high-volume big guy, he's 78% at the FT line, he's a really good offensive rebounder, and he can do an admirable job defending guards on the perimeter. He might be the "big" version of Keenan Evans. Just zero holes in his game.
Terrence Shannon is waking up. He's still jacking up a goofy shot here and there but, for the most part, he's aggressively going to his left hand and trying to pin his defender on the backboard. Since sitting out the Miss. State game, he's 17/26 on 2PT shots and 10/12 at the free throw line. He also had 5 assists last night, including a nice lob to Bryson. I need to learn to accept a mistake or two from Terrence that are the result of him erring on the side of aggression. He's going to miss some open guys and he's going to pick up some charges. But I think those drives are a net positive for us. Akinjo is great, but he has a 0% chance of being able to prevent Shannon from going through his chest for a layup.
Clarence struggled a bit offensively yesterday, but he still does a lot of good things when he's on the floor. I thought BU's guards were beating us off the dribble in the early part of the game yesterday, but Clarence (and Mylik Wilson) subbed in and put a stop to it.
This is Tech's single-season leaders in points per jump shot since 2008:
Moretti (2019 - 46% from 3)
Tariq Owens (2019 -- all shots were easy lobs)
Voskuil (2008 - 50% from 3)
Bryson
Zhaire Smith (2018 -- see Tariq above)
Jordan Tolbert (2014)
Obanor
Jaye Crockett (2014)
Note that Obanor and Bryson are the only guys above that played with the new extended 3-pt line. Moretti's 2020 season with the same 3-pt line ranks 16th on this list. Obanor and Bryson are having really, really, really good seasons. Depending on how deep of a run we can make, they're going to have arguments for some of the best individual seasons in Tech history.
Mark Adams is running away with the Big 12 coach of the year award. He would be the 3rd different Texas Tech coach to win the award in the last 7 seasons. I wonder if anyone's ever won it in their first season...
Interesting that Mylik Wilson only plays 12 minutes last night considering (1) McCullar was hurt, (2) Clarence and Arms were throwing the ball to the other team, and (3) Mylik is a really good matchup to defend Baylor's guards. Instead, those minutes seem to go to Chibuzo Agbo and, while he didn't do a whole lot in the box score, good things seemed to happen while he was on the floor. Buzo actually carved out a role on last year's team and played double digit minutes in the R32 loss to Arkansas. I wonder if he can figure out a way to do the same on this team with McCullar hurt.
A win Saturday would be enormous. Have to think it would put us in the driver's seat to be the 2 seed in Fort Worth. Doesn't seem like Tre Mitchell will be returning any time soon for UT. I'd be pretty surprised if McCullar is back for us, though. I guess we will be a 2 or so point underdog. It's going to be an extremely tough game to win.
I can't figure out what exactly is going on with the UT ticket situation. I saw where they emailed today that it was a sellout? Are they withholding tickets and hoping they have student overflow sit in them? Is there any precedent for something like this in college athletics? A team electing not to release tickets to the public for fear of the visiting team buying them....
We scored 1.2 points per possession last night. That's the most Baylor's allowed against a Big 12 team since their 2019 Big12 tourney loss to Iowa State (who had maybe the best offense in the country that year). Last night's game was the most points per possession that Tech's scored against a Big 12 team since a bizarre 87-88 loss in Morgantown last year, when WVU literally made like 15 shots in a row or something crazy.
Bryson Williams has the quietest 15 or so point games I've ever seen. Baylor did a decent job of denying him the ball, but I thought he took up so much of their attention that it created driving lanes and open shots for others. There are no weaknesses to his game. He's top 30 nationally in 3PT%, he turns the ball over at a really low rate for a high-volume big guy, he's 78% at the FT line, he's a really good offensive rebounder, and he can do an admirable job defending guards on the perimeter. He might be the "big" version of Keenan Evans. Just zero holes in his game.
Terrence Shannon is waking up. He's still jacking up a goofy shot here and there but, for the most part, he's aggressively going to his left hand and trying to pin his defender on the backboard. Since sitting out the Miss. State game, he's 17/26 on 2PT shots and 10/12 at the free throw line. He also had 5 assists last night, including a nice lob to Bryson. I need to learn to accept a mistake or two from Terrence that are the result of him erring on the side of aggression. He's going to miss some open guys and he's going to pick up some charges. But I think those drives are a net positive for us. Akinjo is great, but he has a 0% chance of being able to prevent Shannon from going through his chest for a layup.
Clarence struggled a bit offensively yesterday, but he still does a lot of good things when he's on the floor. I thought BU's guards were beating us off the dribble in the early part of the game yesterday, but Clarence (and Mylik Wilson) subbed in and put a stop to it.
This is Tech's single-season leaders in points per jump shot since 2008:
Moretti (2019 - 46% from 3)
Tariq Owens (2019 -- all shots were easy lobs)
Voskuil (2008 - 50% from 3)
Bryson
Zhaire Smith (2018 -- see Tariq above)
Jordan Tolbert (2014)
Obanor
Jaye Crockett (2014)
Note that Obanor and Bryson are the only guys above that played with the new extended 3-pt line. Moretti's 2020 season with the same 3-pt line ranks 16th on this list. Obanor and Bryson are having really, really, really good seasons. Depending on how deep of a run we can make, they're going to have arguments for some of the best individual seasons in Tech history.
Mark Adams is running away with the Big 12 coach of the year award. He would be the 3rd different Texas Tech coach to win the award in the last 7 seasons. I wonder if anyone's ever won it in their first season...
Interesting that Mylik Wilson only plays 12 minutes last night considering (1) McCullar was hurt, (2) Clarence and Arms were throwing the ball to the other team, and (3) Mylik is a really good matchup to defend Baylor's guards. Instead, those minutes seem to go to Chibuzo Agbo and, while he didn't do a whole lot in the box score, good things seemed to happen while he was on the floor. Buzo actually carved out a role on last year's team and played double digit minutes in the R32 loss to Arkansas. I wonder if he can figure out a way to do the same on this team with McCullar hurt.
A win Saturday would be enormous. Have to think it would put us in the driver's seat to be the 2 seed in Fort Worth. Doesn't seem like Tre Mitchell will be returning any time soon for UT. I'd be pretty surprised if McCullar is back for us, though. I guess we will be a 2 or so point underdog. It's going to be an extremely tough game to win.
I can't figure out what exactly is going on with the UT ticket situation. I saw where they emailed today that it was a sellout? Are they withholding tickets and hoping they have student overflow sit in them? Is there any precedent for something like this in college athletics? A team electing not to release tickets to the public for fear of the visiting team buying them....
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