Gah. The good news, I guess the best news, is to the best of my knowledge no one got hurt. So we got that working for us.
I don't mind when Tech gets beat, teams don't usually go undefeated even when they are the best team or the champions. It does irk me when Tech loses a game, which I differentiate here from being beaten.
Raiders mostly lost this game last night and that irks me, but Providence was also smart and put Tech in a position to have to win. Raiders were slicing and dicing the so-called man to man defense Providence pretended like they were playing, so much so that the Friars were forced to switch it up and try a zone - with great results for them. That's a good coaching move right there.
Shame on Tech for helping Providence so much. So many lazy shots that I lost track. When people talk about valuing the ball they are usually talking specifically about turnovers, but it's more than that. A lot of the shot selection by Texas Tech was exactly the same as a turnover - shots they could get any time were coming right away or on the first shot. It's maddening. To the partial defense of Tech's shooters, players weren't moving half the night and mostly players weren't moving with a purpose. So what are you going to do? Take your shot seems to be the answer, but it's bad strategy if the plan is for guys who can't shoot it to be taking the three pointers. If I'm Providence I let those guys shoot all night.
I know there was some focus on officiating, but really it wasn't terrible. The worst call of the night went in Tech's favor at a key moment, when Wilson tripped on the sideline and got tied up, by some miracle the ref indicated a Tech timeout. That was a pure gift and a bad call. I think there was one other bad call against Shannon and that's all I really noted. Raiders fouled these guys all night and got called for it like they should. In free throw differential, Providence was 11-14 better than Tech at the stripe. Tech shot 70% from the line, as a team that's ok - nothing to be ashamed about there. Raiders could have helped themselves by getting to the line more often, but when you settle for lazy jumpers you don't draw a lot of fouls.
In my opinion great management of Shannon by Adams with regard to keeping him on the court as much as possible. With over five minutes still to play Adams was subbing him in on offense and pulling him on defense. Usually don't see that until there are under three minutes to go. I thought that was great.
Batcho I thought acquitted himself pretty nicely for his first game against true D1 competition. He definitely will be playing more minutes. Too bad he muffed that slam dunk, that was a pretty sweet power drive to the basket - Raiders need more shots like that because most of those go in and a lot of those result in free throws too. This guy has some good feet and with a little space he can drive it a couple of steps. I imagine by the time he's an upperclassman that little one or two dribble and dunk will be a regular thing with him. Raiders should be high on this guy, he's got some play in him.
So all in all a pretty poor game for Tech and they lost by 4 - that's pretty encouraging to me. Raiders never quit last night, they battled just sometimes they battled pretty poorly - but they did fight and claw and scratch, I love that. At this moment there is no way Tech is not in the field of 64 (don't @68 me). Everything that went sideways for Tech in this game is fixable, so it will be interesting to see what kind of shots Tech is taking against Tennessee next Tuesday.
I don't mind when Tech gets beat, teams don't usually go undefeated even when they are the best team or the champions. It does irk me when Tech loses a game, which I differentiate here from being beaten.
Raiders mostly lost this game last night and that irks me, but Providence was also smart and put Tech in a position to have to win. Raiders were slicing and dicing the so-called man to man defense Providence pretended like they were playing, so much so that the Friars were forced to switch it up and try a zone - with great results for them. That's a good coaching move right there.
Shame on Tech for helping Providence so much. So many lazy shots that I lost track. When people talk about valuing the ball they are usually talking specifically about turnovers, but it's more than that. A lot of the shot selection by Texas Tech was exactly the same as a turnover - shots they could get any time were coming right away or on the first shot. It's maddening. To the partial defense of Tech's shooters, players weren't moving half the night and mostly players weren't moving with a purpose. So what are you going to do? Take your shot seems to be the answer, but it's bad strategy if the plan is for guys who can't shoot it to be taking the three pointers. If I'm Providence I let those guys shoot all night.
I know there was some focus on officiating, but really it wasn't terrible. The worst call of the night went in Tech's favor at a key moment, when Wilson tripped on the sideline and got tied up, by some miracle the ref indicated a Tech timeout. That was a pure gift and a bad call. I think there was one other bad call against Shannon and that's all I really noted. Raiders fouled these guys all night and got called for it like they should. In free throw differential, Providence was 11-14 better than Tech at the stripe. Tech shot 70% from the line, as a team that's ok - nothing to be ashamed about there. Raiders could have helped themselves by getting to the line more often, but when you settle for lazy jumpers you don't draw a lot of fouls.
In my opinion great management of Shannon by Adams with regard to keeping him on the court as much as possible. With over five minutes still to play Adams was subbing him in on offense and pulling him on defense. Usually don't see that until there are under three minutes to go. I thought that was great.
Batcho I thought acquitted himself pretty nicely for his first game against true D1 competition. He definitely will be playing more minutes. Too bad he muffed that slam dunk, that was a pretty sweet power drive to the basket - Raiders need more shots like that because most of those go in and a lot of those result in free throws too. This guy has some good feet and with a little space he can drive it a couple of steps. I imagine by the time he's an upperclassman that little one or two dribble and dunk will be a regular thing with him. Raiders should be high on this guy, he's got some play in him.
So all in all a pretty poor game for Tech and they lost by 4 - that's pretty encouraging to me. Raiders never quit last night, they battled just sometimes they battled pretty poorly - but they did fight and claw and scratch, I love that. At this moment there is no way Tech is not in the field of 64 (don't @68 me). Everything that went sideways for Tech in this game is fixable, so it will be interesting to see what kind of shots Tech is taking against Tennessee next Tuesday.
