I wasn't able to watch the game live so I spent all day avoiding all news, had my phone turned off, and in fact never even had the television or radio on. The girl got home about 9:30p and we found the game on ESPN3 with a Spanish broadcast. Our Spanish is not great but our eyes don't see language so we watched it. It's entirely possible that around 6:30p I may have glanced at RRS.
I think the Raiders defense is better than it looked. Tech gave up 42 second half points, and that sounds like a lot, but watching the game give credit to Kansas for scoring because the Raider defense was pretty good. I did specifically see Arms turn his man toward the sideline and position himself so that his man could not get to the middle of the floor - I like to call these out because I know that's Adams' defense.
I thought Tech was particularly good at not giving the Kansas ball handler many options - often times whoever had the ball for Kansas was forced to either shoot it or try to make a tough pass just to give the ball to someone else. Every Raider except Obanor and Batcho had at least one steal, and only Batcho had no assists (nor would I expect him to have any).
Some people might bark about all the three pointers Kansas took and hit, but I don't see it that way. Part of the reason Kansas took 26 three point shots is because they didn't have any other options. The Raider defense forced that ball away from the basket in all directions. Jayhawks hit 10 of those, and Agbaji and Wilson combined to go 9-14.
Meanwhile Tech lived in the paint and got shots at will. From those distances, a lot of shots went in.
On to Baylor, undefeated and number 1 in the country. Going to be a tall order, but Tech has a chance because they play hard and they defend hard.
My current Big 12 projection remains unchanged from the last time I posted it, last week. I'm tempted to swap Iowa State and Oklahoma State but haven't done it yet. I think there are four teams in the conference that could win any game at any time: Baylor, Kansas, Texas Tech, and Oklahoma. I haven't swapped Tech and Kansas yet, let's see what happens on Tuesday. Since everyone plays everyone home and home, I don't necessarily swap teams based on the most recent results. Right now Tech has one in hand against the Jayhawks and are better than Iowa State despite losing to them. I don't think ISU nor Providence want a rematch any time soon, but the Cyclones are getting one anyway. Raiders have 3 games in 5 days next week and then we'll reevaluate the projections:
@ Baylor on Tuesday, vs. Oklahoma State on Thursday, @ Kansas State on Saturday. That's rough!
Baylor
Kansas
Texas Tech
Texas
Oklahoma
West Virginia
Iowa State
Oklahoma State
TCU
Kansas State
I think the Raiders defense is better than it looked. Tech gave up 42 second half points, and that sounds like a lot, but watching the game give credit to Kansas for scoring because the Raider defense was pretty good. I did specifically see Arms turn his man toward the sideline and position himself so that his man could not get to the middle of the floor - I like to call these out because I know that's Adams' defense.
I thought Tech was particularly good at not giving the Kansas ball handler many options - often times whoever had the ball for Kansas was forced to either shoot it or try to make a tough pass just to give the ball to someone else. Every Raider except Obanor and Batcho had at least one steal, and only Batcho had no assists (nor would I expect him to have any).
Some people might bark about all the three pointers Kansas took and hit, but I don't see it that way. Part of the reason Kansas took 26 three point shots is because they didn't have any other options. The Raider defense forced that ball away from the basket in all directions. Jayhawks hit 10 of those, and Agbaji and Wilson combined to go 9-14.
Meanwhile Tech lived in the paint and got shots at will. From those distances, a lot of shots went in.
On to Baylor, undefeated and number 1 in the country. Going to be a tall order, but Tech has a chance because they play hard and they defend hard.
My current Big 12 projection remains unchanged from the last time I posted it, last week. I'm tempted to swap Iowa State and Oklahoma State but haven't done it yet. I think there are four teams in the conference that could win any game at any time: Baylor, Kansas, Texas Tech, and Oklahoma. I haven't swapped Tech and Kansas yet, let's see what happens on Tuesday. Since everyone plays everyone home and home, I don't necessarily swap teams based on the most recent results. Right now Tech has one in hand against the Jayhawks and are better than Iowa State despite losing to them. I don't think ISU nor Providence want a rematch any time soon, but the Cyclones are getting one anyway. Raiders have 3 games in 5 days next week and then we'll reevaluate the projections:
@ Baylor on Tuesday, vs. Oklahoma State on Thursday, @ Kansas State on Saturday. That's rough!
Baylor
Kansas
Texas Tech
Texas
Oklahoma
West Virginia
Iowa State
Oklahoma State
TCU
Kansas State
