Having a night to sleep on the game, it occurs to me that of the teams Tech has played in conference I am not sure UC didn't have the best time of it. The game felt closer to me than the other games Tech has won in conference play. Maybe part of that feeling is because I have marital connections to the Bearcat program, but also I think some of that feeling is due to the eyeball test of the Cincinnati roster.
That's a big boy team, full of big, long boys with beef and muscle. Those guys are solid. That's the kind of team, if they can qualify, will give fits in the tournament. If I'm the second team from the WCC I'm not wanting to draw UC.
One thing that bugs me a little, and we saw it a lot last night, is quite often (it feels like) as the shot clock turns red the ball is 23 feet from the basket in Elijah Hawkins' cold shooting hands and he just has to shoot it. I would love for the Raiders to tweak this a little bit, but Tech did score 81 points on the road so it's a pretty petty nitpick from me today.
I'm not sure how many minutes Texas Tech led in this game, but it felt like a lot. It's late January and I think people are sleeping on this team. These guys play good defense and they score points, that's a winning combination. Maybe I'll dig through past schedules, but when was the last time Tech was 4-0 to start conference road play? That's pretty impressive, really. You know who else is 4-0 in road play in the Big 12? Nobody. KU, WVU, Arizona, and ISU all have one loss, and Houston has only played 3 road games. Zero chance there are 25 better teams in the country than Texas Tech.
I think the Big 12 wheat is separating from the chaff, and I draw the line at West Virginia.
Houston
Iowa State
Arizona
Texas Tech
Kansas
West Virginia
Several Teams
Arizona State
Kansas State
Colorado
I'm pretty sure we have not seen the best Texas Tech team yet due to lingering injuries. JT Toppin was down but he looks a lot better. Darrion Williams still looks like he has a tender foot but I can't be sure. That's only two guys but probably the key two guys on the team. Although, look at the guys on this team...could not Chance McMillian play for anyone in the country? No team is going to say no to Christian Anderson. Someone somewhere is going to complain about recruiting, but it's all in their tiny head. This team is full of guys who could play for any team in the country.
Ask yourself this, does not Anderson's name fit right in with freshmen past like Jay Jackson, Martin Zeno, Jarret Culver, and Zhaire Smith? I have no qualms about listing Anderson at this point with those legends. He shoots it as well as Jackson and he defends within eyesight of Zeno. All those guys won many a game for Texas Tech, and Anderson will too. He's third on the team in assists, second in steals, second in made three pointers. In the eight man rotation, only Kerwin Walton and Federiko Federiko take fewer shots per game than Anderson - yet Anderson is the 4th leading scorer on the team. In the era of getting old and staying old, Anderson is a gem of a freshman.
Speaking of rotations, every game I expect to see Walton get zero minutes but it's not happening. The rotation is set, it's eight players, and Walton is part of it and that's that. I hope Sunday he goes out there and has a great game.
The Raiders get back to back home games Sunday and Wednesday, an odd combination but there it is. They won't have consecutive home games again for a month, so make it count. At least on Sunday you can catch Tech and then watch the Chiefs, that's what I'll be doing with a big bowl of popcorn and a tasty new orange Fanta.
That's a big boy team, full of big, long boys with beef and muscle. Those guys are solid. That's the kind of team, if they can qualify, will give fits in the tournament. If I'm the second team from the WCC I'm not wanting to draw UC.
One thing that bugs me a little, and we saw it a lot last night, is quite often (it feels like) as the shot clock turns red the ball is 23 feet from the basket in Elijah Hawkins' cold shooting hands and he just has to shoot it. I would love for the Raiders to tweak this a little bit, but Tech did score 81 points on the road so it's a pretty petty nitpick from me today.
I'm not sure how many minutes Texas Tech led in this game, but it felt like a lot. It's late January and I think people are sleeping on this team. These guys play good defense and they score points, that's a winning combination. Maybe I'll dig through past schedules, but when was the last time Tech was 4-0 to start conference road play? That's pretty impressive, really. You know who else is 4-0 in road play in the Big 12? Nobody. KU, WVU, Arizona, and ISU all have one loss, and Houston has only played 3 road games. Zero chance there are 25 better teams in the country than Texas Tech.
I think the Big 12 wheat is separating from the chaff, and I draw the line at West Virginia.
Houston
Iowa State
Arizona
Texas Tech
Kansas
West Virginia
Several Teams
Arizona State
Kansas State
Colorado
I'm pretty sure we have not seen the best Texas Tech team yet due to lingering injuries. JT Toppin was down but he looks a lot better. Darrion Williams still looks like he has a tender foot but I can't be sure. That's only two guys but probably the key two guys on the team. Although, look at the guys on this team...could not Chance McMillian play for anyone in the country? No team is going to say no to Christian Anderson. Someone somewhere is going to complain about recruiting, but it's all in their tiny head. This team is full of guys who could play for any team in the country.
Ask yourself this, does not Anderson's name fit right in with freshmen past like Jay Jackson, Martin Zeno, Jarret Culver, and Zhaire Smith? I have no qualms about listing Anderson at this point with those legends. He shoots it as well as Jackson and he defends within eyesight of Zeno. All those guys won many a game for Texas Tech, and Anderson will too. He's third on the team in assists, second in steals, second in made three pointers. In the eight man rotation, only Kerwin Walton and Federiko Federiko take fewer shots per game than Anderson - yet Anderson is the 4th leading scorer on the team. In the era of getting old and staying old, Anderson is a gem of a freshman.
Speaking of rotations, every game I expect to see Walton get zero minutes but it's not happening. The rotation is set, it's eight players, and Walton is part of it and that's that. I hope Sunday he goes out there and has a great game.
The Raiders get back to back home games Sunday and Wednesday, an odd combination but there it is. They won't have consecutive home games again for a month, so make it count. At least on Sunday you can catch Tech and then watch the Chiefs, that's what I'll be doing with a big bowl of popcorn and a tasty new orange Fanta.
