How many teams are going to beat Texas Tech when JT Toppin has 30 points and the team hits 16 threes? I'll take my chances. I'll take this performance right here and just replicate it for however many games Texas Tech has left and I'll take my chances.
The Red Raiders took 64 shots - over half of those were three point shots, which Tech hit at a rather hot rate. So if my math is right, the Raiders shot a two point attempt 31 times and Toppin accounted for 15 of those. And why not Toppin, he was quicker by half than anyone Colorado put on him and it showed.
I don't have any room in my heart for other Big 12 teams, I really don't. Colorado has a nice coach and a nice game. I don't know why they do not have a better record than they do, that's just how it is I guess. Maybe the roster is full of young guys, I don't know. But they have a good coach and at least on offense they make good plays. My understanding is that in this time of chimpanzees (NIL) they are a monkey (no NIL; thanks Beck). I've thought all season that the worst team in the Big 12 is Oklahoma State, but they do have more wins than Colorado and I'm not going full football here and saying wins don't matter.
Before the game I used the UCF effort and result as a measuring stick for this Colorado game. If I look back to then from now, this is a different Tech team. They are better and tougher, and they don't seem to play down to their opponent - always a sign of good things. Now a new challenge - despite all the emotion last night and huge performances, Texas Tech has a road game in front of them on Saturday. It will be very interesting to see how this Texas Tech team plays in what in some ways is a meaningless game. The game is not meaningless, however, to an NCAA committee that values road wins above all else. The number one predictor of a high seed is road wins, and here is a road game. There are a lot of people very interested in Texas Tech landing a 2 seed, a loss here will eliminate any hope of that happening. ASU has the worst home record in the conference and the currently longest losing streak (tied with Colorado). I've heard the ASU is a Quad 1 game, and maybe it is but that seems unreal because they are under .500 overall and way under in conference play. 100% of the pressure in this game is on the Red Raiders.
See, this was quick. What can be said about a win like Tech had last night? They crushed it. There's not 4 teams in the country that could have beaten Tech last night. Any time your post is going for 30 and you hit 16 threes, that's a winning combination. Scoring 91 points puts a lot of pressure on a team to keep up.
The Red Raiders took 64 shots - over half of those were three point shots, which Tech hit at a rather hot rate. So if my math is right, the Raiders shot a two point attempt 31 times and Toppin accounted for 15 of those. And why not Toppin, he was quicker by half than anyone Colorado put on him and it showed.
I don't have any room in my heart for other Big 12 teams, I really don't. Colorado has a nice coach and a nice game. I don't know why they do not have a better record than they do, that's just how it is I guess. Maybe the roster is full of young guys, I don't know. But they have a good coach and at least on offense they make good plays. My understanding is that in this time of chimpanzees (NIL) they are a monkey (no NIL; thanks Beck). I've thought all season that the worst team in the Big 12 is Oklahoma State, but they do have more wins than Colorado and I'm not going full football here and saying wins don't matter.
Before the game I used the UCF effort and result as a measuring stick for this Colorado game. If I look back to then from now, this is a different Tech team. They are better and tougher, and they don't seem to play down to their opponent - always a sign of good things. Now a new challenge - despite all the emotion last night and huge performances, Texas Tech has a road game in front of them on Saturday. It will be very interesting to see how this Texas Tech team plays in what in some ways is a meaningless game. The game is not meaningless, however, to an NCAA committee that values road wins above all else. The number one predictor of a high seed is road wins, and here is a road game. There are a lot of people very interested in Texas Tech landing a 2 seed, a loss here will eliminate any hope of that happening. ASU has the worst home record in the conference and the currently longest losing streak (tied with Colorado). I've heard the ASU is a Quad 1 game, and maybe it is but that seems unreal because they are under .500 overall and way under in conference play. 100% of the pressure in this game is on the Red Raiders.
See, this was quick. What can be said about a win like Tech had last night? They crushed it. There's not 4 teams in the country that could have beaten Tech last night. Any time your post is going for 30 and you hit 16 threes, that's a winning combination. Scoring 91 points puts a lot of pressure on a team to keep up.
