Why isn't Elijah Hawkins a sophomore? That was my first thought. There was a time for about 2 minutes last night were I thought he was an underclassman, I had him conflated with Christian Anderson. Hawkins is small but he's pretty quick and if he's on his game mentally he can be a real asset on defense, like he was last night. I don't know if he can regularly have games like he had last night, but man that would be nice. He loves the state of Utah I guess, hope he loves Lubbock as much on Saturday!
The game to me did not feel as close as the final score. Really for most of the second half I never felt like Tech was going to lose or even be threatened, despite the score. Red Raiders were getting any shot they wanted and they were playing winning defense.
I know eras and thoughts about basketball come and go, but interesting to me for BYU guys like Egor Demin and Fousseyni Traore don't stay on the court more. Demin sat out 1/4 of the game - 11 minutes he did not play. There was a time in basketball when guys like this didn't sit for more than three or four minutes, but seems like that era is past us for now. Traore was really good last night and they only let him play 23 minutes - he led BYU in scoring anyway. The Cougars have some really nice players (Keba Keita was an absolute pain) but their rotation philosophy last night did not do them any favors. Going back to Demin, man he's a player. He could absolutely get you a win in any one game scenario.
Federiko Federiko seems to be getting into a groove, I've kind of liked the play of Tech when he and JT Toppin play together. Speaking of Toppin, he had an unusual game. Did not score much at all, got no rebounds, picked up 3 fouls in only 18 minutes of play. I say unusual, some may say bad or poor.
Iowa State rolls into Lubbock for a Saturday game, they whipped up on Utah last night pretty much like Texas Tech did. I'm very interested to see how Toppin and Joshua Jefferson matchup - Jefferson looks like he has 20 pounds on Toppin, but I am not sure Jefferson has had to deal with anyone that has Toppin's 8 foot game. I believe this will be Iowa State's first conference road game. Are they really third in the country behind Tennessee and Auburn? Their defense is solid for sure and they can score - ISU is good but so is Texas Tech.
You know who Darrion Williams reminds me of? Jimmy Jackson. Jackson was a little bigger but they both use their strength and skill to get into mismatches and get good looks at the basket. I think Williams is a better passer, I don't think he's quite as consistently aggressive as Jackson was - wish he would be.
