I'm a little late to the party! I've been busy.
I know I'm a big nerd, and I like to watch the guys away from the ball - on offense and defense. You know what I love the most this season is watching the younger Z. Smith when he doesn't have the ball or is not guarding the man with the ball. When the shot goes up, the first thing he does is get between a man and the basket. Man I like that. He's immediately looking to block out.
West Virginia is pretty good, but they have the same issue a lot of teams have: On most nights they only have one guy who can beat you. Oklahoma has the same thing. Tech doesn't. Kansas State doesn't. Not sure about Texas yet, I guess we will know more about that tomorrow!
One thing about Huggins' teams, they generally are not very good at scoring the ball. They get a lot of shots because of the way they play, but if they were good at putting in the hoop they'd score 90 a game. Tech shot about 50% against them and had to come from behind to win, but I for one never felt like Tech was out of it.
My general rule of comfort thumb is a point a minute: As long as Tech's deficit is not greater than the minutes left in the game, I feel good about the Raider's chances. If Tech is down 9 with 12 minutes to go, baby that don't phase me. That's plenty of time.
Texas is plenty good on defense, but I'm not sure how they score other than raining in jumpers. Anyone can win when the jumpers fall. Only Iowa State has scored fewer points on the season than Texas (then Kansas State is next). At the beginning of the season I gave the nod to Texas as best in the conference defensively - that's not true at all. They are not second best, either. Tech is best, WVU is probably second best and it's not super close (Raiders hit 50% from the field against WVU and got to the line all night). Then Texas.
I don't have Longhorn Network on Sling Orange, so I'll see about upgrading for a month to Blue or finding a quality pirate stream online. Or I'll listen to the radio broadcast.
Sorry this is so short, I'll do better next time. You have been warned!
I know I'm a big nerd, and I like to watch the guys away from the ball - on offense and defense. You know what I love the most this season is watching the younger Z. Smith when he doesn't have the ball or is not guarding the man with the ball. When the shot goes up, the first thing he does is get between a man and the basket. Man I like that. He's immediately looking to block out.
West Virginia is pretty good, but they have the same issue a lot of teams have: On most nights they only have one guy who can beat you. Oklahoma has the same thing. Tech doesn't. Kansas State doesn't. Not sure about Texas yet, I guess we will know more about that tomorrow!
One thing about Huggins' teams, they generally are not very good at scoring the ball. They get a lot of shots because of the way they play, but if they were good at putting in the hoop they'd score 90 a game. Tech shot about 50% against them and had to come from behind to win, but I for one never felt like Tech was out of it.
My general rule of comfort thumb is a point a minute: As long as Tech's deficit is not greater than the minutes left in the game, I feel good about the Raider's chances. If Tech is down 9 with 12 minutes to go, baby that don't phase me. That's plenty of time.
Texas is plenty good on defense, but I'm not sure how they score other than raining in jumpers. Anyone can win when the jumpers fall. Only Iowa State has scored fewer points on the season than Texas (then Kansas State is next). At the beginning of the season I gave the nod to Texas as best in the conference defensively - that's not true at all. They are not second best, either. Tech is best, WVU is probably second best and it's not super close (Raiders hit 50% from the field against WVU and got to the line all night). Then Texas.
I don't have Longhorn Network on Sling Orange, so I'll see about upgrading for a month to Blue or finding a quality pirate stream online. Or I'll listen to the radio broadcast.
Sorry this is so short, I'll do better next time. You have been warned!
