Texas Tech basketball: Matt Mooney Red Raiders’ x-factor

As the Texas Tech basketball team nears the half-way point of the Big 12 season, it is becoming clear that senior guard Matt Mooney is this team’s x-factor.

This offseason, the Texas Tech basketball team was in desperate need of bringing in some scoring punch to help offset the loss of six of last season’s top eight scorers including All-Conference guard Keenan Evans and his 17.6 points per game.  So when Chris Beard was able land grad transfer Matt Mooney, many lauded that move as one of the most important offseason additions in the Big 12.

While no one expected Mooney to fully replace Keenan Evan’s productivity, it is safe to say that most thought he would be a reliable scoring option to pair with Jarrett Culver.  In his previous two seasons at South Dakota, he averaged 18.6 p.p.g. and had some huge showings against Power 5 teams including 31 vs. TCU, 23 vs. UCLA, 18 vs. Nebraska and 23 vs. Iowa.

Thus far, Mooney has been one of the more erratic scorers on the team and as his production has gone, so have the Red Raiders.  He’s averaging 10.2 p.p.g. overall and has hit double-digits in nine of Tech’s nineteen games.

But taking a look at the games Tech has played against major opponents (Power 5 teams and Memphis), it is apparent that Mooney is this team’s x-factor.  Tech has now played eleven games against Power 5 teams going 7-4 and Mooney has played a huge role (either positively or negatively) in each of those contests.

In the seven wins, Mooney has averaged 13.8 points.  His high-water mark was his 22-point outburst against Texas in which he was the team’s offensive star.  He also came up huge against USC (17 points) and Nebraska (15 points) on back-to-back nights as Tech won the Hall of Fame Classic in Kansas City back in November.

Shooting 7-22 from 3-point range in those wins, he has been a 31.8% 3-point shooter.  While that is down from his career average of 36%, it has been a much-needed help to an offense that struggles mightily to find points.

Additionally, when he has been more aggressive with the ball, Tech has played better.  Going 28-36 from the line in Tech’s wins over major opponents this year, he’s averaging 5.1 attempts per game.

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But when Mooney has struggled, so has Tech.  He mustered just seven points against Duke, eight against Iowa State and two against both Baylor and Kansas State bringing his average just 4.7 p.p.g. in Tech’s losses.

A big problem in those games has been his 3-point shooting.  He is only 1-11 from deep in Tech’s four losses to major teams and has gone 0-10 in the current three-game losing streak.

When a player is struggling with his jumper, it is often best for him to get to the rim for easier looks but when Mooney struggles from the arc, he seems to lose any aggressiveness in other aspects of his game.

In Tech’s losses, he is averaging almost exactly one less shot per game (8.6 vs. 7.7) but what is truly indicative of his passivity is his inability to get to the free throw line.  Mooney has attempted just one foul shot in any of the Red Raiders’ four defeats on the season…and that was a miss against Baylor on the front end of a one-and-one.

It is puzzling as to why Mooney sometimes seems to abandon the idea of driving the ball and drawing contact.  He has proven capable of doing so as evidenced by the seven foul shots he was awarded against West Virginia or the five he had against Nebraska.  And the fist time Tech saw KSU, Mooney went to the line eight times making the fact that he did not get there at all Tuesday night all the more frustrating.

After a nice start to Big 12 play in which he had back-to-back 14-point games, Mooney has now failed to surpass eight points in four of Tech’s last five games.  In other words just as Texas Tech started conference play strong only to slide in the last seven days, Mooney has done the exact same.

Ultimately, we can almost guarantee that Jarrett Culver will give the Red Raiders at least 15 points (he’s failed to reach that threshold just three times this year) each night and with the exception of Tuesday in Manhattan, Davide Moretti has been a reliable double-digit scorer hitting that mark in the five previous conference games.  But Tech has struggled to find a consistent third offensive weapon.

The design of this team was for Mooney to be that player.  If he can figure out how to get back to his aggressive ways and play the way he did in Tech’s seven major wins this year, the Red Raiders will likely have enough offense to compete.  But if he continues to have nights where he simply disappears from the offense, life is going to be tremendously challenging the rest of the way for Chris Beard’s team.