Texas Tech basketball: Red Raiders thrive on shutting down opposing stars

C.J. Massinburg – Buffalo

Entering his second-round game against the Red Raiders, Dallas native C.J. Massinburg had extra motivation.  Reportedly overlooked by all the major schools in his home state, the South Oak Cliff product would have loved nothing more than to send Texas Tech home from the NCAA Tournament.

But the MAC Player of the Year quickly found out that the Red Raider defense is unlike anything he has seen in his collegiate career.  His final stat line of 14 points, four rebounds and two assists does not look atrocious but it does not paint an accurate picture of what a non-factor Massinburg was.

Entering the game averaging 18.2 points per game, the Bulls’ leading scorer scored eleven of his points in the final 11:46 of the game after his team was already trailing 53-30.  When Tech went on its huge run at the end of the first half and the start of the second, Massinburg was nowhere to be found.

During the game-defining 27-3 run that began right after Buffalo took its only lead of the game at 25-24, the Bulls’ best player went 0-2 from the field and contributed just one free throw to his team’s efforts.   It seems inconceivable for a player averaging over 18 points per game to be so non-existent as his team’s season slips away on the game’s biggest stage but the brutal Red Raider defense made Massinburg wilt under the pressure.

To make matters worse for Buffalo, Tech held the Bulls’ third-leading scorer, Jeremy Harris to just nine points on 3-13 shooting.  Averaging 14.0 points per game this year, Harris was a relative non-factor as well against the Red Raiders going 1-8 from 3-point range.  And like Massinburg, Harris was M.I.A. when the game was decided as four of his nine points came in the final ten minutes of play with his team down by twenty points.

That left Buffalo to rely on forward Nick Perkins to carry the load.  And after he scored ten quick points in the first half, he was unable to carry his team by himself.  Buffalo entered the game averaging over 85 points per game but when Tech took their best player out of the equation, the nation’s fifth-best defense had no answers.