Texas Tech basketball: 5 reasons Red Raiders were able to beat Michigan
The Texas Tech basketball team defeated Michigan 63-44 Thursday night in Anaheim, California to advance to the Elite 8 for the second-straight year.
The team picked to finish seventh in the Big 12 preseason poll is now headed to the Elite 8. Thanks to a suffocating defensive showing in a 63-44 win over No. 2 seeded Michigan, the Texas Tech basketball team is once again just one win from reaching the Final Four for the first time in program history.
Jarrett Culver had a game-high 22 points while Davide Moretti added 15 as Tech shook off a cold-shooting effort in the first half to pull away after halftime. Two Moretti 3-pointers in the first four minutes of the second half gave Tech a 36-18 advantage and Culver drove the final spike through the Wolverines’ heart with 14 second-half points as he attacked the rim with impunity. But it was Tech’s defense that told the story.
Tech held Michigan to just 16-49 shooting (32.7%) from the field as the Wolverines set a program low for scoring in an NCAA Tournament game and tied a mark for offensive futility for a No. 2 seed. But for a while, the Texas Tech offense was not much better.
Shooting just 9-27 in the first half, the Red Raiders were held to 24 points at the break. But thanks to a 9-4 run to close the first half, Chris Beard’s team held an 8-point lead heading to the locker room. And given the struggles of the Michigan offense, that lead felt as secure as a 20-point margin in a regular game.
That’s because the Wolverines were woeful from the field in the first twenty minutes hitting just 6 of 22 shots. And the U of M shooting did not improve in the second half until the game was out of hand.
Freshman forward Ignas Brazdeikis led Michigan with 17 points and Charles Matthews added 12 but the other three Wolverine starters managed just 12 combined points. It was the lowest output of the season for John Beilein’s team which entered the game with a season low of 54 points in a loss at Wisconsin.
That setback in Madison was Michigan’s first of the year after a 17-0 start that saw the Wolverines climb to No. 2 in the polls. And though the Maze and Blue would eventually drop six Big 10 games, they remained in the top-10 in the polls for the majority of the season and entered the NCAA Tournament ranked No. 8, one spot ahead of the Red Raiders.
That’s why this win was the best of the season for the Red Raiders. Not only did it come on the biggest stage of the season, it was the first win over a top-10 team this year for the regular season Big 12 co-champions.
So let’s go inside the numbers and take a look at just how the Texas Tech basketball team was able to dominate Michigan. And not surprisingly, we will start with a look at the Red Raider defense.