Texas Tech basketball adds grad transfer T.J. Holyfield

Holyfield is a talented offensive player

For his career, T.J. Holyfield has averaged 10.7 points, 5.9 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game.  And it will be important for him to continue to be a solid and steady offensive force for a Texas Tech team that has to replace four of its top five scorers.

As a freshman, Holyfield averaged 7.5 points per game before putting up 11.7 p.p.g. as a sophomore and 12.9 as a junior.  In all three of this seasons thus far, he shot at least 52.2% from the field.

That’s because the vast majority of his points come in the paint where he is at his best.  Athletic and aggressive with a nose for the ball, Holyfield gets most of his offense off of second effort and via assists from others.  He is not a player that is going to create his own offense.

In three collegiate seasons, only 170 of his 753 field goal attempts (22.5%) have come from 3-point range.  But as a junior, he was effective from deep knocking down 28 of 68 three-pointers (41.2%).

He is also a solid shooter at the free throw line, where he has shot 75% for his career.  And being as he is a physical post presence, he spends a good amount of time at the line averaging 2.74 free throw attempts per game.  He’s averaged 94.3 free throws per season which is more than every Red Raider but Jarrett Culver and Davide Moretti shot last year.

As a junior, Holyfield scored 12.9 points per game.  That total would have been second on last year’s Red Raider team behind only Culver.  Though he will be stepping up in competition, he must continue to be the type of scorer in Lubbock that he has been in Nacogdoches.