Texas Tech basketball: What we learned in win over Tennessee State

Senior T.J. Holyfield might be this team’s most irreplaceable player

We just got a look at what life without T.J. Holyfield might look like for this year’s team and it wasn’t pretty.  Tech had to do battle without its grad transfer big man last night because he was limited to just 14 minutes because of foul trouble.

Entering the game as Tech’s second-leading scorer at over 18 points per game, he didn’t score until late in the game on his way to just eight points, making him the only starter not to hit double-digits.  But his absence was felt in other areas of the game as well.

The 6-foot-8 native of Albuquerque is second on the team in rebounding with four per game.  But with Holyfield giving his team just one board, Tech was not good on the glass.

"“I was really disappointed in our offensive rebounding tonight,” Beard said.  “When you have a shooting night like we did tonight this happens, but you have to go get your share.”"

Overall, the Red Raiders won the rebounding battle by the count of just 36-34 despite being the larger and more athletic team.  That included a mere nine offensive rebounds, a number that should have been much higher given how many shots the Red Raiders missed.

Keep in mind that Tech entered Thursday’s game leading the Big 12 in rebounding margin at +14 per game.  But the Tigers essentially played Tech even on the glass and much of that has to be the fact that T.J. Holyfield spent most of the game as an observer.   For his career, he’s averaged 5.8 rebounds per contest and it doesn’t appear that this team can afford to have such a glass-cleaner sitting next to the assistant coaches.

With Holyfield saddled with four fouls, Beard went to a lineup that had Chris Clarke, Terrence Shannon, Jahmi’us Ramsey, Davide Moretti, and Kyler Edwards on the court with Kevin McCullar Jr. as the top sub off the bench when that group needed to give someone a rest.  That’s a lineup that we might see quite a bit of this year but Holyfield has to stay on the court as much as possible for this team to compete for titles.