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

By Matthew Conner

LUBBOCK, TX - FEBRUARY 27: Davide Moretti #25 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders shoots a free throw during the overtime period of the game on February 27, 2019 at United Supermarkets Arena in Lubbock, Texas. Texas Tech defeated Oklahoma State 84-80 in overtime. (Photo by John Weast/Getty Images)
LUBBOCK, TX - FEBRUARY 27: Davide Moretti #25 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders shoots a free throw during the overtime period of the game on February 27, 2019 at United Supermarkets Arena in Lubbock, Texas. Texas Tech defeated Oklahoma State 84-80 in overtime. (Photo by John Weast/Getty Images) /
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MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA – APRIL 05: Head coach Chris Beard of the Texas Tech Red Raiders looks on during practice prior to the 2019 NCAA men’s Final Four at U.S. Bank Stadium on April 5, 2019 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images)
MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA – APRIL 05: Head coach Chris Beard of the Texas Tech Red Raiders looks on during practice prior to the 2019 NCAA men’s Final Four at U.S. Bank Stadium on April 5, 2019 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images) /

This team will live and die by its defense, just like every other Beard team

Players like Ramsey or Shannon aren’t rated five and four-star players coming out of high school because of their defensive prowess.  Likewise, no one was talking this offseason about how much Moretti and Edwards would give this team defensively.  But Thursday was a reminder that this team is going to survive on defense.

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After last year’s team set a record for defensive efficiency in the KenPom.com era of advanced analytics, this year’s team is not nearly at that level.  Currently, Tech is No. 10 in adjusted defensive efficiency, a measure of points allowed per 100 possessions.  With a rating of 87.2, Tech is not near last year’s pace of 84.1 but Beard’s team is still playing defense at a high level.

Tech doesn’t know whether this young and refurbished roster is going to be able to score at will every game out, as we saw against TSU.  But there’s no reason that this roster can’t be elite defensively each night.

Even with Holyfield, a terrific defender, watching for most of the game, Tech forced TSU to shoot just 35.3% from the floor and 28.6% from behind the arc.  What’s more, Tech came up with 9 steals and forced 19 turnovers to help make sure that the offensive sluggishness didn’t come back to haunt the home team.

After allowing Eastern Illinois to shoot 40.4% from the field in the opener, Tech has held all three of its subsequent opponents to below 40% shooting, including allowing Bethune-Cookman to shoot just 29.8% in game two.

Defense still remains this program’s trademark, regardless of how high-profile the new additions are.

If Tech had decided to take Thursday night off on that end of the floor, as so many teams do when the shots aren’t falling, we might be talking about a loss and the end of the team’s home non-conference winning streak, which now sits at 40 games.

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On a night when Beard saw his team hit just 17-50 shots from the floor, the Red Raider head coach had to be encouraged to see his team remain locked in on defense.  So long as Tech can play defense at the level of a top 10 national program, Tech will stay in every game, no matter how many shots fall.

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