Texas Tech basketball: Why the Red Raiders lost to Iowa
Thursday night, the Texas Tech basketball team fell to Iowa for its first loss of the season so let’s take a look at what led to the disappointing outcome.
The beauty of college basketball, as opposed to football, is that early-season losses don’t have a devastating impact on the season. Already this year, we’ve seen teams like Kentucky, Duke, and Michigan State, drop games to unranked teams and now we can add the No. 12 Texas Tech basketball team to that list.
In the Red Raiders’ 72-61 loss to Iowa on Thursday night at the Las Vegas invitational, it was easy to see which of the two teams was accustomed to playing together and which was still trying to figure out how to make nine new pieces fit. The Hawkeyes knew where to go when they needed a bucket and played with far more cohesion on both ends of the floor while Tech’s efforts often felt frantic and disjointed.
"“We got to play a lot smarter down the stretch,” head coach Chris Beard said. “Too many fouls. Too many missed assignments on offense and defense.”"
It was in the closing minutes of the game where Iowa’s experience and cohesion showed up. After cutting a Hawkey lead that had been as large as 15 points down to just two at 61-58 with 1:58 to play, the Red Raiders simply failed to make the plays necessary to complete the comeback while the Hawkeyes displayed a poise that only comes with collective experience.
On the next Iowa possession, the Hawkeyes grabbed an offensive rebound off an air-balled jumper and then hit a deep 3-pointer to beat the shot clock. Then, senior T.J. Holyfield missed an easy reverse layup under the basket on the other end of the court. Terrence Shannon would then commit a foul in the backcourt and send the Hawkeyes to the line to ice the game.
It was an important lesson for this team to learn about making winning plays when the game is on the line. Those lessons can’t be learned in 20-point blowouts of mid to low-major teams the likes of which had comprised the entirety of the Red Raiders’ schedule prior to Thursday.
It was not what we’ve come to expect from this program but we must keep in mind that Tech is going to be a work in progress for at least the first half of this season, if not longer. It’s a process that isn’t always fun to watch but it should pay dividends come February and March.
So let’s take a look at the stats to see where the Red Raiders lost this game. As we do, let’s talk about how those might impact this season as it unfolds.