Texas Tech basketball: Red Raiders relying too heavily on 3-point shot

In the Texas Tech basketball team’s two losses in this week’s Las Vegas Invitational, the 3-point shot was too much of a crutch when the offense struggled.

I today’s world of basketball, at any level, the 3-point shot is the weapon du jour for most teams. But the Texas Tech basketball team isn’t most teams.

At least, it isn’t supposed to be.

But in the two games that Chris Beard’s team dropped this week in the Las Vegas Invitational, the 3-point line became a crutch the Red Raiders leaned on too heavily when the going got tough. The results were disastrous.

Overall, Tech shot just 12-54 from behind the arc. That’s an atrocious 22.2%. That isn’t how this team was designed to play.

It was obvious how the 3-point line let Tech down against Iowa on Thursday. Shooting 4-24 from deep, the Red Raiders fell into a huge hole early as they missed their first nine shots from deep and all but one of their eleven shots from long-distance in the first half.

The results weren’t much better against Creighton. In the first half of a game that saw Tech hit 8-30 from outside, the Red Raiders went just 2-11 as they fell behind by 14 points at the intermission.

That’s not how the motion offense is designed to operate. In fact, it’s a sign that the motion offense is lacking…that which it can’t exist without…motion.

When the ball gets stuck in one spot on the floor and the Red Raiders simply resort to hoisting a bomb to beat the shot clock, it’s a bad sign for this offense. What we would rather see is the Red Raiders shoot at least as many free throws as 3-pointers because that’s a sign that the ball is being driven to the lane.

But in Vegas, Tech shot just 34 free throws…four more than the number of 3s attempted against Creighton alone. It’s no wonder tech struggled.

When young and inexperienced players find the going difficult, they often resort to the type of shot they know they can get at any point, a 3. Anyone on the floor can launch at three at any point. It’s the easiest shot to take but the toughest to make, thus the gamble.

For proof, just think back to last year’s National Title Game…painful as it may be. With the game in the balance, we saw Jarrett Culver hoist a 3 instead of drive to the lane despite the fact that the only success he had in that game came when he put the ball on the floor. For this generation of players that have grown up in love with the 3-ball, it will always be their fall-back, the comfort food they turn to when things are challenging or stressful.

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What most players can’t do at will is get to the rim. That’s where Tech broke down in Vegas. It is tough to get to the paint. There are lots of big bodies in there and you are going to spend plenty of time on the floor when you burrow into the forest.

But that’s what Beard wants and needs this team to do. Outside of Davide Moretti, and to a lesser extent Kyler Edwards, there’s not a proven 3-point shooter on this roster.

It’s not that Tech shouldn’t ever shoot from distance. It must in order to keep opposing teams from clogging the lane. But those shots have to come in the flow of the offense and they need to come from the players that are trusted shooters.

Friday night, when Tech managed to get to overtime after erasing Creighton’s 8-point lead in the final five minutes, the Red Raiders fell back into a troubling habit and settled for low-percentage 3s.

After Moretti missed a layup to begin the OT, Tech missed back-to-back 3s and fell into another hole. In all, the Red Raiders missed all six of their looks from behind the arc while scoring only two points…which came on a layup. Even more frustrating, three of those long bombs came from players in Chris Clarke, Avery Benson, and Clarence Nadolny, that we would rather not have taking 3s in critical moments.

Next. What we learned in Tech's losses in Vegas. dark

Thus far, Tech is averaging 20.8 shots from 3-point range this year but only 17 free throws. Last year’s team averaged 16.6 3-pointers and 15.6 free throws per game. That’s more of a championship recipe and a place where we would like to see this year’s team get to. Hopefully, this week’s losses will help them learn the importance of intelligent shot selection.

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