Texas Tech basketball: Players that have to step up to stop losing streak

T.J. Holyfield was a non-factor in both games last week

After the first three games of the year, an argument could be made that grad transfer T.J. Holyfield was this team’s best player.  That may still be true but the Albuquerque, New Mexico native has seen his production dip after starting the season with two 20-point games as well as a 15-point showing.

In Vegas, the 6-foot-8 forward needed to be much better than he was.  He averaged just six points per game and was a non-factor.

Against Iowa, Holyfield did score 10 points and grabbed five rebounds, a decent stat line, but it took him 13 shots to get his 10 points as he was just 30.8% from the floor.  What was frustrating was the fact that a handful of his misses were right at the rim where the gimmes that he’s feasted off of thus far seemed to just roll off to the side of the basket.

What was most concerning though was that he was dominated by big Luka Garza.  Iowa’s 6-foot-11 center had his way with Holyfield on both ends of the court as he scored 17 points and 12 rebounds.

Garza is a very good player.  That’s what is troubling.  Holyfield is going to have to figure out how to do battle with some fantastic big men this year including Kansas’ monster 7-foot center Udkoa Azubuike and in his first such showdown, he did not pass the test.

We needed to see the mid-range game that Holyfield had displayed early on travel to the desert to pull Garza away from the basket on defense but that didn’t happen and the Hawkeye’s center was able to clog the lane and disrupt drives to the rim.

Against Creighton, Holyfield was even less noticeable as he scored a mere two points.  He looked lost and passive as he shot just one field goal, which he missed.

Holyfield is this team’s only big man because Beard just doesn’t trust Russell Tchewa yet.  If this team is going to get back on track, the senior has to be the type of player we saw in the first three games and not who we saw in Vegas.