Texas Tech basketball: Fast start going to be a focus against CSUB

When the Texas Tech basketball team faces Cal State Bakersfield today in Lubbock, Chris Beard will want to see his team finally get off to a strong start in the first half.

They say that it’s now how you start but how you finish. But if the Texas Tech basketball team is going to keep getting off to slow starts, they are eventually going to pay.

It isn’t just that the Red Raiders have trailed at the half in each of their last two games. The concerning fact is that both of those games came against teams that had no business putting a scare in Chris Beard and his team.

On December 16th, Tech trailed a 3-8 Southern Miss team 32-25 at the break. That was due to the fact that the Golden Eagles shot 50% from the floor in the first 20 minutes while the Red Raiders shot just 23.3%. Eventually, Tech pulled away for a 71-65 win but the game was in doubt until the final minute.

But being as that game was the first time the Red Raiders had taken the floor since beating No. 1 Louisville in New York on December 10th, many were willing to excuse the slow start. We chalked it up to the youth of this team and the fact that it was the first home game in nearly a month.

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However, we really had no way to explain the 27-26 lead UT Rio Grande Valley took to the lockerroom after 20 minutes on Saturday. That day, Tech was again cold in the first half shooting just 36% from the floor and 0-8 from 3-point range to open the game.

Meanwhile, playing harder than the home team on both ends of the court, the Vaqueros shot 42.3% as a team and forced 12 Red Raider turnovers. Once again, Beard’s troops were able to overwhelm their opponent after the break on the way to a 68-58 win to send UTRGV to a 4-8 record.

That was actually the third time in-a-row that a mid-major team had held a lead over Tech in Lubbock after the first half. On the Saturday before Thanksgiving, the mighty Long Island Sharks drained a 3 at the first-half buzzer to take a 42-41 lead in a game that Tech ultimately won 96-66.

Thus, slow starts were something the media asked Beard about Friday in his pregame press conference.

"“Yeah, we’ve had some good starts too,” Beard said. “It’s something you’re always looking at. We break the game into four-minute games…that’s ten four-minute games. We kinda break it up. Each time we have a media timeout, we talk about how did we do in this four-minute game? And certainly, one of the most important parts of that game is that first four-minutes. So, we’re always trying to get our guys the best chance to start off strong. It’s something we’re always studying.”"

So today, pay attention to where Tech sits on the scoreboard not only at the half but after each media timeout. Regardless of the opponent, the Red Raiders had better start getting off to better starts when the ball is tipped off because soon, they are about to start playing teams that could bury them in the first four minutes. If that were to happen, it will be all about how you did or didn’t start.

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