Texas Tech basketball: Why the Red Raiders lost to No. 4 Baylor

Texas Tech was atrocious from the free-throw line

It still blows our minds when Division I basketball players struggle to miss free throws.  It’s even more frustrating when an entire roster seemingly gets the yips at the line all at once.

Just about every year, there’s one game we can point to in which free throws cost the Red Raiders a win.  That was the case in last season’s only home loss, a 68-64 defeat at the hands of Iowa State when Tech was just 6-15 at the line, and it was the case again against Baylor.

Tech was an awful 5-12.  In a five-point loss, that’s an easy way to get beat.

Every player that stepped to the line for the Red Raiders missed at least one attempt, including Davide Moretti, a 92% shooter, who went 2-3.  Meanwhile, Kyler Edwards missed both of his free throws, Chris Clarke was 1-3, while both Ramsey and T.J. Holyfield were 1-2.

But it wasn’t just the self-inflicted wounds of the missed shots that killed Tech, it was the fact that the Red Raiders did not get to the line all that often.  That’s something this team has made a living off of this year.

The 12 attempts were 9.8 fewer than the Red Raiders have averaged on the year.  What’s more, the Red Raider who has spent the most time at the line this year didn’t get there once on Tuesday.

Failing to get a free-throw attempt for just the second game this year, freshman Terrence Shannon Jr. was a non-factor with four points.  It’s no coincidence that in a game in which the 84.1% free-throw shooter didn’t get to the line at all, he had his lowest scoring output of the year.

This was a rugged game but the officials let the teams play.  Though there were some questionable individual calls, the officials did a representative job given how tough a contest to call Tuesday’s cage match was.

In the end, Baylor was just 9-17 at the line, which wasn’t very good either.  That’s just another indication of how winnable this game was but because the Red Raiders were dreadful at a part of the game that is completely within their control, they couldn’t come up with what would have been a big win.