Texas Tech basketball: Players that need to step up against Iowa State

Chris Clarke

Chris Clarke is such a tough player to evaluate because so much of what he does isn’t always obvious just by looking at the box score.  But while he’s been playing decently during Big 12 play, he’s not made the type of impact that we’ve seen from him at other times.  In the last four games, he’s averaged 6.2 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 6.2 assists, all numbers that are below his season averages.

It feels like this is the type of game that will lend itself to Clarke’s strengths though, especially offensively.  The Cyclones have long been a team that plays a wide-open style and a team that wants to push the ball up the floor as often as possible.  That should open the floor up for Clarke to be at his best.

It’s been a bit surprising to see that the grad transfer hasn’t taken over after being inserted into the starting lineup with Shannon out these last two games the way he did when he started four games with Jahmi’us Ramsey sidelined.  During that span, he had games of 11 points, 17 points, and 14 points (the first of those came in the Iowa game which Ramsey started but left with an injury).

Let’s also see if Clarke can stay out of foul trouble today.  In each of his last two games, he was called for four fouls and some of that can be attributed to the fact that he had to spend even more time than usual muscling up bigger players in the post with the 6-foot-7 Shannon out.

Clarke is central to everything Tech wants to do on both ends of the floor and today, I think he’ll be at his best because Iowa State will likely want to speed the game up, which plays into Clarke’s strengths as a creator and facilitator with the ball.