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Texas Tech basketball: Why the Red Raiders were able to crush ISU

By Matthew Conner

LUBBOCK, TEXAS - NOVEMBER 05: Guard Kyler Edwards #0 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders passes the ball during the first half of the college basketball game against the Eastern Illinois Panthers at United Supermarkets Arena on November 05, 2019 in Lubbock, Texas. (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images)
LUBBOCK, TEXAS - NOVEMBER 05: Guard Kyler Edwards #0 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders passes the ball during the first half of the college basketball game against the Eastern Illinois Panthers at United Supermarkets Arena on November 05, 2019 in Lubbock, Texas. (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images) /
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Tech turned the ISU turnovers into points

I don’t know if the term “turnover efficiency” is a real stat or not but it should be.  In my mind, that is how we could measure what a team does with the turnovers it creates or is gifted by the other team and in Saturday’s game, there was a huge difference between the Red Raiders and the Cyclones in that regard.

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Both teams were sloppy with the ball.  ISU gave it away 20 times while Tech coughed it up on 16 occasions.  In a first half that was almost comical at times, the teams combined for 24 turnovers, 13 by the home team to help ISU stay in the game.

But creating turnovers is usually only good enough to keep you in games.  You have to actually make the other team pay for their mistakes if you are going to win.  Just ask the 2019 Red Raider football team, which struggled mightily to score on possessions following a takeaway.

Fortunately, on Saturday, Beard’s team did not emulate Matt Wells’ team.  The Red Raiders scored 32 points off of turnovers.  That’s an average of 1.6 points per turnover.

Meanwhile, Iowa State generated just 15 points after taking the ball away from Tech.  That was less than a point per turnover.

Never was this disparity more evident than during Tech’s 14-0 second-half run that proved to be this game’s defining moment.  ISU turned the ball over on five-straight possessions leading to 10 Red Raider points.

By contrast, think about the fact that ISU managed only 21 points in the first half despite having the benefit of 13 Red Raider turnovers.   Just as was the case with Kansas State on Tuesday night, the only reason the Cyclones were within striking distance at the intermission was the fact that Tech became careless with the ball after jumping out to a large early lead.

But turnovers are hollow if they don’t lead to points.  In that scenario, they are just bandaids that temporarily stop the bleeding.

dark. Next. Texas Tech overwhelms ISU in the second half

Good teams are the ones that make opponents pay dearly for their mistakes and that was the difference between the Red Raiders and the Cyclones on Saturday.  The better of the two teams took the turnovers that came its way and turned them into daggers that landed the fatal blows to the Cyclones.

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