Texas Tech basketball: 3 reasons Red Raiders lost to Kansas

Atrocious first half shooting

The fact that Saturday’s game was in doubt on the final possession is stunning to consider after Tech fell into a 17-2 hole to begin the game.  When trying to take down Kansas in Lawrence, it is virtually impossible to accomplish that goal if you can’t get out of the gates fast and take the home crowd out of the game.  But that’s exactly what Tech almost did.

You could not have scripted a worse start for Chris Beard.  Tech did not score its first points until the 16:12 mark of the first half when T.J. Holyfield hit a jumper to stop a 10-2 Kansas run.  Prior to that, the Red Raiders were 0-7 from the floor.

But the onslaught didn’t stop there.  Tech wouldn’t score again until two minutes later as KU built a 15-point lead.

In fact, it wouldn’t be until there was 10:17 to play in the first half before Tech was able to put together two baskets without allowing KU to extend its lead.  At that point, the score was 22-13 Kansas after a Clarence Nadolny old fashioned 3-point play.

Prior to that bucket, Tech had shot just 4-15 overall and 0-4 from 3-point range.  That was a huge problem.

Consider that Tech opened the game shooting just 26.6% in the first ten minutes and it’s hard to fathom the afternoon ever becoming interesting.  But the rest of the way, the Red Raiders managed to hit over 47% of their shots, including 11-13 from 3-point range.  Unfortunately, the hole they dug because of their awful shooting to open the afternoon was just too much to overcome.