Texas Tech basketball: Inside the box score of the victory over KSU

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Guard Davide Moretti #25 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images) /

Tech had 18 assists on 23 made baskets

The Red Raiders have been one of the nation’s leaders in assists all season. That’s something Beard emphasizes after almost every game.

Thus, the fact that his team had 18 assists on its 23 made buckets on Wednesday had to sit well with the head coach. In all, 78.2% of the Red Raiders baskets came off of assists.

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That’s important because it means Tech was moving the ball well. Remember that for much of the night, KSU head coach Bruce Weber went to a zone defense and often, teams grow stagnant offensively against zones because it is easy to pass the ball around the perimeter and hoist 3-pointers.

That wasn’t what Tech did Wednesday and as a result, they shot 50% for the game. In all, five of the eight players that saw the court had at least two assists. Meanwhile, no Wildcat had more than two.

What’s more, Tech was able to hold a nine-assist edge over KSU despite the fact that the team’s leader in that category, Chris Clarke, had just three while playing only 11 minutes. Thankfully, Moretti, Edwards, and Ramsey all picked up the slack with four assists apiece.

The difference between the two teams in the way they went about generating their offense was noticeable. KSU’s plan was to simply give the ball to Diarra and allow him to create opportunities for himself or his teammates off the dribble, something he’s extremely skilled at doing.

But the problem was that when he was benched for the stretch run by Weber after the missed dunk, which came not long after an ugly verbal blow-up with his head coach during a time out, KSU was unable to generate much offense the rest of the way. Meanwhile, Tech was able to rely on multiple players to generate chances thanks to fantastic ball movement.

Next. Red Raiders fight off pesky KSU. dark

For the year, Tech leads the Big 12 with 15.8 assists per game while KSU is sixth at 12.7. Last night, the Red Raiders double-up KSU in that category and that was an important difference in the contest.

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