Texas Tech basketball classics: Revisiting Tech’s 2005 upset of Gonzaga

Ronald Ross and Adam Morrison had an old-fashioned shootout

Like two gunslingers standing in the middle of a dirt road in some old west town, the best player each team kept firing away until only one was left standing.  Ronald Ross led the Red Raiders in scoring with 24 points on 9-21 shooting while Morrison scored 25 on 10-22.

Both had incredibly similar games.  Each got four of their points at the free-throw line with Ross attempting five free throws and Morrison six.

Likewise, each player attempted six three-pointers with neither finding much success.  Ross connected twice from behind the arc while Morrison found the range only once.

But the similarities don’t stop there.  Both players also ended the game with nine rebounds with Morrison having the edge on the offensive glass 4-2.

What stood out though while watching this game again for the first time in 15 years was the fitting difference in the stature and pedigree of the two stars of the game.

On one hand, it seems a bit odd to label Gonzaga as the more glamorous of the two programs in a matchup with a major conference team.  But by this point, the Zags had already stolen the hearts of the nation and were by far the more household brand when it came to college hoops.

Even with Knight on the bench, the Red Raiders were the afterthought in this game.  It was evident in the way the CBS studio crew analyzed the contest in the pregame and halftime studio breakdowns and in the way the broadcast crew called the action.

That was also true of their star player.  Just a sophomore, Morrison was already one of the nation’s biggest stars as the West Coast Conference Player of the Year and an All-American.

Meanwhile, Ross had grown from being a walk-on to an All-Big 12 player in his senior year.  In fact, during the broadcast, the CBS crew said that the Tech coaches had attempted to help Ross find a place to play at a lower level program because they had no scholarships available for him when he graduated from high school.  But he had no takers thus forcing him to walk on at Tech.

Four years later, on the game’s biggest stage, he stared down one of the most high-profile programs in the nation and one of the biggest stars in the game and carried his team to a win.  How else would one expect a Bob Knight team to win than by relying on a huge effort from one of the most blue-collar players in program history?