Texas Tech basketball: 3 matchups to watch as Red Raiders host KSU

Santos-Silva vs. Bradford

In the paint will be an interesting matchup as Tech’s 6-foot-7 senior forward Marcus Santos-Silva will be battling KSU’s 7-foot freshman David Bradford.  It will be fascinating to see how Tech combats the first 7-footer of any real substance that we’ve seen thus far on the schedule.

But, while Bradford is a legitimate Big 12-caliber player, he isn’t necessarily a dominant force yet.  Averaging 6.7 points and 3.8 rebounds per game, he’s still figuring out the college game.

On the other hand, he’s coming off a fantastic effort in his last outing.  Against TCU, the St. Louis, MO native scored 14 points on 6-10 shooting from the floor.  It was his third double-digit game of the year.

What’s odd about Bradford though is that he isn’t much of a rim-protector.  He has only three blocks on the year and it will be interesting to see if he can impact the game by disrupting Santos-Silva’s offense given that he will have a five-inch height advantage.

Speaking of Santos-Silva’s offensive game, he needs to be more of a factor than he was on Saturday against Oklahoma State.  Attempting only four shots, he scored only seven points one game after he had 18 points against Oklahoma.

What’s concerning is that Santos-Silva plays below the rim and often has to use his strength to create space enough to get his shot off.  But Bradford is a solid 265 pounds meaning Santos-Silva will not be able to push him around down low.  So it will be incumbent on Beard and his staff to scheme up ways to get their big man some touches in position to score.

So far in Big 12 play, Santos-Silva has been inconsistent.  That has to change for Tech to reach its full potential this season.  And hopefully, he will be able to take on the challenge of facing a talented young 7-footer and give Tech some solid work in the paint.