Texas Tech basketball: Why the Red Raiders were able to beat the Wildcats

Let’s go inside the box score to see why the Texas Tech basketball team was able to defeat Kansas State on Tuesday in Lubbock.

During the Mike Leach era of Texas Tech football, we would often see the enigmatic head coach bring the entire team around him for an expletive-laced tongue lashing.  We began to call those “Come to Leach” meetings.  On Tuesday night, Chris Beard had one of the most intense “Come to Beard” meetings of his career…and his team was up 13 points at the time.

Calling a timeout in the middle of a second-half possession during his team’s 82-71 win over Kansas State on Tuesday night, Chris Beard was as angry and animated as we’ve ever seen him as his face was so red that it matched the red polo shirts worn by his assistant coaches.  That display was a sign of just how frustrated he is that this uber-talented team continues to do things that prevent it from reaching its lofty potential.

"“…we played the game the right way for about 32 to 33 minutes,” Beard said after the game.  “In the first half, we didn’t make any shots but we played the game the right way.  In the second half, I think we played some of our best basketball, extending the lead up to around 17 points.  But certainly, there at the end of the game, we did not play well.  So we just continue to be a work in progress and we continue to get better.”"

Not to be a wet blanket on a much-needed win but on Tuesday night, Tech again struggled in some areas of the game that have been concerning for some time.  Sure, a victory was great, and putting more points on the board than your opponent is always desirable, but this game was far from being an inspiration or a sign that Beard’s team is ready to go on a run.

For instance, this team still can’t make 3-pointers with any consistency.  Against KSU, Tech shot just 4-18 (22.2%) from deep. In conference play, Tech is shooting just 28.6% as a team, good for only 9th in the league.

Also, the Red Raiders struggled against the zone once again, especially in the first half.  The Red Raiders had just 11 assists on the evening, a sign that the ball wasn’t moving as much as Beard would like and much of that had to do with the prolonged stretch in the first half when KSU went to the zone and the Red Raider offense once again went into a stupor.

Speaking of the first half, the Red Raiders got off to yet another slow start at home, a trend that has been developing over the first three home Big 12 games of the season.  Tuesday, it was a 17-10 hole that Beard’s team fell into mid-way through the first 20 minutes of play before waking up to go on a 17-2 run.

But let’s not dwell on the struggles we saw from the Scarlet and Black because, after all, we have a victory to celebrate.  And let’s begin doing so by looking inside the box score to see why Texas Tech was able to beat KSU.