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

Santos-Silva dominated Bradford inside

In Tuesday’s post about individual matchups to watch, we discussed how interesting it would be to see 6-foot-7 Marcs Santos-Silva square up with a Big 12 caliber 7-footer in Davin Bradford.  Fortunately, that matchup went Tech’s way in a landslide.

Santos-Silva continued his on-again-off-again ways in Big 12 play by posting 14 points two rebounds and three steals just one game after he was kept in check by Oklahoma State.  Playing over 32 minutes and collecting just one personal foul, Tech was a +4 when he was on the court.

Meanwhile, the freshman Bradford was terribly unimpressive.  Looking unathletic and out of shape, the 265-pounder did not look like a Big 12 athlete.  He may develop into one by the time his career is over but he’s got a lot of work to do to become a truly dominant force.

On the night, he did manage 10 points and five boards but he simply had little true impact on the game.  In fact, he had a +/- of 0.

We keep looking for a third reliable scorer to emerge to complement Mac McClung and Terrence Shannon Jr. and I’m not giving up on the notion that Santos-Silva is the most likely candidate to be that guy.  If he can get his shots, they are all right around the rim making them much more high-percentage than the looks that a player such as Kyler Edwards gets over the course of the game.

The key now will be for Santos-Silva to string together a run of quality performances.  If he can, this team could really hit another gear.

Though the final stats for Santos-Silva and Bradford were not all that lopsided, the impact on the game was.  Most of Bradford’s points came after his team was already down by double digits while Santos-Silva put up eleven points in the first half alone.  That’s what Tech needs out of its man in the middle.