Texas Tech basketball: Hidden moments in win over Kansas State

In the Texas Tech basketball team’s 73-62 win over Kansas State on Saturday, these hidden moments proved to be important turning points.

Since the Texas Tech basketball program shared the 2019 regular-season Big 12 crown with Kansas State, the two programs have gone in rather opposite directions.  That polarization continued on Saturday as the Red Raiders took down the Wildcats 73-62 in Manhattan.

Tech has now taken the last four meetings in the series by sweeping each of the last two regular-season sets.  And of those games, only one has been decided by single digits.

The latest Red Raider win was tight for about thirty minutes of the game.  During that time, it felt as if this might be another Big 12 game to come down to the final minute of action.

That’s already what we’ve had to endure in five of the Red Raiders’ 10 conference games this year.  Thus, it was nice to have a Saturday reprieve from the heart-stopping drama that has been so prevalent this year.

So let’s go inside this game, one that Tech never trailed, and examine some of the hidden moments, ones that helped the Red Raiders take the Wildcats to their 10th straight loss.  And we will start with a clutch shot from an improbable source.

Nadolny nails one to beat the buzzer

When taking on a team that is as big of an underdog as K-State was in this game, it is important to prevent that team from having significant psychological boosts when they start to believe they have a true shot at winning the game.  One way to keep such a team from believing in itself is to put it in a halftime hole.

In this game, the Red Raiders led by only five points at the break but they carried significant momentum with them to the locker room thanks to a buzzer-beating two-point shot by Clarence Nadolny.  Originally ruled a 3-pointer but changed to a two-point basket upon official review, the corner jumper was shot in rhythm and displayed how hard Nadolny has worked on his shot since his arrival.

That was Nadolny’s only bucket of the game as he would play only a minute of action in the second half so at least he got as much as he could out of it.  By sending Tech to the intermission on a bit of an emotional high, Nadolny gave his team a boost and likely put further doubt in the minds of the Wildcats when it came to their ability to pull the upset.

Tyreek Smith drains a 3

The Red Raiders led this game for 36:43 of the 40 minutes played.  What’s more, the game was tied only four times.

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The only one of those ties that came in the second half was at the 16:31 mark when the Wildcats knotted the game at 32.  But to break that stalemate, the Red Raiders got perhaps the most unexpected basket of the entire day, a 3-pointer from redshirt freshman forward Tyreek Smith.

To say that it was Smith’s day would be leaning a bit towards hyperbole but there’s no denying he was a positive factor for sure.  In fact, this was his best all-around Big 12 game thus far.

His five points were a season-high in conference play as were his three emphatic blocks.  And he managed all of that (along with a pair of steals and a rebound) in only 13 minutes played.

But it was his rainbow 3-pointer that stood out most.  Taking a shot from the top of the key isn’t likely what Chris Beard wants Smith to do on the regular being as he’s just 2-5 from beyond the arc this season but it was a bonus bucket that the Red Raiders weren’t going to turn down.  It broke the tie just after KSU had pulled even and it was one of the more important and unlikely moments of this game.

McCullar’s dagger

This game didn’t have a defining moment, that one singular knockout blow that so many conference games seem to have.  The closet we came to that was a dagger of a 3-pointer from Kevin McCullar Jr. in the final three minutes.

At the time, KSU was still squarely in the game.  In fact, thanks to a wild running hook shot that banked in, the Wildcats had cut Tech’s lead to 60-54.  On the other end of the court, the Red Raiders got the ball to Kyler Edwards at the top of the key, and as he looked to put the offense in motion, KSU’s Luke Kasubke got caught watching Edwards and lost track of his man, McCullar.

Edwards skipped a pass to McCullar in the corner and the sophomore calmly drained the 3-pointer to put Tech ahead 63-54.  That shot wasn’t necessarily the final nail in the coffin but it was an absolute momentum-changer.

For the day, McCullar was 3-4 from 3-point range on his way to 15 points yet his outside shot was still disrespected by the Wildcats and he made them pay.  For the year, he’s only shooting 28.6% from deep but that’s a six-percent increase from last year and he’s showing an ability to make the clutch 3-point opportunities that come his way.

What’s more, he’s 5-7 from beyond the arc in his last two games.  If that part of his game rounds into form, it will make him even more integral to the Red Raiders by helping boost them in an area where they could use some improvement.