Texas Tech basketball: Egregious no-call punctuates Red Raider collapse

Make no mistake, the Texas Tech basketball team didn’t deserve to win Saturday’s game against Oklahoma State in Stillwater given the way it played in the final ten minutes of the game.  But there’s no denying that Terrence Shannon Jr. was absolutely robbed of an opportunity to be the hero when the officials swallowed their whistles on the game’s final shot resulting in a 52-51 Cowboy win.

Taking the inbounds pass with just over two seconds remaining, Shannon was able to get off a jump shot that didn’t draw iron.  But the reason it didn’t draw iron is that he was clearly hip-checked while in the air by an Oklahoma State defender in what would have been whistled a foul in any other moment of the game.  Unfortunately, the Big 12 officials decided to turn a blind eye to the body bump that threw Shannon to the floor allowing OSU to eke out an ugly win.

It is infuriating to be on the losing end of a game in which an official decides to stop doing his or her job simply because it is the final play and they don’t have the gumption to make a call that could decide matters, especially when that call would go against the home team.  But a foul in the final minute of play looks the same and should be called the same as a foul in the first minute of play and no one watching Shannon’s final jumper could argue that Tech wasn’t on the losing end of a business decision by Saturday’s officiating crew.

Now, it must be clearly stated that Tech should have never let this game get to that point.  After all, the Red Raiders were up 49-39 with 9:48 to play and would score only two points the remainder of the afternoon.

From that point until Davion Warren tipped home an offensive rebound with 28 seconds to play, Tech would go 0-9 from the floor and commit six turnovers, including a stretch of four-straight giveaways just after taking the 10-point lead, a time when Oklahoma State was in the knockout zone.

It’s a disturbing continuation of a trend that has haunted Mark Adams’ team in recent games.  Giving the ball away 15 times on Saturday, Tech has now committed at least 15 turnovers in three of the last four games.  That’s not how any team wants to enter the postseason.

Kevin Obanor led the Red Raiders in scoring with 16 points.  However, he was unable to rescue his sinking team down the stretch as he would go just 1-4 from the field for just three points in the second half.  In fact, as Tech coughed away the game’s lead over the painful nine-minute scoring drought, Obanor took only one shot, a layup attempt that was blocked.

Meanwhile, the player who is supposed to be Tech’s hero, Bryson Williams, was relegated to spectator over the final 51 seconds after he picked up his fifth foul on a needless play.  Failing to block out after an OK State miss, Williams grabbed ahold of OSU’s Rondel Walker as Walker collected the offensive board and put the ball back in the bucket for an old-fashioned 3-point play to tie the game at 49.

Williams was Tech’s only bright spot in the second half scoring 11 of his 13 points on the day after the intermission but when his team needed him the most, he was sitting next to the Tech coaching staff looking dejected.  That’s not what the Red Raiders need from their best player in crunch time.

There’s really not much positive to say about the Red Raiders as they head into the postseason.  They have lost two of their last three games (granted, both were on the road) and the lone win was an ugly 73-68 win at United Supermarkets Arena over a Kansas State team that will not be in the NCAA Tournament unless it wins next week’s Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City.

But the good news is that there are no more road games on Tech’s schedule.  The Red Raiders end the year just 3-7 in opponents’ home arenas, a mark that will certainly be held against them on Selection Sunday.

As for Saturday’s loss in Stillwater, it will be a bitter pill to swallow for Tech fans as we once again saw our team play a poor brand of basketball down the stretch of a close road game, yet another disturbing trend that has cropped up for this year’s Red Raiders.  However, there was a team on the court that was worse than Tech in the closing seconds…the team in stripes.