Texas Tech basketball: Red Raiders open season with easy victory

It certainly wasn’t a game that will be replayed in the Hall of Fame but the Texas Tech basketball team’s 73-46 season-opening over Texas A&M-Commerce was at least dominant and stress-free.  That’s more than many major-conference opponents can say about their first game of the year despite also facing lesser-caliber programs.

In the debut of head coach Grant McCasland, the Red Raiders jumped out to early leads of 8-0 and 16-2 on their way to an insurmountable 41-17 halftime advantage.  After that, the affair grew sloppy and hard to watch on both sides of the floor as the Red Raiders played with their food while the Lions looked the part of a pickup team one might find playing at the student recreation center.

"“Give the staff credit, the preparation was there,” McCasland said. “I thought we knew what they were going to do. We were able to apply pressure and turn them over a little bit. Our preparation in regard to personnel like who they are, what they do well, and what we can take away. The scouting report was where we were strong.”"

Pop Isaacs led all scorers with 19 points.  That wasn’t a surprise.  However, he was just 2-7 from 3-point range and 5-15 overall from the floor in what was a rather inefficient offensive showing from the team’s leading returning scorer.

Also reaching double figures for the Red Raiders were Darrion Williams, who had 14 points, and Joe Toussaint who added 10.  Meanwhile, center Warren Washington came up just two points shy of a double-double with eight points and twelve rebounds.

"“During the summer I’ve just been working a lot on being physical, working on my rebounds because I feel like it’s something I really need to work on,” Washington said. “I just feel like that’s an ongoing process and coaches really been sitting down with me, watching a lot of film, and I’m going to keep working on it and I’m happy to see my boards getting up but I got to be consistent with it.”"

The Red Raiders at times looked dominant, especially in the first half when they shot 44.4% from the floor, forced 11 turnovers, and went 13-16 from the free-throw line.  But in the second half, Tech seemed to lack the intensity and precision that helped them build as much as a 24-point lead in the first 20 minutes of play.

After halftime, Tech shot just 38.5% overall and was just 1-10 from 3-point range.  What’s more, McCasland’s team turned the ball over nine times, seven of which were of the live-ball variety.

In other words, there is still plenty for the Red Raiders to work on ahead of game two on Sunday against San Jose State.  So let’s go inside the box score and look at where the Red Raiders excelled and where they need to continue to grow.  We’ll start with something that was a surprising struggle on Wednesday night.