The Texas Tech Red Raiders certainly earned their win over the No. 1 Arizona Wildcats.
At times, for some, the win may have felt like a bit of a rock fight, it’s not like either offense really lit up the scoreboard before this game ended up in overtime, but there were some truly thrilling moments for Texas Tech basketball fans (including the fact that it ended in a three-point win for TTU).
But just beyond the final score of 78-75, there are some numbers that are worth examining a bit closer that are intriguing in a few different ways. So, here are three stats that help showcase just how Texas Tech came away from Tucson with a three-point win over the No. 1 team in the country.
No. 1: The Arizona Wildcats were completely and totally incapable of blocking a single one of Texas Tech’s shots
This is truly bizarre and absolutely fascinating, but the Arizona Wildcats weren’t able to get a single block against the Texas Tech Red Raiders. Not one. Not one block at all. And this is supposed to be an area where the Wildcats are dominant and terrifying.
Entering this game, Arizona was blocking 4.7 shots per game. The Wildcats have blocked a total of 112 shots so far this season. Motiejus Krivas has 47 blocks all on his own so far this season. And there were absolutely zero blocks for Krivas or the Wildcats in this matchup.
No. 2: Arizona wasn’t able to steal the ball away from Texas Tech as much as the Wildcats have done against other opponents
Generally speaking, Arizona’s defense is really so solid in so many ways. When you look at the number of blocks they average per game or the points they hold opponents to, I mean, there are a number of things to be impressed about here.
That also includes the fact that, entering this game, Arizona was able to snag over eight steals per game. And against Texas Tech, the Wildcats were able to get a grand total of five steals. And that’s not a huge gap from their season average, but it is a noteworthy decline.
No. 3: Christian Anderson took a ton of shots from behind the three point line and Texas Tech definitely needed that
Okay, look, I’m not going to pretend that Christian Anderson was the most efficient three point shooter in this game, but the Red Raiders definitely benefitted from the fact that he was able to make quite a few shots from deep in this game.
And also he wasn’t awful! He took a lot of shots, and missed a few, but he made 40 percent of his threes, which is pretty solid!
Specifically in the first half. Anderson managed to make four three pointers in the first half alone and that helped keep the Red Raiders in this game. As a whole, Anderson made 6-of-15 from behind the three point line, which is a lot of shots, but again that’s 40 percent from three point range. And that’s a huge reason for why Texas Tech came away with a win.