Saturday evening’s win over the No. 11 BYU Cougars feels pretty significant for Grant McCasland and the No. 15 Texas Tech Red Raiders. Beating any sort of conference opponent by 13 points is probably a pretty big deal, but going out and beating a team that was previously tied for the top spot in the Big 12 standings feels pretty significant.
Texas Tech is in a really solid spot after getting the 84-71 win over the Cougars. The Red Raiders are almost certainly going to move up a bit in the college basketball rankings and they’re also tied for third in the Big 12 standings (with the Cougars, who they just beat by 13 points).
With this win, there are some truly fascinating stats for the Red Raiders. Let’s take a look at a few different numbers that help show how Texas Tech won this one by such a wide margin.
BYU basically had no ball movement and that’s probably not ideal for the Cougars but was very helpful for Texas Tech
Okay, so, I’m not saying that BYU wasn’t able to pass the ball around here or there, but it’s worth pointing to the fact that the Cougars didn’t have more than just a handful of assists against the Red Raiders on Saturday.
It’s not like Texas Tech’s offense moved the ball around a ton, but BYU was stagnant in this regard, getting just five assists against the Red Raiders defense. That certainly helped Texas Tech get a win.
The bench production for the Red Raiders was completely and totally nonexistent, which is FASCINATING
I have no idea if this is going to be sustainable in March, but the fact remains that Texas Tech is currently winning games (including against some really good competition) all while the Red Raiders are still getting basically nothing on the stat sheet from their bench.
I mean, the BYU Cougars got a grand total of seven points from their bench against Texas Tech, but the Red Raiders didn’t get a single point outside of the five starters on Saturday.
And yet they scored 84 points. And won by 13. I love that and hate that and I really hope that holds up down the stretch.
Texas Tech clearly won the three point shooting battle in this matchup
Through the entire game, the BYU Cougars really struggled to shoot from deep. In total, the Cougars made just five of their 22 three point attempts. While giving up 71 points isn’t exactly ideal from a defensive perspective, it’s clear that Texas Tech was able to truly lock down on BYU from behind the three point line and limit the Cougars.
The fact that BYU couldn’t stretch the floor is huge for the Red Raiders. And while BYU struggled from deep, the Red Raiders hit on 38 percent of their three point attempts, making 11 of 29 from behind the three point line.