Grant McCasland absolutely has to be proud of how the Texas Tech Red Raiders played on Saturday. While they weren’t perfect when facing the Kansas State Wildcats, the Texas Tech men’s basketball team managed to put up 100 points in a 28-point win over a Big 12 opponent.
We’re going to momentarily ignore that Kansas State is among the worst teams in the conference and instead focus on how Texas Tech just beat up on a conference foe even with JT Toppin being sidelined due to an ACL injury.
This is a big deal. And there are a few stats that show just how lopsided this win was for the Red Raiders.
No. 1: Donovan Atwell has already made Texas Tech history and Christian Anderson isn’t far behind
Before facing off against the Kansas State Wildcats, Donovan Atwell was tied for the most three pointers made in a single season for the Red Raiders. Now, after the game, he’s the top three point shooter in a single season in Texas Tech history as he’s made 100 this year.
For the record, he managed to make six threes against Kansas State as part of his 26-point outing. Atwell was incredibly efficient. And now he’s the first Red Raider to get to 100 threes in a single season. But he may not be the last. Christian Anderson is sitting at 91 made threes this year. And he made 3-of-6 against K-State.
This team is really good at shooting from deep.
No. 2: Texas Tech had no issues grabbing rebounds against Kansas State, even without JT Toppin
It truly is impressive to see how Texas Tech was completely and totally in control of the boards against Kansas State. While there were some concerns about Texas Tech’s ability to grab rebounds with ease while Toppin was sidelined, the Red Raiders managed to get through Saturday’s matchup with the Wildcats with a +12 rebounding advantage.
Six different players managed to get at least four rebounds against Kansas State and that rebounding by committee approach might work out well for the Red Raiders moving forward.
No. 3: Kansas State was blocked time and time again by the Red Raiders
It is fully and truly so impressive to look at the stat sheet and find that there were EIGHT blocks against the Kansas State basketball team on Saturday. EIGHT times. That’s just truly and fully so incredible for the Red Raiders.
Luke Bamgboye led the way with three blocks and was then followed by Christian Anderson, LeJuan Watts, Josiah Moseley, Tyeree Bryan, and Marial Akuentok. Just like with rebounding, Texas Tech was able to get shot blocking by committee instead of just turning to one player to block a ton of shots. And it worked out well.