Three reasons for the Texas Tech basketball team's disappointing loss to TCU

Texas Tech couldn't get to the foul line enough

Part of the Red Raider's success this year has been the fact that on most days, they have been able to outscore opponents at the free-throw line. That didn't happen on Tuesday night, though.

For the game, TCU was 24-32 (75%) from the stripe. That included four players who shot multiple free throws without a miss.

Meanwhile, Tech was not good at the line. The best free-throw shooting team in the Big 12 was only 10-14 for the game. This team needs to have far more attempts than that.

All four of those misses came from Robert Jennings and Lamar Washington in the first half. But the problem was that Tech didn't get to the line nearly enough.

That's what happens on a night when you hoist 28 shots from beyond the arc. In that regard, Tech fell into the trap of trying to match TCU from deep on a night when the Frogs were on fire.

Instead, Tech should have tried to drive the ball to the rim more. However, the long TCU defense made that task difficult for the Red Raider guards.

This was the first time this season that Tech didn't win the free-throw battle in Big 12 play. What's more, in games against BYU and Kansas State, the Red Raiders won that battle by ten points.

Tech lost at the line by 14 points on Tuesday. That was a deviation from this team's winning formula and it proved costly.