It shouldn’t be any sort of understatement to say that the Texas Tech Red Raiders absolutely needed that win on Saturday against the likes of the Duke Blue Devils. It was unlikely, it was shocking, and it was something that this team truly needed.
Prior to Saturday night’s thrilling comeback win over the Blue Devils in Madison Square Garden, the Red Raiders had lost against every ranked team that they’d faced up to that point in the season. Texas Tech also couldn’t find a way to win on the road or in a neutral site matchup.
And that’s before they found themselves trailing the Duke Blue Devils by 17 points in the second half of their Madison Square Garden matchup. Because with Christian Anderson erupting to put Duke away, the Red Raiders now have a win over the No. 3 team in the country and they did it outside of Lubbock.
The Texas Tech Red Raiders absolutely stunned the Duke Blue Devils in their thrilling 17-point comeback win in Madison Square Garden
Anderson managed to score 23 of his 27 points in the second half against the Blue Devils, providing the Red Raiders with the scoring spark that they needed to overcome the 10-point halftime deficit and the 17-point second half deficit against one of the most talented teams in the country.
And while the first half led to me being extremely worried about the fact that the Red Raiders simply couldn’t hit from behind the three point line, Texas Tech managed to absolutely punish Duke by scorching the Blue Devils from deep, making 46 percent of their three pointers in the second half.
I’m still admittedly a little concerned about the overall lack of bench scoring from the Red Raiders, but it might not matter as long as Toppin and Anderson can routinely just simply elevate the Texas Tech basketball team against the likes of the Blue Devils. 11 bench points is worrisome. The 24 fouls is worrisome. But it doesn’t matter if Texas Tech simply wins.