Texas Tech beat Arkansas, 71-56, this afternoon to bring their record to 9-3 for the year and bring Coach Knight one game closer to breaking the NCAA all-times victory mark.
DMN's Tim MacMahon has a game story here and Coach Knight had this to say about the record:
The AP/Yahoo story is here and Knight had this to say about holding off Arkansas:
This was a statement game for Tech. Arkansas has some real nice talent inside with Thomas, Townes, and Hill and Tech more than handled Arkansas. Of course it doesn't help that Arkansas was completely inept from the outside (3 of 21 from the 3-point line). Arkansas was also a really reckless team (18 turnovers), there no real offensive flow to their offensive sets and it was just ugly.
Aside from Arkansas' problems, I cannot express how happy and pleasantly surprised I am with the progress of Prince and Rizvic. Burgess, Zeno and Jackson did all of the heavy lifting and the offensive efficiency in the first half was pretty darned impressive.
As an aside, I loved how Rizvic celebrated after hitting his buckets. He's really starting to figure out how to play the game, he's finding open players and he even hit a nice baseline jumpshot.
The interior defense played really well and Burgess is playing incredible perimeter defense. Watch him for a period of time, he really gets after the guy he's guarding.
This team is turning into a team that I think that Knight is really proud of. I have to believe that he has made them very aware of the rebounding deficiencies and he's had Prince, White, and Rizvic really step up their play. I think that this makes him proud.
Jackson rolled his ankle during the game, but Tech doesn't play until December 23rd, in a game against Bucknell.
Overall, this was a really good game for Tech. They beat an opponent essentially on their home floor and it wasn't really even close the entire game. I hope that this game is a springboard to the same type of play throughout the year.
| Player | Pts | A | Rb | Comment |
| Charlie Burgess | 19 | 3 | 0-4 | Second nice game in a row; too many TO's - 4 |
| Martin Zeno | 17 | 3 | 0-3 | Solid the whole game; early foul trouble |
| Jay Jackson | 17 | 0 | 1-3 | Was deadly behind the 3-point arc |
| Esmir Rizvic | 6 | 1 | 1-5 | Slowly but surely making progress |
| Alan Voskuil | 5 | 0 | 0-0 | Can be a deadly shooter off the bench |
| Michael Prince | 4 | 5 | 0-6 | His rebounding and intangibles are making a difference |
| Darryl Dora | 2 | 5 | 0-0 | Still likes his offense too much |
| Decensae White | 1 | 0 | 1-3 | Has had better days; but he'll see more |
| Benny Valentine | 0 | 0 | 0-1 | Filled in for Jackson |
| LucQuente White | 0 | 0 | 0-0 | See above |
| Damir Suljagic | 0 | 0 | 0-0 | Negligible minutes |