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Texas Tech Sunday Morning Notes - We Made Mistakes Edition

By Seth C

Double-T Nation News:

I went to the game yesterday with my wife and I should have some pictures of the action as well as a post-game review later today. Ultimately, I'm still encouraged by this team, despite yesterday's loss. Typically I'm angry and bitter after any loss, but I think I've learned to take this year in stride, let the young guys learn and hope that by next year, when KSU's Beasley, OU's Griffith, A&M's Jordan, and UT's Augustin have all moved on to the NBA that we have a very solid core of players who have played together for a year and will look to some damage i the Big 12.

Quick story about yesterday's game. I convince my wife to go with me to the game and she complies after I promise El Fenix after the game. We're in line to buy some tickets and some gracious soul asks us if we'd like two seats in the nose-bleed section. Absolutely we would. And of course, what makes this even more funny is that if you knew me you would know that I'm notoriously cheap, especially when it comes to me, and I am not afraid to take a pair of free tickets.

We get to our seats and at some point in the first half the staff at the AAC tells us that we can go sit in the lower bowl. Hot damn! This day was starting to turn out pretty nice.

I know, if I'm able to move down the lower bowl then that means there weren't a lot of folks in attendance. Selfishly, I really appreciate at least one game being in Dallas. And I think that the fans in attendance really appreciated the game. Personally, it's awfully hard for me to justify going to Lubbock for a basketball game and having a game in Dallas allowed me to see those freshman that I think will be special players for Texas Tech. It allows me to see one of my all-time favorite players in Martin Zeno. I know that perhaps the entire DFW area didn't appreciate it, but I sure as hell did.

One of the possible upshots to yesterday's game is the inroads into the DFW recruiting pipeline. Promising a Roberts' parents and Roberson's parents that they won't have to drive far to see their sons play a game, while still being able to be coached by a basketball legend (there aren't too many of those around) is a rare combination. It may not have been a deciding factor at all, but it could be.

Bottom line for me, thank you for bringing the game to DFW.

Texas Tech Basketball:

Here's the boxscore for the Stanford 62, Texas Tech 61 game.

LAJ's Jeff Walker files his game report, focusing on the height of Robin and Brook Lopez changing the face of the game, on offense and defense. Walker and Knight point to the potential advantage Texas Tech could have had going into half-time as an example of making too many mistakes to win the game:

The advantage could have been more as Martin Zeno stole a pass and hurried up the floor, but he was called for charging with 27 seconds remaining, and Stanford scored with four seconds to play to provide the final score of the opening half. "There, if we just hang onto the ball; we don't even have to score, but that's just one play that I use as (an example)," Tech head coach Bob Knight said, pointing out some of his team's errors. "We just make too many plays like that over the course of the game."

The DMN's Brandon George files his game report, the theme being the absolute incredible athleticism of the Lopzez twins. Here's Knight:

"They're so big and they're agile. They're good," Tech coach Bob Knight said. "Anybody that size, with their kind of agility, is going to create problems, and they do."

Knight felt winning yesterday's game was about mental mistakes and not doing the little things that can help with a win or cause a loss:

"We made some mistakes that kept us from being in position where we could control things the last couple of minutes," Knight said. "I thought it was going to be important to us to be able to do that and get there.

"They made free throws, and we made some errors. We're a team that really can't make a lot of errors, and we just made too many in the game to have it in control at the end."

FWST's Dwain Price files his game report, again focusing on the height of the Lopez twins and their ability to guard anyone on the floor. Here's Price on an important surge led by freshman D'Walyn Roberts in the 1st half:

Tech trailed 19-12 but used a 21-5 scoring spree -- highlighted by five points apiece from Zeno and Duncanville native D'walyn Roberts -- to forge a 33-24 lead late in the first half. During the surge, the Red Raiders' staunch defense forced Stanford into eight turnovers.

Texas Tech Football:

I'm running out of time this morning, but check out LAJ's Don Williams Red Raiders Football Notebook for a few football notes this morning.

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