I thought about doing my normal notes, but all they would consist of are game stories from a poorly played game in a loss last night to Texas. There's still no official boxscore (here's ESPN), but this sort of thing doesn't necessarily come down to numbers, but rather that I and you see on the court. In any even, here's LAJ's Jeff Walker's game review, DMN's Chip Brown, and FWST's Mike Jones. Let's get to the review.
| Player | Comment |
| Damir Suljagic | Somewhat productive (8 points), but still not enough (3 boards). Difficult to be the only post player for long stretches. |
| Martin Zeno | Other than NM, perhaps his worst game of the year (3-12 from the floor). Very disappointing to see so many missed layups. |
| Alan Voskuil | Again, perhaps his worst performance of the year. Only 3 points on 1-6 from the floor. |
| John Roberson | One of the few bright spots in this game. It's now clear that Roberson makes this team go and needs to be on the floor. |
| Charlie Burgess | I don't get why he starts, 2 points, 1 rebound and 1 assist in 21 minutes. There's just no consistent production here. |
| D'Walyn Roberts | Not his best night and no rebounds. Needs to add some weight to compete highly at the Big 12 level. |
| Trevor Cook | I wish he got more consistent minutes. Actually had a pretty good line for the night, which included 4 points and 6 boards. |
| Michael Prince | Minimal minutes. |
| Mike Singletary | One of the other bright spots. Someone needs to explain to me why he doesn't start most of the time. This team needs offense and he does a nice job of creating it. |
| Esmir Rizvic | Minimal minutes. |
What Texas Tech Did Right:
- Roberson, Again: It's not even a question for me any more. Roberson is one of the few players who isn't afraid to shoot the ball. The nice thing about Roberson is that he's becoming a fairly efficient outside scorer. The only downside to his game right now are the assists:TO's (1:6), which are tough to come by in this offense and figuring out how to score in the paint. Roberson should take film from this game and take a look as to how Augustin is able to get his shot off (I love the step-back from Augustin). But back to the game, it was incredibly evident that without Roberson in the game when he got his 2nd foul, this team with Burgess at the helm, didn't seem to have a rudder.
- Singletary Must Start: I thought that Singletary should have started before the game and I think he should have started after the game as well. This is a bad offensive team, 96th in the nation, and Knight has got to do a better job of figuring out how to get more scoring with this team. Burgess just isn't going to cut it. With Singletary as an option, at the very least you have a guy who is going to battle inside and shot some free throws. That can be invaluable when it's tough getting a bucket.
What Texas Tech Did Wrong:
- Set A Rotation: I can understand tinkering with the offense for the non-confernence schedule, but at this point, Knight needs to settle with his best lineup. I know that it seemed like a 4 guard lineup may be his best lineup, but Burgess is just too inconsistent to be effective. Here it is, free of charge: Roberson, Zeno and Voskuil need to start, hell or high water. Most teams 3rd guard is not going to be able to matchup with Zeno and that needs to be exploited. Singletary and Roberts need to play at the first forward position exclusively. Singletary needs to start and Roberts needs to play about 15 minutes a game. Suljagic and Cook need to play the post position. Suljagic is a better defender and Cook is a better offensive player, so it makes no difference which one starts and which one doesn't, but Suljagic has shown that he can be competent offensively and Cook brings a certain amount of energy off the bench. Play Rizvic depending on the matchup (i.e. Longar, Hubalek, Diene, etc.)
- Rebounding, Again and Again: This is getting to be a repeat of last year, but the Red Raiders were awful rebounding the ball again. I think a small lineup is part of the problem, but the other part is just blocking out and that's not happening.
- Offensive Purpose: Without a true point guard in the game, Roberson, the offense is just a bunch of guys passing the ball around without any sort of purpose. At the 11:46 point in the game, Roberson got his 2nd foul and came out of the game. Martin Zeno got a 2 point bucket and then didn't score until there was 5:06 left in the game. That's a really long stretch not to score, all the while, UT broke out of their early game slump with 9 points during that stretch. The players and Knight need to figure out who needs to be featured whenever Roberson isn't in the game. Obviously, you would think that it would be Zeno and Voskuil, but it's not apparent from watching the games.
Up Next: Oklahoma State @ Texas Tech, February 2, 2008 at 1:00 p.m. (Television - ESPN).