 |
Way too many turnovers for this group against this team. The Texas Tech Red Raiders defeated the Centenary Gents 67-53 (boxscore). Just seemed really sloppy for a team that had a distinct athletic advantage over Centenary. Aside from the turnovers, the thing that bothered me the most was the lack of patience on the offensive end. Perhaps it was just the up and down nature of the second half, but there were a lot of shots that seemed haphazard and considering the size and talent gap, it would have made for a better game to see the Red Raiders really work for a good shot instead of taking an easy shot.
As some of you commented in the open game day thread, it may be a long season for the Red Raiders and to cut these guys a little bit of slack, it was a fairly significant lead at half, the Gents had only scored 14 points and I can somewhat understand relaxing a bit.
Perhaps more than anything else, this team needs to work on free throws as there was a lot of missed opportunities (13-24).
Offensive MVP: John Roberson A very good game for Roberson and really cut down on the turnovers with only 3, yet he had 7 assists and 12 points.
Defensive MVP: Robert Lewandowski How about that! Big Lew finished with 5 blocks and 5 boards for the game. Centenary is very much undersized, but I thought Lewandowski was pretty danged good on both ends of the court.
| BACKCOURT | |
C |
As mentioned above, John Roberson (13 pts; 3 rbs; 7 ast; 3 TO) had a very good game although there were still some frustrating points for me as Roberson made some mistakes that made me shake my head. Again, nothing awful and he was certainly steady at the point. Alan Voskuil (6 pts; 6 rbs; 2 ast; 2 TO) had another quiet game and struggled from the field again as he was only 2-9 and 2-5 from beyond the 3-point line. I must keep reminding myself that Tyree Graham (8 pts; 1 rbs; 1 ast; 3 TO) is young and there are going to be some growing pains. I can see the talent. It's there and I could have sworn he was responsible for more than 3 turnovers. Graham and Roberson need to remember that you don't leave the floor if you don't know where you're going to pass the ball. Slow down just a bit. Rogdrick Craig came in and played minimal minutes at the end of teh game. |
| FRONTCOURT | |
B |
I thought Robert Lewandowski (12 pts; 5 rbs; 1 ast; 5 blk; 1 TO) played one heck of a game. He exhibited additional post moves, including a hook shot, a couple of dunks, and did a nice job of anchoring the early press defense. He's developing a lot quicker than I thought he would, and that's a great thing. I thought D'Walyn Roberts (4 pts; 4 rbs; 1 ast; 1 blk; 2 TO) had a well-rounded game as well. He's not taking a ton of shots, but that's okay for me as he seems to excel at doing the dirty work. I liked seeing Roberts at the point-man for the press defense after a made basket. Roberts' frame was made to be that guy. Mike Singletary (8 pts; 6 rbs; 2 ast; 2 blk; 3 TO) seemed to have an uneven game and really wished that the team would focus when the offense is stalling and try and get the ball to him on the block. Trevor Cook (8 pts; 7 rbs; 1 ast; 1 blk) scored when he was in the game and did a good job of rebounding, but there were times where I wished that he would just slow down a bit. Corbin Ray (2 pts; 4 rbs; 1 ast; 1 TO) has taken those minutes that previously belonged to Darko Cohadarevic. There is no one on the team that's better at making an entry pass into the low-post than Ray. Seems to be a lost art on this team, but he's really good at the fundamentals. |
| COACHING | |
B- |
It might be hard to complain about a 14 point win that was really out of read for the entire 2nd half. Junior Knight mentioned it at halftime that Lew would be getting lots of looks because Centenary was undersized, however, we really didn't see a concerted effort by the guards to feed those guys in the post. I know that the motion offense can sometimes prohibit this type of play, but the guards need to do a better job of trying to feed the ball inside for easy buckets and/or settle down the offense. I do think that PK was trying to let them figure it out on their own and in the 2nd half, but I also thought that Centenary did a good job of denying the perimeter, which should have opened up the post. |
Up Next: December 28, 2008 - Texas Tech @ Stanford - 9:00 p.m.