No losses are tough for me for the rest of the year. I've resigned myself to just let the year play out, not criticize and just watch how Pat Knight (herein "PK") starts to mold this team.
| Player | Comment |
| Mike Singletary | The only guy battling inside. Didn't have a great day getting the ball in the bucket and missed a number of inside shots, but it wasn't for a lack of trying. 11 points and 10 boards. |
| Esmir Rizvic | Virtually absent for the entire game. Didn't seem to add much resistance against Maric defensively. Disappointing day. |
| Martin Zeno | Not a bad game from Zeno, but as others have noted, he shot too many threes. Doesn't take advantage of his athleticism enough. |
| John Roberson | An average day from Roberson, with 12 points and 3 assists. Needs to figure out how to draw a foul while driving to the basket. |
| Charlie Burgess | Also seems invisible when on the court. Really only benefited the team offensively with two low post moves. That's not what you want from your starting guard. |
| D'Walyn Roberts | Minimal minutes. |
| Alan Voskuil | Finally figured out that he needs to shoot more, a team high 15 shots, but a number of those shots didn't come in the flow of offense. There's a balance that he needs to find. |
| Trevor Cook | Absolutely horrible day defensively. Didn't put a body on Maric on at least 2 occassions and resulted in easy buckets. |
| Michael Prince | Minimal minutes. |
| Damir Suljagic | Better defensively than Cook and Rizvic, but still wasn't good. Didn't add anything else and it was disappointing. |
| Ricardo De Bem | Minimal minutes. |
What Texas Tech Did Right: Very little.
- Singletary Shines Again: If there's one thing that we're learning this year it's that Singletary will contribute, one way or another. He may not be able to score like we'd like every game, but if he is held in check scoring, he's going to grab some rebounds, get in some opposing player's heads and do something. I like that.
- Voskuil Shoots: I've been bitching almost the entire year that Voskuil doesn't shoot enough. Well, on Saturday he did, 15 shots worth. I appreciate Voskuil's willingness to take some more of the offensive pressure, but those shots need to come within the flow of the game. It seems that under RMK, Voskuil would pass up seemingly open shots. Against Nebraska, Voskuil was coming off of screens and shooting with defenders in his face. There's got to be some sort of balance between passing up open shots and not letting the game come to you.
What Texas Tech Did Wrong:
- The Frontcourt: Sometimes it's hard figuring out who a coach is talking about when he says that the guys playing in the frontcourt may not have jobs next year, but I've never been so sure after I watched the game last night and noticed that Trevor Cook was abysmal on Saturday. There were three possessions where he didn't even so much as get a body on Maric and as a result, Maric made the guards playing look downright silly. I think both RMK and PK both understood that you may not be an immensely talented frontcourt player, but you can do two things when playing someone who is better than you: block out and put a body on him (i.e. make it difficult to be productive). Cook and to a certain extent the entire frontcourt didn't do this. Things have got to change.
- Shooting Woes: I'm not really going to blame the shooting woes on the guys who are actually shooting the ball (the peremiter players) because I do think that the long season of never having any post players produce consistently has worn down the guards. It's becomging more and more difficult for the guards to score. Shooting from the permimeter isn't ideal, but there aren't just a lot of options. I'm not sure that there's an answer to this question, at least this year, other than to continue to try and get Zeno and Singletary shots in and around the basket.
- Finding an Identity: I'm not going to fault PK for any of this, but it seems pretty obvious to me that there's going to be an adjustment with Pat at the helm, and quite frankly, I'm okay with that. The more I think about it the more it makes sense for PK to coach the remaining 10 games, or however many are left, and next season, he'll be able to start at square one. That being said, finding an identity in the middle of the Big 12 conference play isn't easy and there's going to be an adjustment that will be tough to watch.
Up Next: Kansas State @ Texas Tech, February 13, 2008 at 8:00 p.m. (Television - ESPN 2).