It doesn't get any easier from here. Damn that was embarrassing and I think that now we have to wonder who PK will go with from this point forward. Don't get me wrong, I think this team needs a good ass-chewing, but TAMU just hit their shots. The Ags haven't been this effective in quite some time and when a team his hitting their outside jumpers, well, that just makes Jordan, Jones and Davis that much more effective.
If you want, here's the boxscore.
I'm not going to do the traditional review because there's really not much to review, Texas Tech played poorly in all facets of the game. This team has to move on, they don't have a choice, the buzzsaw that is the Longhorns is right around the corner. What I thought we would discuss is what are we going to see on Saturday. It's obvious that PK wasn't happy with last night's performance:
What I do worry about is how this affects the team and how is PK going to adjust to guys not giving their all during the game. Will they play? Will they be relegated to the bench?
As noted in the article linked above, with 3:30 left to go in the game, PK sent freshman forward Mike Singletary to the locker room:
Here's what I worry about. Does Singletary have the frame of mind to apologize to the team and get back in the good graces of PK or does he become even more angry and look elsewhere? I have a feeling that Singletary is a man and he'll move forward, but I feel like that at today's practice PK needs to have each of these guys stand in a line at the baseline and ask them, "Are you with me or not?" This is where you choose, no hard feelings, and we all get that PK is not RMK, but this is who PK is. "Are you with me, or not?"
Bad losses will test the mettle of a team more so than wins and now the Red Raiders and PK are being tested. So what happens on Saturday?
The only commodity that a coach has that a player values is minutes. Minutes motivate. Of course you hope that a player is motivated by something more than that, but let's just assume that's the case. These guys are going to have to earn their minutes. Although I haven't really studied the boxscore from last night, it is clear that PK is fine with Burgess (34) and Voskuil (29) in terms of minutes. After that, it's anyone's guess. I'm more interested to see who is going to start and play on Saturday than anything else.
One other thing to note, I thought the biggest difference between these two teams was the big men. TAMU has big, athletic guys who can jump out of the gym and dunk on yo face. I think those type of guys are rare, but it's awfully hard to compete when TAMU has 3 guys like that while Texas Tech has none.
I'd love your thoughts on what you think will happen and whether or not the Red Raiders even have a chance against the Longhorns (personally, I think Texas Tech can beat just about anyone at home).
Up Next: Texas @ Texas Tech, Saturday, March 1, 2008 at 3:00 p.m. (Television - CBS).