Grading the Red Raiders | Alabama Crimson Tide 66, Texas Tech Red Raiders 62

This is becoming a team that is known as a three-point shooting team. However, this is a team that cannot make three-pointers right now. Last night, the team was 3 of 18 from behind the three point line, which is abysmal and now the guards are shooting this team out of games and from what I can tell, it was getting the ball inside that led to the comeback and working for good shots. I think, by the second half, the team realized that this team has to work from the inside-out, but it was too late. Statistically, there wasn't a guard that scored in double-figures. I thought that PG Josh Gray matured as the game progressed and I thought that he's really starting to figure out when he can pass. SG Trency Jackson only played 8 minutes and didn't do much. SG Jamal Williams is a glue guy and he is never going to overwhelm you with stats, but thought he played well. PG Daylen Robinson saw signficant time and led the team with 4 assists and only 3 turnovers. The worst part about the guards was their inability to guard the three-point line in the first half, in particular Trevor Lacey who had four three-pointers. You've got to get out on the permiter.

This was really the F Jordan Tolbert and F Jaye Crockett show as they received the majority of minutes. And they were both pretty good. Tolbert finished with 12 points and 3 rebounds, but I thought he was especially good in the first half. Crockett was the star of the show, scoring 22 points on 9 of 16 from the floor and he had 11 rebounds, including 5 offensive rebounds. He kept possessions alive and he is really becoming a really nice option offensively. He did have 6 turnovers and I must admit that I don't remember all of them, but there were some critical turnovers late in the second half that cost the team some possessions. I am starting to get frustrated with Dejan Kravic because he has the talent and athleticism to average 10 points and 7 boards a game. He's just not playing as well as he can and it is frustrating. He is not putting a bodyon opponents and he's allowing opposing players to muscle him. He can be so much better than that, but the lightbulb needs to go on relatively quickly. I thought that Kade Tapsoba's 6 minutes were meaningful. Not perfect, but he was good and he scored 5 points in just 6 minutes. I'd be fine with him getting some more time.

Walker is going to have to pull the reins in on the three-point shots at some point. Last week, Bubba Jennings mentioned that as a basketball player, you can't settle, but the players are really starting to settle. I am glad to see that the team seemed to play inside-out in the second half a bit more as Tolber had 9 of his 12 points and Crockett had 10 of his 22 points in the second half. But still, the team took 9 three-point shots in the first half and 9 in the second half. You hate to see the loss, but you like to see the team fight and they did fight, but he needs to win some of these games. Walker also gets credit for finding Nurse for some significant minutes and I think that Walker also knows that Nurse is generally better in limited minutes, but he needed something from the guard spot.