TEXAS TECH (7-15, 0-10)
VS. KANSAS ST. (16-6, 5-5) Game Essentials
Date | February 7, 2012Time | 7:00 pm Location | Manhattan, KS TV | Big 12 Network Radio | Affiliates Texas Tech Starting 5
Kevin Wagner (5-8/145) | 2.5 PPG | 1.5 RPGJavarez Willis (5-11/171) | 7.7 PPG | 1.8 APG Terran Petteway (6-6/185) | 3.8 PPG | 2.0 RPG Jordan Tolbert (6-7/210) | 11.9 PPG | 6.0 RPG Robert Lewandowski (6-10/256) | 7.2 PPG | 3.7 RPG Kansas St. Starting 5
Angel Rodriguez (5-11/180) | 7.4 PPG | 2.5 APGWill Spradling (6-2/180) | 10.4 PPG | 2.8 APG Rodney McGruder (6-4/205) | 15.0 PPG | 5.2 RPG Jamar Samuels (6-7/230) | 10.4 PPG | 6.4 RPG Thomas Gipson (6-7/275) | 8.5 PPG | 5.5 RPG |
WHAT TO EXPECT
I'M SO SCARED BABY, PART II | Last time I did this, I was scared and Texas Tech lost by 19 while playing in the United Spirit Arena. I can't imagine what's going to happen at Bramlage Coliseum and if you were at all curious, the current line is 18. Strangely, K-State is in about the same spot in terms of the Big 12 as they were the last time. Previously, K-State was 3-3 before playing Texas Tech and are now 5-5, so I'm expecting that K-State will notch a win tonight. K-State continues to be pretty darned good defensively and are holding opponents to 10 points below (63 PPG) their own scoring average (73 PPG) and are also holding opponents to 39.9% from the field.
NO LONGER SURE WHAT TO WRITE | I think that I'm at the point where I'm struggling as to what to write at this point in the year. There are still 8 conference games remaining and, unfortunately, this team isn't showing any sort of ability to win a conference game. Like a lot of you, I'm at the point where I'm trying to find positives in each game and I think that Texas Tech came away with some positves the last time they played K-State as Wagner scored 16, Tolbert had 18 and Crockett had 9. As you might expect, I'm reaching here because I think I know, no matter how good I think Gillispie is as a head coach, there's only so much magic that I think he can create and I'm simply not seeing a conference win this year and that's depressing. As most of you know, I'm more of a glass-half-full person, but I'm also realistic and it's amazing how devoid of talent there is on this team. I think that Gillispie is bringing a bit of this on himself in not playing certain players more often, but even if the 5 best players had 30 minutes, I still don't think this team wins a conference game. Sad face.
KEY MATCHUPS
IRVING VS. CROCKETT | Martavious Irving (6-1/180) scored 16 points off the bench, going 6 of 10 from the field and had 4 assists for the night. I never expecting Irving to explode for 16 points (he's averaging just over 6) and this again goes to some of the issues that this team has defensively, which is that this team has a tough time keeping guards off the scoring ledger. Crockett had 9 points and 5 boards in the last game and would hope that he continues to get more minutes rather than the up-and-down affair that a handful of players are experiencing. Crockett and Irving will most likely not face each other, but if they bench is as important as it was the last game for K-State, 38 of their 69 points off the bench, the depth for Texas Tech is going to have to be better.
TOLBERT VS. SAMUELS | I'm going to highlight this again because, as mentioned above, was a true bright spot for this team as Tolbert had 18 points, 8 rebounds 2 blocks and just 2 turnovers. It was nice to see Tolbert break out of his slump and score some points. Add to this equation the fact that Samuels didn't score a point the last time these two teams met or even grabbed a rebound. I'm betting that Frank Martin is going to let Samuels know how bad he was out-played the last game and would expect a better effort.