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The Fastbreak | Justin Gray Injury (Tendinitis)

Weekly update for the Red Raiders basketball team… hot topics, quotes, stats, and more.

By DanSwany
Michael C. Johnson-USA TODAY Sports

Hot Topic

We learned from Krista Pirtle on Monday after the WVU game that Justin Gray was injured and would not practice this week...

Freshman forward Justin Gray played only six minutes Monday night against West Virginia.

Coach Smith said his tendinitis, that Gray has in both knees, has flared up bad.

"We're going to have to shut him down," Smith said. "I'm afraid he might do more damage to his knees. It really hurts because he's a 6-foot-6 guy that can play the three and four."

By "shut him down," Gray won't practice this week. Smith said they would see how he is at game time.

Gray is a starter that has been struggling over the last few games with this tendinitis issue. Before the Houston game he was playing 20+ minutes and getting points. He had a stretch of scoring 18, 13, and 17 points before that game. In the game with the Cougars he only played 9 minutes, and I thought it was because of picking up a 3rd foul early from a quick 2nd half whistle. He scored 0 points in the match-up. Since that game he has only scored 8 points combined over the last three games.

This injury is significant because we do not have a lot of guys that can carry us on the offensive side of the court. Before the tendinitis flared up Gray was able to get buckets. He was not a three-point threat, but he could hit mid-range jumpers and score on drives in the paint.

Being able to play Gray at the 3 spot in the starting lineup gave Tech the ability to play with a bigger starting lineup. Without him in the starting lineup (like against UT) we usually go with a 3 guard offense. From what we have seen this season so far, we are not a good enough shooting team to play with 3 guards. The opponents stack the inside and it is hard to get the ball down in the post. We can't spread the other team's defense because nobody can knock down a shot.

Basically, Gray being out is a huge loss for the dynamics of this team. The Red Raiders strategy that Tubby Smith uses against other teams is changed when Gray is not on the floor. Same can be said about Zach Smith, he helps hold down the 4 spot really well (more so on the defensive end).

Let's hope for a speedy recovery for Justin Gray. The team should not rush it, let him get healthy and feel good enough to start scoring points again. He needs to come back when he's close to 100%.

Quotes

After loss to Texas...

"We didn’t quit and I thought our youngsters, our young players, freshmen really battled. That’s not something to take away from Rob, Toddrick, Randy and the other guys. I thought Zack and especially Keenan really battled. Isiah is getting better every day. We probably should’ve gone with a bigger line up maybe and find our way. When Jonathon Holmes is at that three-spot it creates a real problem for us. Last year we were starting Jaye Crockett at the three spot and we were able to match up better size wise. That’s why they just annihilated us on the boards. I’m impressed with them (Texas) and how physical and big they are." -Coach Tubby Smith

Jaye Crockett was a huge asset to the team for many years, and the loss of his presence on the court has caused a huge setback to our current team. I miss Jaye.

On what was tough about Texas...

"Just their frontline is huge. They start at 6-8, 6-9, and 6-11. It’s just a long frontline, it’s hard to see around them and they did a really good job protecting the paint." - Robert Turner

Tech is going to have trouble against big frontcourts until we can consistently hit our mid-range jumpers and outside shots. Opponents will stack the inside and dare us to make outside shots. We need to be able to stretch their defense outside of the paint.

On the last four minutes of the game...

"You know we just wanted to win and determination to win. Everybody tried to play harder in the last couple of minutes." - Isaiah Manderson

The Red Raiders should play with a sense of urgency from right when the ball is tipped-off. We always find ourselves playing the comeback role.

After loss to West Virginia...

"It takes a while at this level to understand one false step, one false move, it's going to cost you... Good teams and good players are going to take advantage of you. It happened to us consistently" - Coach Tubby Smith

WVU was congratulated on being a good team. As stated before, Tech cannot afford to fall and come from behind against good teams.

"They were running everywhere... Some people were nervous. I was nervous at some points." - Devaugntah Williams

That just about says it all right there. The full-court press from WVU rattled the squad and caused our guys to play out-of-control. Out team is young and they will learn how to handle pressure better as the season goes forward.

Stats

G MP FG FGA FG% 2P 2PA 2P% 3P 3PA 3P% FT FTA FT% ORB DRB TRB AST STL BLK TOV PF PTS PTS/G
Team 15 3027 338 769 .440 265 535 .495 73 234 .312 276 423 .652 182 371 553 181 109 69 214 261 1025 68.3
Rank 176th 203rd 161st 122nd 138th 146th 272nd 254th 264th 6th 2nd 279th 67th 109th 83rd 180th 77th 59th 290th 180th 115th 161st
Opponent 15 3027 308 799 .385 217 508 .427 91 291 .313 193 299 .645 159 316 475 142 107 48 217 333 900 60.0
Rank 111th 197th 44th 90th 167th 51st 196th 244th 105th 172nd 213th 43rd 213th 119th 146th 44th 288th 176th 72nd 336th 127th 48th
Provided by Sports-Reference.com/CBB: View Original Table
Generated 1/8/2015.

I'm not going to harp on it anymore... just look one more time at our free throw percentage. 65.2% and ranked at #279 out of 351. We must get better!

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