Preview and Game Day Thread :: TAMU-Corpus Christi Islanders vs. Texas Tech Red Raiders

Players Focus

Texas A&M-Corpus Christi: As mentioned above, TAMU-CC is picked to win their respective conference and G Kevin Palmer leads his squad, scoring over 18 PPG, which accounted for over 25% of the Islanders' points. Palmer was also the Southland Conferences Newcomer of the year. The rest of the Islanders failed to break double-figures in scoring. If there was ever a one-man-show, this is it.

Texas Tech:  First game as a Division I performer, all G David Tairu does is lead the team in scoring with 17 points on 4-8 from the floor and 2-2 from beyond the arc.  I should focus on PF Darko Cohadarevic 13 rebounds for last night's game, which is impressive considering how much he struggled last year, but I want to see Darko to do this consistently.

Notable Note

  Texas A&M-Corpus Christi:  This is the second opponent coaching Notable Note, but Perry Clark, yes that Perry Clark who was at Tulane and Miami for a few years, is coaching TAMU-CC. Clark was 18-15 and was 11-5 in conference, so he's done a good job of winning at TAMU-CC. The thing I remember most about Clark is that at Tulane, he would send in 5 players that would just harass an opposing offense and just speed up the tempo of the game, "The Posse".

  Texas Tech:  The newcomers were pretty good last night:  Juco SF Brad Reese had 9 points, 4 boards and 2 assists; Juco SF Theron Jenkins had 9 points, 3 boards and 3 assists; and freshman G Mike Davis had 6 points and 3 boards.  Again, that doesn't include Tairu's 17.  Pretty good for your first day on the job.

Needs Repair

  Texas A&M-Corpus Christi:  Despite Palmer's presences, the Islanders were still 218th in adjusted offense, which is about as bad as you can get. Thus, despite Palmer's presence, the Islanders still struggle to score efficiently. I'm guessing that if you just let Palmer score, the rest of the team doesn't have enough juice to keep pace.

  Texas Tech:  A little bothered by the 13 turnovers, but if Texas Tech is scoring 88 points, I'd imagine that the percentage of turnovers to actual possessions is probably pretty low.  Perhaps the worst stat of the night was the lackluster 3-point percentage, 2-11 at a 18.2% clip.  I'm not too concerned about this because no one player took more than three 3-point shots.  The misses were across the board, but this cannot be a season-long trend.

GO RAIDERS . . .