Post Game Thoughts | Oral Roberts Golden Eagles 82, Texas Tech Red Raiders 86

POST GAME THOUGHTS

GUARDS

I think the most frustrating thing about the game was the fact that a guy that was only averaging 7 points a game, PG Hunter McClintock, went off for 18 points and Texas Tech didn't have an answer for a guy that didn't seem like that big of a match-up problem. Both PG John Roberson and PG Jararez Willis were quicker than McClintock, but McClintock found ways to get around and shoot over anyone that was covering him. But to give Roberson credit, he did score 16 points on just 8 shots (16 Pts; 4-8 FG; 7-8 FT; 4 Reb; 1 Ast; 4 TO) and his free throws at the end of the game is the reason why Texas Tech was able to put away the game. SG David Tairu has seemed a little bit lost offensively and I mentioned early in the year that Tairu is a streaky shooter and he's in one of those bad streaks, but Tairu always finds a way to be productive on the court (5 Pts; 1-6 FG; 4 Reb; 1 Ast; 2 Stl; 2 Blk; 1 TO). SG Mike Davis continues to make plays despite not being able to be any sort of offensive threat. One thing Davis needs to do is get a little more lift on his free throws. He shoots them like he's launching a rocket. The aforementioned Willis received a little bit of playing time, but he and SG Jamel Outler played relatively insignificant minutes last night.

FORWARDS

The story of the game was Singletary really dominated inside and he hasn't been this effecitve in a really long time. I think he was due, but the truth of the matter is that Singletary needs to do more of this on a more regular basis than what he has been doing, which is not playing defense and hardly contributing offensively. SF Brad Reese is starting to struggle offensively and he's never learned that when his shot is struggling that he needs to mix it up inside, like Tairu and make a positive contribution (12 Pts; 4-12 FG; 0-2 3FG; 2 Reb). Seems like you could get more than 2 rebounds from someone with Reese's strength. PF Robert Lewandowski continues to do what he do, which is score on nifty little hook shots, off of pick-and-rolls and layups all the while increasing his presence on the court by getting more involved rebounding and also had 3 assists from the top of the key and finding teammates inside (13 Pts; 6-13 FG; 9 Reb; 3 Ast; 1 Stl). Finally. I got to see PF Paul Cooper. First impressions: he's big, really big, all of 6-8/250, but quite frankly he looked a bit lost in his first action of the season missing on some defensive rotations. It's too soon to make any sort of determination if he's actually going to make a positive impact, but at the very least he's an option and it's 5 fouls to give. D'Walyn Roberts finally played and it looks like he didn't miss a beat. He had a horrible stat-line, but he's still really athletic and can still jump out of the gym (0 Pts; 1 Reb; 1 Blk; 1 TO). Much like Cooper, he's 5 additional fouls and he's typically been a pretty good rebounder.

COACHING

For the first time Pat Knight had all of players he thought he'd have at the start of the season. Roberts and Cooper didn't havea huge impact, but Knight finally had options. Of course, the downside of this was that SF Jaye Crockett saw very few minutes, but with Singletary having a huge game, it was tough to take him out of the game. But this is also a time to celebrate. I think this may have been the first time all year that Texas Tech out-rebounded their opponent, 41 to 33. And Oral Roberts isn't a small team and has pretty good depth inside. The downside was the fact that as a team, ORU shot 50.8% from the field, which is just unacceptable. Again, I think we knew going into the game that ORU had a nice compliment of inside players, but to let McClintock get 19 points on just 13 shots is not going to cut it, especially against Washington. I thought ORU was called for a handful of ticky-tack fouls that didn't seem appropriate, but they only made 54.5% of their free throws while Texas Tech capitalized and made 82.4% of their free throws.