Troy Trojans 85, Texas Tech Red Raiders 90 | Post Game Thoughts

no pressure at all on these kids…just go out every day and improve…this will be fun…Gillispie was a great hire…we’re in good hands

I liked the TO’s being below 20. I thought we had a great offensive showing, except for a lacking of the inside game. But, if you are hitting your shots outside the paint the inside game becomes less important. I was impressed with the enthusiasm of the players, fans, and coaching. Over 10K in attendance is great! The things I wasn’t impressed with was rebounding and backcourt defense. Big Lew needs to bring out the guns and throw his body around to make his presence known. I’m not one to encourage flagrant fouling, but I was always tought to foul HARD, not dirty, down low in the post. Grab those rebounds with authority! Also, the guards played decent defence, but don’t let the other team drive and slash so easily to the hoop. Another thing I question is why Nash wasn’t playing, what’s the deal there? I believe Nash to be one of the better talents on our squad. All in all, happy for the win, and think this young team will be great as they grow.

and don’t be surprised if this team comes into it’s own toward the end of the season!

I tried ESPN3 and that worked until halftime, then it was voice only. Frustrating game to listen to, but the RR never quit attacking. This looked like a team against a set of pickup players. That is expected, they hardly know each other’s moves. This squad has talent and a good coach and will only get better and better.

Troy put on a full court press the entire game. The freshman handled the pressure really well, and once we got into our offense they showed a lot of patience. I don’t have a lot of expectations in terms of wins and losses, but I can get excited if they play with this much energy each night.

Bill G welcome to Texas Tech and thank you for taking this gig.

Lew needs to do a better job of playing disciplined basketball early on, this spending the last 15 minutes in foul trouble is no bueno. Tolbert’s on the right track, Nash was good off the bench, Nurse and to a slightly lesser extent Willis are pretty sick from the arc, and I don’t know what exactly Pettaway was doing but he played most of the game and didn’t make too many glaring errors so maybe I just don’t know enough about basketball to see what he brings to the table (not sarcasm btw, I really don’t know much). Overall I liked what I saw.

We can see what the coach is talking about when he says things about the team that indicate they have a lot to learn and much work to get there.

I am impressed with the guard play in general. I saw a lot of passing to give opportunities to break the opposing defense down, then I also saw some guys hit 3’s like they were routine shots. The defense will get better because we have a coach that will demand it in order to get playing time. They took good care of the ball and that in the face of a very strong aggressive defense especially on in bound plays. That this group handled that so well impresses me, both from an execution perspective and a coaching perspective.

I like Petteway’s game…it is raw but I like him. Man what a head of hair !! He plays with aggression and speed, confident, does not let an oops bother him. He will be fun to watch over the course of his career. Impressed with a Galveston kid, that area has a reputation for rough, he shines double at this point in my eyes.

I have never seen a bb coach go into the stands like Gillispie did at games’ end. That boy is going to be easy to like. He cares like no one can know and he is incredibly open and humble with it, down to earth is what I am seeing. I would love to talk with him a couple of hours to see if he is the kind of person I think he is. And his team was prepared in a way that I haven’t seen in years…even after such a short time of work with them.

Troy played fun basketball and it made the whole of the game fun. Their play allowed our guys to be open and creative which gave us the chance to see their more raw abilities. When they are harnessed into a solid up tempo team style of play we are going to grin big.

The game was a lot of fun. Troy came ready to play. Tech won’t face a team that runs a man press and a zone D for a long time. Troy at times was flustering the team on the inbound, but Tech manager to overcome it.

A few observations.

Tech had ZERO inside presence this game. We had a tough time getting offensive and defensive rebounds. I don’t recall many points in the paint at all. We can’t expect to shoot this well every game. We need Crocket back.

Second, the rotation was interesting. I would guess before Lew got into foul trouble maybe 8 different players played in game. From what I have read Billy G has these guys in shape. Nurse put on a show. It seemed to me that he wasn’t expect to be the leading scorer, but once he go hot Nurse was moved to Shooting Guard. I look forward to the rest of the season. I expect a season more closely to Billy G’s first season at UTEP than compared to his first season at A&M.