Texas Tech Basketball Position Preview | Point Guards

Mike Davis | 6-2/200 | Junior

If I had to guess, I'd guess that Mike Davis is the type of player that head coach Billy Gillispie would like. He's tough, I think he's smart, and he's not afraid to play some defense. The problem with Davis for me is two-fold. He's not an offensive threat in any way shape or form. He shot 40.9% from the field last year. I also think he's a bit heavy and could lose a few pounds. I know, the thought that I think that Davis is a bit heavy seems crazy, but he just looked thicker in the torso this year and if Davis is going to succeed on this team, he's got to be able to guard any conference point guard. And I think he lost a bit of quickness as a result of his added weight. And Davis has never been skinny, but I think he's play better at about 190. And as to Davis' shooting, it's really abysmal. He's not an offensive threat in the least as he only shot 44 field goals for the year. It's also important to look at Davis' assists to turnovers, 21 to 15, and I'd imagine that Gillispie wants a higher ratio than that. If Davis wants to be the guy and start, and I think he has an opportunity to do so, then he must work on his outside shot and he's got to figure out how to beat his man off the dribble and score inside. We just haven't seen any of that and a completely one-dimensional player can hamstring an offense, especially if that player is not capable of hitting any sort of outside shot.

Javarez Willis | 5-11/171 | Sophomore

First things first, I can't remember where I read this, but I seem to recall that it was mentioned, perhaps by Linehan, that Willis may be a grade casualty. If that's the case, that's not good as Willis had to go to a prep school after high school. I hate this for him. As to Willis' game, he's a guy that was supposed to an excellent shooter and scorer coming out of his high school career and there were times that you could see that Willis could evenually be that game. The problem is that over the course of the season Willis only shot 38.9% from the field and 30% from the 3-point line. So, he wasn't the shooter as advertised and he did have more assists to turnovers, 40 to 31, but you would expect more from a point guard. Nevertheless, he was a freshman and a freshman will struggle. It's inevitable. But right now, Willis was not as advertised. Still, I saw enough from Willis where I didn't want to give up on him, so I hope that he stays qualified because I think it's worth him getting another chance, but with the addition of Nurse and Wagner, the writing may be on the wall.

More about Ty Nurse and Kevin Wagner, after the jump.

Ty Nurse | 6-1/180 | Junior 

Having not seen his game in the least, but just reading about what others have said about his game Nurse very well could be Gillispie's starting point guard. Obviously, Gillispie had the opportunity to watch every Texas Tech basketball game last year and he identified players that he wanted that may have been in the JUCO's or high school. Gillispie sought out Nurse. When Nurse committed from Midland College, his coach said that Nurse makes good decisions, he's like a quarterback, that his teams win (Nurse's Midland College team won over 30 games last year) and is a capable outside shooter. Nurse also isn't supposed to overwhelm you athletically, so there will need to be a quicker point guard on the team, which I think Texas Tech will have, whether it be Wagner or Willis, but there's one on the roster.

Kevin Wagner | 5-8/148 | Freshman

The nice thing about Wagner is that there is YouTubery on Wagner so you know what type of game he actually has. As a junior, he led his Estacado team to a state championship. He's a winner. Wagner averaged 16.8 points a game last year, 3.6 assists and shot 59% from the field. That's all good, but the downside is inevitable, which is that he's only 5'8". Just keep in mind that Wagner's dad, who was his head coach at Estacado, is significantly taller than Wagner, his dad might be closer to 6'2" than 5'8". Wagner may not be done growing yet and I know it's fool-hardy to think that he might grow a bit as a player, but I'm just throwing it out there. Despite being short, Wagner plays above the rim. He can really jump and maybe this is the difference between Wagner and a guy like John Roberson, who always struggled when he got inside the lane. Roberson could never rise up above the rim and finish, but Wagner can. It will be interesting to see if Wagner can continue to be the type of player that will continue what he did in high school where he shot at least 4 free throws a game.