After the Buzzer: Texas Tech

Quick Hitters:

-These are much more fun after a win, so let’s just get it all over with and out of the way.

-It’s never a good sign when your team has more turnovers than made baskets, which was the case on Tuesday night. The Cards made 18 shots but turned it over 19 times.

-The big topic of conversation has been the point guard play, or lack thereof. This was not Darius Perry’s finest hour. In just 15 minutes played, he was able to turn the ball over six times without dishing out an assist. It wasn’t only that for me, as that is just box score stuff. He took at least two very challenged shots that I can remember (one in film review) and then passed up a wide open three on an inside-out look (also on film review). So it was just a bad night all around on his decision making.

-So here’s the debate that was the hot topic on social media. Do you bench him for David Johnson? I just don’t know. I get it, I really do. And I have had trust issues with Perry’s decision making from the start. He has been much better this year, but we know this pass-first part of his game is not natural. So I have no problem at all with Johnson getting more minutes and seeing what he can do there. My concern is the mental aspect of it all. Some guys NEED to start and their ego takes a hit if they get benched. We saw him hang his head last night. Would benching him now do more damage to him and send him back to the last year version of him?

Part of me says “then get over it and play ball” and the other part says that he came into the game with 47 assists and 18 turnovers, so do we give up on him totally after one clunker? If so, we would need four new starters after that game. I don’t think Ryan McMahon would be as down on himself if he came off the bench, so is that the solution if a change is made? Johnson and Perry as the guards with Kimble and McMahon off the bench? I’m not sure right now. Two things I do know are that I don’t want to rush to decisions after one game and that I will put my trust in Coach Mack, who is around the team every single day and knows what’s best.

-The frustrating part about several of the turnovers are that they were the same kind, trying to force it down to Enoch in the second half. If you stare down Enoch and then the double team comes, just make a quick pass to the open man in the corner. That was usually wide open, and that guy has an open shot or he can deliver it into Enoch. It was like they tried to get it to him right away instead of being patient. And it kept happening.

-Jordan Nwora had three assists and four turnovers, bringing his season totals to 13 assists and 24 turnovers.

-It felt like Nwora let his offense impact his defense, which can’t happen. He was 4-16 from the field, but had some lazy moments on the other end of the floor. Whether it was letting up and coming out of his stance, or going under a screen instead of over, those mental lapses came back to bite the team. They don’t always do, but they did in this one. He was 1-9 from the field in the first half and it was only a three point game. He just never got into a rhythm that let him take over and be the best player on the floor.

-Nwora played 36 minutes and Samuell Williamson played 10. I wonder how things may have turned out if Nwora played 30 and Williamson played 16. Or if he played more of Sutton’s 31 minutes since he struggled as well. Just things to ponder. One thing that Williamson did not do was turn the ball over, so that was a good thing that most other guys couldn’t claim.

-I love Steven Enoch, but I want to see him get the ball and try to make a power move and dunk on someone and not always settle for the hook shot. That’s my only knock on him on the offensive side of the floor. You’re a beast, just be a bigger one.

-At the risk of making “quick hitters” not so quick, I’ll go ahead and wrap this up. I am not one to panic and say the ship is sinking after one bad game. Louisville was 18-53 from the field. If you have a decent shooting game, maybe we are talking about another win. Sometimes you just have a bad night, and this was the collection of a lot of people having a bad night.

-I did this film review actually during the game, so I would stop and rewind and record it as the game was on, and then just catch up to real time during timeouts and halftime. I say that to show that any negative play you will see, I had no idea some of them were themes of the night, such as bad shot selection or turnovers. I just noticed them as the game went on and thought they were noteworthy. Unfortunately, they were and there could have been even more clips of those things.

-Put your big boy pants on, get over it, and fix it. Take it all out on EKU on Saturday and get back on track.

Film Review: