Two games in Brooklyn against stiffer competition provided Grant McCasland the opportunity to learn a bit more about this year’s Texas Tech basketball team.
Lineup tweaks and defensive rotations were among the biggest issues in Thursday’s 78-77 loss to Saint Joseph’s, but McCasland liked how his team responded in the third-place game against Syracuse, including his two leading scorers in JT Toppin and Darrion Williams.
Against the Hawks, Toppin set a new career-high with 18 rebounds, tying for second in program history with 12 offensive boards. On Monday, he was named Big 12 newcomer of the week, but Toppin wasn’t satisfied with his performance since it came in a one-point loss.
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“That’s the thing I love about JT,” McCasland said, “is he’s playing this game to win.”
Williams, likewise, wasn’t pleased with the Saint Joe’s game. Tech’s do-it-all leader had a few shots close to the rim not connect for him. That included the potential game-winning floater that rimmed out as time expired. Williams bounced back against the Orange, shooting 9-of-14 from the field for 20 points in the 79-74 win.
“That game really bothered him that he didn’t finish the game,” McCasland said of Williams’ mindset after the Saint Joe’s loss. “… I thought his composure level to come back from a from a disappointment like he did to play really composed, and I thought he was on balance and he made some great defensive plays.”
Six-game sample sizes are hard to generate a ton of deep thinking on a basketball team. McCasland, though, sees one big thing the Red Raiders need: more time together.
Thus far, the Red Raiders haven’t had its nine main players all healthy and free of restrictions. Elijah Hawkins and Christian Anderson missed the first two games, and Hawkins was limited against Wyoming. Then Federiko Federiko missed the Arkansas-Pine Bluff game and was dealing with his shoulder injury throughout the Legends Classic, playing just 17 minutes combined in the two games.
“There’s nuances to this game,” McCasland said. “There’s a physicality that it takes, but there’s a flow that you need to get into and to compete at the level that we want defensively, we’ve got to play against each other so we can improve.”
When the Red Raiders will be whole is still in question — Eemeli Yalaho, another option in the post, has yet to suit up this season as well. For now, Texas Tech will turn its attention to a Northern Colorado team that’s already shown it can compete with Big 12 competition.
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Earlier this month, Northern Colorado went to double overtime with a Colorado team that knocked off the two-time reigning national champion Connecticut Huskies in the Maui Invitational. The Bears lost by two to the Buffs, but have a win over perennial mid-major power South Dakota State to its credit this season.
Northern Colorado has already hit 83 3-pointers this season and is shooting 38.4% from beyond the arc. That was an area that plagued Texas Tech in Brooklyn, and it’s one McCasland knows the team needs to get better in at in the long run.
“Especially in our first game against Saint Joe’s early, defensively we just allowed too many catch-and-shoot 3s that put us behind,” McCasland said. “We’ve got an awesome team, but we’ve got a long way to go and I think we need games and practices to continue to improve and this will be a great opportunity to test ourselves and see how much improvement we’ve made.”
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Legends Classic a good learning experience for Texas Tech basketball
