HippieVol33
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HUGE game on national television at MSG in the "Jimmy V Classic" a big time ESPN promoted event where many CBB fans all around the country will tune in to watch. Texas Tech is 6-1 coming into this one after a loss on the road to Providence in a thrilling game that was pretty fun to watch. Winning this one would put us at 7-1 and all but guarantee going into the Memphis matchup at 9-1. The win at Colorado kind of gave us some breathing room going into this one, but all that I've seen says we should win this one. IMO we are the better team on paper and on the court.
As we all know TTU lost Chris Beard to Texas and promoted Mark Adams, Texas Tech grad and a guy that was apart of Chris Beard's Sun Belt title winning team that went 30-5 (2015-16) before following Beard to Texas Tech, his Alma mater. His philosophy is very similar, slow the game down and smother the other team defensively. Defense wins games in the mind of TTU and that's exactly what they will try and do to us on a neutral court.
Tech is sort of relative to us in the way they play a number of guys and nobody plays super heavy minutes for them. All numbers used will come from KenPom.com
Before I jump into numbers I must say that Tech hasn't seen anybody close to our talent level so far this season. Their Non conf SOC is 356th in the country and the combined record of opponents leading into this game is 16-45 with 8 of those wins being Providence's wins. So their rotations numbers may be a tad inflated due to SOC. I'll include the ORtg (Offensive rating) and national rank as well.
Most used rotation:
PG: Mylik Wilson (6'3" 175) 57.1% of minutes (ORtg 126.5) 149th in the country
SG: Adonis Arms (6'5" 200) 47.1% of minutes (ORtg 117.1) 378th in the country
SF: Kevin McCullar (6'6" 210) 53.2% of minutes (ORtg 119.1) 294th in the country
PF: Kevin Obanor (6'8" 235) 53.9% of minutes (ORtg 136.2) 44th in the country
C: Bryson Williams (6'8" 240) 56.1% of minutes (ORtg 134.4) 52nd in the country
Bench:
PG: Davion Warren (6'6" 205) 56.4% of minutes (ORtg 128.2) 118th in the country
SG/SF: Terrence Shannon (6'6" 215) 36.1% of minutes (Ortg 128.1)
PF: Marcus Santos-Silva (6'7" 250) 41.4% of minutes (ORtg 106.5)
Texas Tech is led by Kevin Obanor offensively. If that sounds familiar it's because he's a transfer from Oral Roberts the 15 seed in last seasons NCAAT that shocked the world and made the S16. Obanor was an absolute menace in last seasons tournament and really set himself up to transfer into P5 basketball. He's a very strong body that can score the ball from pretty much everywhere. He has a very nice outside shot to help him be effective and tough to guard. Possibly our biggest challenge in this game will be shutting him down.
Adonis Arms is a Winthrop transfer that shoots the ball pretty well from outside (8-19 42%) and is a pretty effective passer. Mainly played because he's a very good defender with size that can cause smaller guards problems on the ball.
Kevin McCullar has been at Tech the last 3 seasons and is a jack of all trades kind of guy. Has good length to bother you defensively and does everything pretty well, but not great. The JJJ of their team, if you will. He has stepped up offensively for this Tech team although he does play a little too aggressive at times and gets into foul trouble.
Mylik Wilson is a very good passer and has good size as a PG. He won't score the ball all that much but he will look to harass Chandler defensively and get his team into their sets and control the slow pace that Tech likes to play at.
Bryson Williams is a 2x transfer starting his career at Fresno St before transferring to UTEP last season. He's not particularly big for a C in todays game but he plays hard and rebounds the ball at a high level. He's shown he can step out and shoot the 3 ball, but won't do it very often. He is turnover prone so hopefully we can use our active hands to get him to turn it over.
Marcus Santos-Silva transferred from VCU before the 2020 season and gets the ball on the block quite a bit. Tech really likes to run their offense through him when he's in the game. He's very strong on the glass, especially on the offensive end. Keeping him from giving Tech extra possessions will be very large key to winning this game.
Tech is pretty efficient offensively and won't take many bad shots. They've not really seen a defense anywhere close to ours so us coming locked in on that end could be the major key to us getting the win in this one. Providence ran a lot of 2-3 against Tech which gave them problems at times. I don't see us switching to a 2-3 unless Tech is scoring easily against us, which I don't think will happen.
I also don't think Chandler will be able to get to the rim at will in this one. Us being patient and running our stuff to get good looks and knock down some long range shots will be the difference in this one. I think as long as we come out locked in and focused we should win this one similar to the game Saturday @Colorado. Pushing the pace and not allowing Tech to sit back in their tough defense should be THE key to this one and if we can get some easy looks pushing the ball in transition I like our chances.
Prediction: Tennessee 64 Texas Tech 58
As we all know TTU lost Chris Beard to Texas and promoted Mark Adams, Texas Tech grad and a guy that was apart of Chris Beard's Sun Belt title winning team that went 30-5 (2015-16) before following Beard to Texas Tech, his Alma mater. His philosophy is very similar, slow the game down and smother the other team defensively. Defense wins games in the mind of TTU and that's exactly what they will try and do to us on a neutral court.
Tech is sort of relative to us in the way they play a number of guys and nobody plays super heavy minutes for them. All numbers used will come from KenPom.com
Before I jump into numbers I must say that Tech hasn't seen anybody close to our talent level so far this season. Their Non conf SOC is 356th in the country and the combined record of opponents leading into this game is 16-45 with 8 of those wins being Providence's wins. So their rotations numbers may be a tad inflated due to SOC. I'll include the ORtg (Offensive rating) and national rank as well.
Most used rotation:
PG: Mylik Wilson (6'3" 175) 57.1% of minutes (ORtg 126.5) 149th in the country
SG: Adonis Arms (6'5" 200) 47.1% of minutes (ORtg 117.1) 378th in the country
SF: Kevin McCullar (6'6" 210) 53.2% of minutes (ORtg 119.1) 294th in the country
PF: Kevin Obanor (6'8" 235) 53.9% of minutes (ORtg 136.2) 44th in the country
C: Bryson Williams (6'8" 240) 56.1% of minutes (ORtg 134.4) 52nd in the country
Bench:
PG: Davion Warren (6'6" 205) 56.4% of minutes (ORtg 128.2) 118th in the country
SG/SF: Terrence Shannon (6'6" 215) 36.1% of minutes (Ortg 128.1)
PF: Marcus Santos-Silva (6'7" 250) 41.4% of minutes (ORtg 106.5)
Texas Tech is led by Kevin Obanor offensively. If that sounds familiar it's because he's a transfer from Oral Roberts the 15 seed in last seasons NCAAT that shocked the world and made the S16. Obanor was an absolute menace in last seasons tournament and really set himself up to transfer into P5 basketball. He's a very strong body that can score the ball from pretty much everywhere. He has a very nice outside shot to help him be effective and tough to guard. Possibly our biggest challenge in this game will be shutting him down.
Adonis Arms is a Winthrop transfer that shoots the ball pretty well from outside (8-19 42%) and is a pretty effective passer. Mainly played because he's a very good defender with size that can cause smaller guards problems on the ball.
Kevin McCullar has been at Tech the last 3 seasons and is a jack of all trades kind of guy. Has good length to bother you defensively and does everything pretty well, but not great. The JJJ of their team, if you will. He has stepped up offensively for this Tech team although he does play a little too aggressive at times and gets into foul trouble.
Mylik Wilson is a very good passer and has good size as a PG. He won't score the ball all that much but he will look to harass Chandler defensively and get his team into their sets and control the slow pace that Tech likes to play at.
Bryson Williams is a 2x transfer starting his career at Fresno St before transferring to UTEP last season. He's not particularly big for a C in todays game but he plays hard and rebounds the ball at a high level. He's shown he can step out and shoot the 3 ball, but won't do it very often. He is turnover prone so hopefully we can use our active hands to get him to turn it over.
Marcus Santos-Silva transferred from VCU before the 2020 season and gets the ball on the block quite a bit. Tech really likes to run their offense through him when he's in the game. He's very strong on the glass, especially on the offensive end. Keeping him from giving Tech extra possessions will be very large key to winning this game.
Tech is pretty efficient offensively and won't take many bad shots. They've not really seen a defense anywhere close to ours so us coming locked in on that end could be the major key to us getting the win in this one. Providence ran a lot of 2-3 against Tech which gave them problems at times. I don't see us switching to a 2-3 unless Tech is scoring easily against us, which I don't think will happen.
I also don't think Chandler will be able to get to the rim at will in this one. Us being patient and running our stuff to get good looks and knock down some long range shots will be the difference in this one. I think as long as we come out locked in and focused we should win this one similar to the game Saturday @Colorado. Pushing the pace and not allowing Tech to sit back in their tough defense should be THE key to this one and if we can get some easy looks pushing the ball in transition I like our chances.
Prediction: Tennessee 64 Texas Tech 58
