Sugar coating is for fried pastries behind glass in your local supermarket. Grant McCasland may be able to make food analogies about his team, but he’s no chef.
The Texas Tech basketball head coach has been blunt in his assessment of the Red Raiders this season, and for good reason. For the first time in McCasland’s tenure, his team has a national profile, with a preseason spotlight shining on it after its near miss of reaching the Final Four in March.
Just as McCasland has proven preseason notions are for entertainment purposes only, exceeding modest expectations in his first two years in Lubbock, he also knows that this team, the one ranked in the Top 10 in the preseason, projected to be the one to challenge Houston’s supremacy atop the Big 12 Conference standings, is nowhere close to that level.
Losing to ranked teams like Illinois, Purdue (even by 30 points) and Arkansas is one thing. Having to overcome a Northern Colorado team down its best player and not having played a single high-major opponent all season is another.
Texas Tech came away with the 101-90 win, thanks in large part to LeJuan Watts having his typical breakfast of sausage, eggs and potatoes for a career-high 36 points on 12-of-13 shooting. Without Watts, the preseason Big 12 newcomer of the year, rounding into form on the night, the 19th-ranked Red Raiders would have lost the game.
And maybe they should have.
“Defensively,” McCasland said after the game, “I’m at a loss in regards to who’s playing on the floor.”
Texas Tech’s best defender, Luke Bamgboye, was supposed to be the anchor to the Red Raiders on that end of the floor. He has been sidelined with various ailments this season, missing the Arkansas game due to concussion protocol. The 6-foot-11 center returned against the Bears, but exited the game midway through the first half.
Bamgboye jumped to contest a 3-pointer and came down holding his left leg. He walked off the court under his own power but did not return to the bench for the second half. McCasland didn’t sound too optimistic about his status after the game.
“I’ll just say it didn’t look good,” McCasland said. “It was a non-contact situation, and I know (trainer) Mike (Neal) came to me right afterwards and said, ‘Hey, he’s going to be out for this game, and we’ll evaluate him afterwards.'”
McCasland is so desperate for answers on the defense end, he pulled the trigger on letting seldom-used point guard Jazz Henderson get some run in the first half. Part of it was to give Christian Anderson some rest for a change, but Henderson has also met the challenge McCasland set for him to improve on the defensive end.
“He’s made a big step,” McCasland said of Henderson. “We put him on the scout team just so he could get reps, and he’s been guarding Christian all over the place and he’s made strides. And so I said I’m gonna play him, and that’s going to be kind of our opportunity to get him on the floor. …”
Beyond that, McCasland hasn’t gotten what he needs defensively from, really, anybody else on the team. He pointed to the team’s lack of ability to guard 1-on-1, in the post, covering switches and working through screens. After a solid defensive showing against LSU and a close game against Arkansas, McCasland said the team took “a big step back” on the defensive end.
What Texas Tech basketball can do if Luke Bamgboye misses significant time
McCasland went into the season hoping to make the two-big lineup of JT Toppin and Bamgboye work. The pair have had limited time on the floor together, but started to find a bit of rhythm together before the Arkansas game.
No,w Texas Tech may have to go into Saturday’s game against No. 3 Duke with just Toppin as a post option. That was the case against the Razorbacks, and Toppin had to play all 40 minutes in the 93-86 loss.
The Red Raiders are also currently without 6-foot-11 redshirt freshman Marial Akuentok and 6-foot-8 Villanova transfer post Josiah Moseley. Akuentok has appeared in four games this season, starting the season opener in Toppin’s absence, while Moseley has yet to suit up for Texas Tech.
There is one break-glass-in-case-of-emergency scenario available: pulling the redshirt for 7-foot freshman LaTrell Hoover, who joined the team in September.
“We’re gonna have to evaluate everything after this one,” McCasland said, “just to give us some direction on where we need to go with our size. It’s probably the worst I’ve been a part of just in regards to having people available that can help the team.”
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: With Duke basketball looming, where does Texas Tech go from here?
Reporting by Nathan Giese, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal / Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
