Christian Anderson is putting himself all over the record books in his first — and perhaps only — year as the Texas Tech basketball team’s primary point guard.
The 6-foot-3 sophomore has put himself firmly in the All-American conversation, ranking third in the nation in assists per game while playing the second-most minutes per game of any player in the country. Anderson is tasked with a lot in Texas Tech’s offensive system, rarely comes off the floor and is now the go-to scorer more than ever without pick-and-roll partner JT Toppin on the floor.
Grant McCasland has admitted several times that Anderson has been playing hurt for a while. Nothing significant that could take him out of the lineup, but enough that the head coach tries to give him a rest here and there in practice.
Entering Saturday’s regular-season finale, Anderson is three assists away from setting the Texas Tech program record for assists in a single season. He’ll head to Provo with 224 helpers. Elijah Hawkins, Anderson’s backcourt mate during his freshman year, holds the record with 226 assists.
Anderson’s passing ability is one of the major factors in Texas Tech’s offensive success. Late in the season, however, turnovers have become a glaring issue for the do-everything point man. Tuesday’s loss to Cincinnati was Anderson’s third straight game with six turnovers, and he’s had at least six giveaways in four of the team’s last five games.
McCasland attributes some of these turnovers to the defenses Texas Tech has played in this stretch. Iowa State and TCU are among the top 40 teams in the country in forcing turnovers. How the offense functions without Toppin available for passes out of double teams has also put Anderson into tougher spots.
“It’s not like it’s a shock,” McCasland said of Anderson’s turnovers, “and I don’t mean that disrespectfully toward Christian. When we had JT in the middle, I think it made it easier for him to pass to a guy that can make the next pass. So we went to more of a guard involvement so that we didn’t just put those forwards in position where I have to make a bunch of decisions. I think it’s caused us to turn the ball over more than we wanted, to dribble more than we wanted to, and make him try to create some things out of nothing and that’s causing turnovers.”
Before this recent stretch, Anderson’s season-high for turnovers was five, which came back in games against New Orleans and Duke. Against defensive-minded teams like Houston, Anderson topped out at four turnovers.
This is another area where the Red Raiders are still finding their answers to how the team looks and operates without Toppin on the floor. One area Texas Tech is looking at more is playing Anderson off the ball a bit more, letting him operate similar to how he played alongside Hawkins as a freshman.
“I think that’s an area that we can improve,” said McCasland, “but you can improve with that in a short amount of time with the guys that we have because their skill and talent, and LeJuan (Watts) needs to be involved in a way that’s impactful on both ends for our team to have some success.”
Texas Tech basketball stat nuggets heading into BYU rematch
Donovan Atwell is up to 115 made 3-pointers on the season. He and Anderson are now first and second on Texas Tech’s single-season made 3s list, Anderson having hit 97 himself. Atwell is six 3s away from having the second-most made 3s in a season in Big 12 Conference history, though he and Iowa State’s Milan Momcilovic (110 made 3s) are battling it out for that distinction.
This year’s Texas Tech team has made 344 3-pointers and is closing in on the record of 371 made 3s set by the 2024-25 Red Raiders.
Texas Tech has already locked up a top 4 seed in next week’s Big 12 Conference tournament, guaranteeing its first game will come on Thursday in the quarterfinals. Which seed the Red Raiders get is still in question. Houston has a one-game lead for the No. 2 seed and closes at Oklahoma State. Texas Tech would own the tiebreaker should the two teams finish with the same league record. Kansas is currently 4th, one game behind Texas Tech, but would jump the Red Raiders if the Jayhawks beat Kansas State at home and Tech loses at BYU.
The Cougars, meanwhile, have fallen on hard times since losing versatile forward Richie Saunders for the season. They’ve lost three straight games, all of them featuring 20-plus point deficits. BYU’s first Big 12 loss of the season came in Lubbock to Texas Tech and they have since gone just 4-8.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Are Christian Anderson’s turnovers a concern for Texas Tech basketball?
Reporting by Nathan Giese, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal / Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
