3 Takeaways From Texas Tech's Late Loss To No. 11 Kansas
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Head coach Grant McCasland and the No. 13 Texas Tech Red Raiders were smooth sailing midway through the second half against the No. 11 Kansas Jayhawks in front of the home crowd in Lubbock, up by 10 points and heading towards a big win against a prime opponent.
But after that, the shots simply stopped falling for the Red Raiders, who would endure a 6-0 Kansas run later in the contest that lessened their lead even more, and with two three-pointers by Kansas' Darryl Peterson in the last 1:20 of the game, Tech was hit with their second straight loss and first home loss of the year, a 64-61 defeat Monday night.
The loss dropped the Red Raiders to 16-6 on the year and 6-3 in Big 12 play and will likely drop them a little farther in the AP Top 25 ranks.
Three Takeaways From Texas Tech's Late Loss
After the heartbreak that resulted in Tech's second straight loss, here are a few takeaways from the contest.
Toppin's Off Night
The Red Raiders overall struggled offensively all night, but it was surprising to see the team's star big man struggle with his shots as well, only registering 10 points on 5-for-18 shooting on the floor, including going 0-for-3 from beyond the arc.
Toppin's 27.8 percent shooting was his season-low, coming right after his best percentage of the season in the loss against UCF, and lowest since Tech's win over Winthrop right before the conference slate began, where we shot 42.9 percent from the field.
The Jayhawks' defense is well-documented, so maybe it shouldn't come as too much of a shock that the Dallas native had a tough time finding the bottom of the net, but then again, a player with the skill set such as that of Toppin's should be able to counter any defensive pressure with ease.
Some nights really are just better than others, and some are just flat out crummy.
Ran Out of Steam
With 8:12 left in the game, the Red Raiders were up 57-47 with a pretty confident lead, and had a 92.2 percent chance of victory, while only allowing two three-pointers over the course of the game up to that point.
Then, it was like the switch was flipped, and not in a good way.
Immediately after Toppin was subbed out at that time mark, the team gave up a three to Melvin Council Jr., and Tech's LeJuan Watts would sink a short jumper to keep the lead near double digits, but then the Jayhawks kept snagging easy layups and open jumpers, with Peterson's two three-pointers coming in a span of 40 seconds, the first to tie the game with 1:20 left, and the second one to take the lead and win the game with 44 seconds to go.
In the final eight minutes, it was clear that Tech's defense simply could not keep up, nor could the offense, only scoring four points in that timespan.
A Calm Before the Storm?
Though Tech's five-game winning streak was abruptly ended thanks to losses to Kansas and also UCF, the team will get a slight breather over the next two games when they go up against the unranked West Virginia Mountaineers and the Colorado Buffaloes.
After that, however, is the real test for their season, a Valentines Day matchup with the undefeated, top-ranked Arizona Wildcats in Tucson.
Texas Tech has proven that they have the firepower to bring it to highly ranked teams, look no further than their battles with the Houston Cougars this season, and if they can avoid a late collapse like they had Monday night, then the Wildcats could very well be on upset alert in a couple of weeks.
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Aaron Raley is a writer covering the Texas Tech On SI. Born and raised in Northeast Texas, Aaron earned a degree from Texas A&M University in journalism, with minors in history and sports management. Aaron’s writing abilities are driven by his love and passion for various sports, both at the collegiate and professional levels, as well as his experience in playing sports, especially baseball and football.
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