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Offensive coordinators in basketball have plenty of similarities to their football-loving brethren because they’re always trying to find a variety of ways to puncture opposing defenses. Grant McCasland’s offensive play-sheet is jam-packed with concepts that generate terrific shots for No. 10 Texas Tech and that was on full display Saturday when the Red Raiders went on the road and knocked off Kansas 78-73 for just the second win in 23 tries at the dreaded Phog Allen Fieldhouse.
It’s the third time Kansas has lost at home this season, which hasn’t happened since 1988-89, but another KU disappointing effort isn’t the story. This is all about an offensive vision from McCasland and the Texas Tech staff that is blooming on the first day of the most important month of the year.
Texas Tech eviscerated Kansas’ top-five defense to the tune of 1.20 points per possession using a smidge of well, everything. The Red Raiders scored 20 points directly off rolls on Saturday. Kansas had never given up that many points to rollers in any game this season.
Texas Tech picked Kansas apart with traditional ball-screen actions with JT Toppin getting to his patented floater in the middle of the paint that feels almost automatic. Toppin scored 21 points in 22 minutes. If he had done a better job dodging foul trouble, Toppin may have very well cracked 40 … again. McCasland has built a roster with numerous playmakers who can force-feed Toppin the rock. Christian Anderson, Elijah Hawkins and Darrion Williams all took turns running the pick-and-roll brilliantly.
When Texas Tech’s star was chilling on the bench in foul trouble, McCasland pivoted to numerous guard-on-guard screens that had Kansas scrambling. Anderson and Williams were in the middle of all of it. First, it was Williams handling the rock and Anderson, a fearless 6-foot-2 freshman, setting a screen and popping for an open 3-pointer. Cash. With Anderson feeling it and demanding extra attention, Texas Tech flip-flopped the action to have Williams setting the screen for Anderson. The Texas Tech freshman cooly drew two defenders and found his partner in crime for a tie-breaking triple with 1:28 left that put the Red Raiders up 76-73. They would never trail again.
That’s the beauty of a Texas Tech that might rank outside the top-140 nationally in minutes continuity but has developed an offensive chemistry that you can’t teach.
Texas Tech has a playbook that would make everyone jealous.
Williams is a 6-foot-6 maestro who operates as the chess board queen who can do almost everything. Texas Tech used bootyball with Williams to find mismatches, draw a second KU defender and generate open 3-pointers. Whenever Kansas had the undersized David Coit on the floor, Williams found him relentlessly. When Kansas switched KJ Adams onto Williams and stayed home on the shooters, Williams calmly got to his fadeaway jumper to quiet a KU crowd that wanted so desperately to get into the game. Williams finished with 14 points, nine rebounds, four assists and just one turnover. Maybe more importantly, he looked healthy as a horse after painful ankle injuries kept him sidelined for Texas Tech’s last two games. His isolation brilliance in the middle of the floor helps Texas Tech have a true answer to the test at all three levels.
This is what McCasland was envisioning when this team was constructed last spring. Toppin, a New Mexico product, was the coveted addition, but all the newcomers have meshed nearly flawlessly on this roster. Pitt transfer Federiko Federiko is a serviceable rim-runner. Hawkins, a Minnesota transfer, is the steady pass-first point guard who can shake off an iffy shooting night with a pair of 3-pointers late in the second half without breaking a sweat. Drake transfer Kevin Overton doesn’t have an enormous role but he’s a darn good eighth man who can guard and knock down treys. Anderson won’t win Big 12 Freshman of the Year –– that’s going to Baylor’s VJ Edgecombe –– but he looks like an incredible evaluation who has given Texas Tech’s offense a jolt of shotmaking and fearlessness. How many freshmen are draining five 3-pointers, ripping down four boards and dishing out six assists without a turnover in the Phog? It’s a short list.
Texas Tech’s pick-and-roll offense now ranks in the 93rd percentile nationally. Its transition offense rates in the 88th percentile. The Red Raiders take (and make) a ton of treys. It drilled 15 3-pointers against Kansas while the Jayhawks could only manage four. That’s a 33-point swing at the 3-point stripe.
That math is math-ing.
“We were trying to keep up with them by shooting 2s to their 3s,” Kansas coach Bill Self said in the postgame press conference. “And that’s hard to do.”
The spring hits are fueling this.
Toppin is a grand slam. Anderson looks like a home run. Hawkins, Overton and Federiko all look like hits. 2023 transfers like Chance McMillian and Williams have flourished thanks to the patented Year 2 transfer jump after charting to Lubbock from Grand Canyon and Nevada, respectively.
Make no mistake, nothing about Texas Tech’s heater was a mirage or fake.
“That’s why you practice hard every day,” McCasland said. “Not everybody likes practicing hard every day.”
Armed with an offense that has answers for everything, this Texas Tech club has earned the right to have championship aspirations.
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