Texas Tech Basketball: 3 takeaways from slim victory over Oklahoma

Terrence Shannon Jr. continues to impress

Terrence Shannon Jr. is off to a nice start this season, as he has scored in double figures in 7 of Texas Tech’s 9 contests, and has managed to shoot above 50% from the field in five contests. Prior to Tuesday’s game against Oklahoma, Shannon impressed me the most when the Red Raiders faced off against Kansas.

The 6’6″ sophomore guard notched 20 points on 7-16 shooting (43.7%) and demonstrated that he could score in many different ways. Although Shannon is left-handed and would be expected by many to favor his dominant hand, Shannon loves to jab maliciously to his left, explode to his right, deal with contact along the way, and then finish with either hand.

When his defenders decide to help out a teammate that is struggling to keep his man out of the paint, Shannon can either stay behind the arc and knock down threes or take a few steps inside the arc and drill 15-footers. Against Oklahoma, I noticed something about Shannon’s game that makes him extremely hard to defend, no matter how well you are able to defend overall.

I would say that 95% of the time Shannon knows exactly what he wants to do before he even receives the ball, which may be frowned upon in the basketball community. However, because Shannon understands how he wants to try and score on various possessions, he doesn’t give his defenders much of a chance to bait him into taking a difficult shot.

For example, with a little over 12 minutes to play in the contest, Mac McClung drove to his left and forced Shannon’s defender (who was Elijah Harkless), to slide over and prevent McClung from getting all the way to the basket. When McClung saw this happening, he decided to swing the ball over to Shannon who was standing on the left-wing.

As soon as the ball arrived in his hands, Shannon ripped through to his left, took one hard dribble, stayed on balance after getting hacked at the rim, and finished strong while getting rewarded for his aggressive drive.

Elijah Harkless didn’t really have an opportunity to deny Shannon access to the rim, because when he finally recovered onto him, Shannon was already headed toward the basket and had gained a step and a half on Harkless.

If you need another example of Shannon’s quick and decisive making, you could fast forward to just two minutes later, when Kyler Edwards received a pass on the left wing from Jamarius Burton, and then rapidly fired a pass over to Shannon in the left corner.

Before Shannon received the pass from Kyler Edwards, his defender (who was Umoja Gibson) was in help side, and although he was able to close out on Shannon in time, Shannon wasted no time catching the ball above his waist and instantly releasing a three-point jumper (which he knocked down).

I guess the point I am trying to make is, because Shannon is able to get straight into the move that he wants to complete, or the shot that he wants to take, defenders can only hope that Shannon is unable to connect on his jumpers, or winds up fumbling the ball as he is attempting to forcefully attack the rim. If Shannon can continue to be confident in his ability to score in different ways, it will be difficult for many defenders to stop in Big 12 play.