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Texas vs Texas Tech: 5 key storylines for Chris Beard’s return to Lubbock

By Trevor Sinodhinos

LUBBOCK, TEXAS - JANUARY 08: Marcus Santos-Silva #14 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders reacts after the college basketball game against the Kansas Jayhawks at United Supermarkets Arena on January 08, 2022 in Lubbock, Texas. (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images)
LUBBOCK, TEXAS - JANUARY 08: Marcus Santos-Silva #14 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders reacts after the college basketball game against the Kansas Jayhawks at United Supermarkets Arena on January 08, 2022 in Lubbock, Texas. (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images) /
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Courtney Ramey Texas Longhorns (Photo by David Purdy/Getty Images)
Courtney Ramey Texas Longhorns (Photo by David Purdy/Getty Images) /

Second chance points

Neither one of these teams is blessed with tall players to occupy the key and secure rebounds. As the cliche goes “you can’t teach height”, but what goes unsaid is the fact that you can teach players to ‘play big” Aside from the fact that the basketball touches the floor much more often than the rim, any sized player can box out any other player. Rebounding is a mentality if a player is willing to do more than his opponent, he can compensate for a lack of height.

Such is the case for the Texas Longhorns who do not feature a player over 6’9”. The make-up of the roster has the Longhorns sitting at No.259 in the nation when it comes to rebounding, with an average of 34.2 per game. More concerning is that they do not crack the top 300 when it comes to defensive rebounds.

Texas Tech is led on the boards by 6’6″ Kevin McCullar followed by a pair of 6’8″ forwards in Kevin Obanor and Bryson Williams.  For their efforts on the boards, the Red Raiders are ranked No.71 in total rebounds and No.56 in offensive rebounds. These unbalanced rebounding stats are without mentioning first-year center for the Red Raiders 6’11 Daniel Batcho.

Despite their inability to rebound, the Longhorns are still the top defensive team in the nation, which means that the offensive rebounds they have surrendered have not translated into points. In the last four, the Longhorns gave up eight second-chance points to Oklahoma State and just six versus TCU and to Tennessee in their last game on Saturday. The game they lost happened to be when they gave up 13 second-chance points to Kansas State.

It will probably be a forgone conclusion that the Red Raiders will get their fair amount of offensive boards, but they will need to capitalize more than they did versus Mississippi State when they tallied two second-chance points. and be closer to the 19 they scored on Iowa State. Hopefully, for Texas Tech they can get the offensive rebound and put the ball back up for two points, for if they hope to reset the offense it becomes that much more difficult.

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