NCAA Tournament 2022: 5 key storylines for Duke vs Texas Tech matchup

Pace of Play

This reminds me of the old fable the Tortoise and the Hare. One team, Duke, is one of the fastest teams in the country they love to run and run teams out of a gym. They can score from all over the floor are good at rebounding and get out in transition for quick easy buckets and like to maximize their number of possessions. They are the Hare. The Tortoise then would be Texas Tech.

The Red Raiders play at one of the slowest paces in the country and while they are a great defensive team and a good rebounding team and are able to get out in transition they don’t slow it way down and play in the half-court with offensive sets designed to get up the most efficient shot possible.

We all know how the story ends that slow and steady wins the race and in this case, it may be true. We have seen so many teams who like to run slow way down in the tournament because their opponents play slow and force the tempo. Teams who are really good at playing slow like Texas Tech are going to have to force the tempo because they know if they don’t they will lose. Saint Peter’s is another team that is very good at forcing teams out of their comfort zone and playing the way they like at their tempo in the half-court.

The advantage here goes to the Red Raiders they have forced teams to play in the half-court all year and are extremely comfortable scoring in the high 50’s and low 60’s. Duke has one of the most explosive offenses in the country and one of the most explosive of the teams remaining if this starts to get tough for them to score and Texas Tech is playing their physical brand of basketball while also playing slow will Duke have enough to get through it?

Teams that are not comfortable playing that way struggle when they are not making shots look at Duke vs Virginia for an example. Whoever is able to successfully force the tempo in this one will have a huge advantage.