Fouls a problem once again as Tech loses to Longhorns
BY JEFF WALKER l A-J SPORTS EDITOR
AUSTIN — Texas Tech was able to overcome foul trouble in the first half by shooting nearly 60 percent from the field.
The Red Raiders cooled off in the second half, but the fouls continued and No. 25 Texas escaped with an 87-81 victory on Wednesday at the Erwin Center.
Tech played without head coach Pat Knight, who was serving a one-game suspension for his comments about officiating following Saturday’s loss to Texas A&M.
Texas forward Clint Chapman and Texas Tech forward Mike Singletary fight for a loose ball in the first half of their game Wednesday in Austin.
The Red Raiders might have some complaints about the officiating against the Longhorns, but Tech wasn’t helping itself on many of the calls.
After getting called for 14 personal fouls in the first half, the Red Raiders had three players — Robert Lewandowski, Michael Prince and Darko Cohadarevic — with four fouls in the first eight minutes of the second half. Mike Singletary picked up his fourth foul — an offensive foul — at the 6:10 mark before fouling out with 30.3 seconds remaining.
The Longhorns were in the double bonus at the 11:57 mark of the second half. They shot 25 free throws in the second half and finished 31 of 43 from the line as Tech was called for 33 personal fouls.
In Saturday’s game against A&M, the Aggies shot 55 free throws.
Tech started the game hot from the field.
Nick Okorie, who led the Red Raiders with 15 first-half points, hit a 3-pointer that trimmed the Tech deficit to 26-24 at the 9:48 mark. Okorie tied a career-high with 24 points. His two highest-scoring games have come against ranked opponents — Oklahoma and the Longhorns.
Singletary, just 3 of 15 from 3-point range, nailed one at the 7:39 mark that pulled Tech to within one.
After leading for 12 seconds in the first five minutes, Tech grabbed the first-half lead for good when D’walyn Roberts converted a pair of free throws.
The Red Raiders led by as many as nine (41-32) when Okorie nailed his third 3-pointer of the half.
Texas managed to trim the deficit to 43-38 at the break by scoring six of the final eight points of the half.
Both teams were plagued by fouls in the opening half, combining for 23 personal fouls.
Texas was in the one-and-one situation at the 8:41 mark. The Longhorns reached the double bonus at the 7:05 mark.
Tech was in the one-and-one at the 7:16 mark, and the Red Raiders shot one more free throw (10-9) than Texas in the first half.
The Longhorns honored Kevin Durant at halftime by retiring his No. 35 jersey. He became just the third player in Texas men’s basketball history to have his jersey retired.
After a video presentation with messages from his parents and brother, who couldn’t be in attendance, an emotional Durant was moved to tears when his jersey was unveiled.
“Being from Washington D.C., that’s a long way from here, but everybody embraced me,” said Durant, who now plays for NBA’s Oklahoma City Thunder. “… It feels good to be back. … It’s an unbelievable feeling. Even though I live in Oklahoma now, the land of the Sooners, every time I step out of my house I let them know I’m a Longhorn for life.”
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Does Coach Pat have a son that might like to coach?
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You knew the second half was going to be different to start JR went up for a rebound and Mason basically threw him to the ground and they called a jump ball.
Once again the refs do everything in their power to make sure Tech loses.
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A good effort, but moral victories count for nothing. The referees, as bad as they were, did not decide this game. You still have to play defense.
“I let them know I’m a Longhorn for life.” A one and done player gets his jersey retired. Only in Austin. I wonder how many semester hours he completed?
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this team will be salty next year and a REAL contender the following. hang in there guys, you’re paying your dues, the Ws are coming!!!
WRECK’EM!!!
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Retiring a jersey after one season is pathetic. A joke.
I hit mute when Fran and Ron, both Longhorn lickers, started gushing over this dropout.
Kevin Durant has enough money to give the refs a little bonus for the good job they did for UT last night.
UT — give me some more money and we can be a pro team like Uglyhoma. oh-yew
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Robert said it best…
“A good effort, but moral victories count for nothing. The referees, as bad as they were, did not decide this game. You still have to play defense.”
There were several times where the guys were rolling off of screens and help side defense was collapsing at the same time leaving atleast two guys open near to basket for easy shots.
The effort was there and the kids played their butts off but the bad officiating isn’t hard to see.
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My hats off to you guys – much improvement – I enjoyed the game! Too bad the sheer number of UT free throws could beat us, but then you gotta do what you gotta do to try and win. It was a great effort!
We just need a little more offense down in and around the paint. I guess D’Walyn Roberts is still trying to get used to the college game. Maybe he needs to look at some of Kevin Durant’s film or especially Josh Howard of the Dallas Mavs- learn how to utilize speed and agility under and around the basket . He has soooo much talent! If he could step it up from that 3 spot with more points, free throws, and getting a few more rebounds (especially offensive) well, man!!! it would be a great help. It would help open up our outside game more instead of those guys having to wear defensive players with us inside our jock straps cause they know we ain’t got a whole lot of inside game to go to.
In other words, Robts, I am calling you out man!! You know what to do and how to do it and you certainly have the ability . Just commit to a higher game and then DO! DO IT! DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Get nasty and tough and commit to be the God-gifted player you could be!!!! Dang it!
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Play 40 full minutes every single game and the refs won’t be a factor.
No 10 minute mental, physical lapses.
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so you are saying D’walyn should take boxing lessons? Maybe karate also. And put big Lew on the ballet lesson list . oh- that would be ugly………
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Here it comes again! “We lost because the refs don’t like us”. If Tech EVER has a player with the talent of Kevin Durant, he won’t stay around for more than a year either! No need to worry tho’, no talent like that will ever end up wearing a TTU jersey!
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to rick: Are you actually stating that there are no UT officating biases in games (multiple sports) between UT and TTU?
A simple yes or no will show us your credibility.
As for ours, you are right, we may never have a player the caliber of Durant. He is awesome.
I think most of the comments are about the short time he actually spent in Austin, which does create curiosity as to why UT would retire his number. It is not like he showed a lot of commitment to that school.
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The reason(s) why UT retired his jersey is speculation only to us and not to UT! Maybe he gave them a bunch of his bonus money, maybe he helps the community someway, who knows, but they apparently had a valid reason. Ford was only there 2 years & his jersey was retired. Swoops was @ Tech only 2 years and her jersey was retired! There are numerous sites on the web that explain how officials are assigned conference bb games, including the Big 12. For the most part, they are assigned before the season starts. It is hard for me to believe that when 3 officials walk on the floor where Tech is going to play, they get together beforehand and say, “let’s hose Tech tonite”. I played enough basketball to know you committ silly fouls because you don’t move your feet, hand-check, don’t get rebound position, and don’t have the talent as the other team, you are going committ more fouls. Coaching can’t improve talent, for the most part, but it does impact movement, positioning, and defensive play. No, I have no ties or am I a UT fan!
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Okorie is really finding his stroke late in the Big 12 season; this gives me hope that he can step up and be our outside shooting threat next year when Voskuil is gone.
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I watch the whole game and i thought Tech played better in the first half than they did the whole season. Cant wait til next year to see what they can do.
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Ah yes , the familiar refrain “Wait till next year!”.
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I’ve seen lots of “next year”’s come & go.
They’re always better thinking about than living thru.
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Its obvious Tech has had a tough year. Can’t seem to seem to pull out that hard win, but they are really hustling. And they are getting progressively better. Too bad the season’s almost over. There are some “fans” posting on this site who think it is honorable to kick a friend when he’s down. Our guys aren’t Kevin Durant, but neither is anyone in college basketball today, including Griffin. Come on! Let’s rally and show our support.
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Kevin Durant is a great player. I would retire his jersey based on the game he had against us at Tech alone! That was one of the single best performances ever at the USA. (BTW…are we going to complain the same way if Tech retires Crabtree’s jersey?)
The difference between Okorie and Voskuil is that Okorie can create his own shot. That bodes well for the future. Before everyone goes crazy bagging on the Raiders, remember that Tech has gotten MARKEDLY better talent over the last two years than in the previous three. I will take Lewandowski over any big man we have had since Andy Ellis. Okorie, Singletary, Roberts and Roberson are very solid college players and are getting better. Each has the ability to have a great game but are still a little inconsistent. Ray has had some solid minutes in his first year. We have what I hear is a very good recruiting class next year. (Some scouts are saying that it is the best group to come in the KNIGHT [Bob or Pat] era) It is very telling that, other than Voskuil, our seniors and juniors are mostly sitting the bench or have been relegated to junk minutes.
These are the signs of a program that is increasing its talent. I think that Pat is having to grow into the job but it is not fair to complain that, in his first year, he does not live up to arguably the greatest college coach in the history of the game. If he continues to grow as a coach the way we are growing as recruiters, we should have some good years to come!
Wreck em Tech.
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