Roberson might play after injury

By Courtney Linehan on February 18th, 2010 12 Comments Printer-Friendly

Texas Tech point guard John Roberson could play Saturday against Texas, despite bruising his ribs during Tuesday’s 88-70 loss at Baylor.

Roberson underwent X-rays Wednesday after returning to Lubbock, and the tests showed no fractures, meaning his ability to play will likely be determined by the amount of pain he feels before the game, which starts at 1 p.m.

Texas Tech's Mike Singletary (32) drives around Baylor's Fred Ellis, right, in the first half of a NCAA college basketball game Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2010, in Waco Texas. (AP Photo/Rod Aydelotte)

That’s good news for Tech’s players, who have something to prove – if not to the Big 12 Conference and its fans, then at least to each other after a lackluster second half in Waco.

“It looked like we didn’t want to play, we didn’t want to be on the court,” forward Darko Cohadarevic said. “That should never happen. If we had just stayed in the game, stayed focused, it’d be a totally different story.”

The story that played out was one of a solid first half and blah second. The best example of the change? Cohadarevic said it was on the Tech bench.

While the players stumbled through the game, falling out of their gameplan and displaying disappointing defense, the coaches couldn’t contain their energy as the Bears raced ahead.

“It’s sad when you have a coaching staff with more passion for the game of basketball than the players,” Cohadarevic said. “You can see from the body language of the players and the coaches, you can see the difference. They’re fighting. They want to win. We’re sitting like we already lost and there’s still 15 minutes to go, 10 minutes to go.”

Coach Pat Knight described his players as becoming casual and careless in the second half. At one point even the television announcers commented that Roberson was the only Red Raider putting forth much effort, but a few minutes later he fell into a cameraman after a missed layup, injuring himself and sitting out the rest of the game.

Knight thought Tech had opportunities to chip at Baylor’s lead, if it could only regroup defensively and stop the maddening scoring by LaceDarius Dunn (30 points) or contest the post presence of Ekpe Udoh (9 blocks, 11 rebounds).

But it never happened.

“We tried to get it down to 15, then if you can do that you try to get it down to 10,” Knight said, “but we could never get it under that 10-point lead they had.”

Cohadarevic said Baylor did nothing different than any other Big 12 opponent. But Tech didn’t show up.

“It’s not about Xs and Os, it’s all about effort,” Cohadarevic said. “They are not a 20-point better team than us. I give them credit, they beat us by 20, but we just gave up. That’s what cost us the game.”

To comment on this story:
courtney.linehan@lubbockonline.com l 766-8735
terry.greenberg@lubbockonline.com l 766-8700

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