We had a modified starting lineup in this one, with Manon starting in place of Edwards but otherwise the rotations were about the same.
Edwards took his "benching" to heart and was very efficient and effective in this game putting up 23 points in his 24 minutes of play on 15 shots. He and AJ Hoggard drove the offense in today's game, with Edwards scoring 12 points in the fist half to create distance from what had been a bit of a back and forth affair, and Hoggard taking over at one point in the second half, turning the game into a blowout.
The team recovered from the Drake game to dominate on the boards, and after an early number of threes from Tech, really shut them down defensively. We shot the ball ok, but almost missed some shots we shouldn't have, and still are taking some threes a bit too early in the shot clock. They are not horrible shots but not the best choices by some shaky shooters overall.
Tyler Tanner is running point when he is in the game, and plays with a maturity beyond his experience. He isn't making highlight plays but significantly isn't making any mistakes. We are now 8 games into the season in which he has played over half the available minutes (almost 170 minutes total) and he has not turned the ball over a single time. On the season he has 14 assists, 0 TO's and 20 steals and is averaging 7 points on 55% shooting from the field. On the one hand he is mainly asked to play defense, so CMB is not putting a lot on his shoulders this early. OTOH, that he has been this effective and impactful on a team that has a ton of experienced and talented guards is noteworthy.
Huffman was also very effective in this game and has been good all season. He has been more than willing to take a back seat to the other guards, but has been very good about picking his spots and had a very nice mid-range game and has shown himself to be a defensive standout.
At the very least, this is a team that has taken care of business, and steadily beats teams it should beat, and that is a massive improvement over last season. We will have our first true road test on Wednesday against Va Tech, a bit of a homecoming for Collins and Nickel, and then play in essentially a home game against TCU in about 9 days. Will be interesting to see how they do in a true road environment.
TN Tech
As Nate (GW) Bargatze would say …
Nobody knows!
Well, you can’t divide by zero, so … Nobody knows!
What is Tanner’s Assist to Turnover Ratio?
Well, you can’t divide by zero, so … Nobody knows!