At the start of the season, B12H.com ran a "Five Questions For..." segment asking the five most pressing questions of each team. In our continuing review of the season, here are the answers to those questions.
Five Questions For... Texas Tech basketball
1) Junior guard Mike Singletary lit up Texas A&M for a near conference tournament record 43 points last season. Will he continue to put the ball in the basket this season?
He did. Singletary averaged 15 ppg to lead the Red Raiders in scoring and placed 13th in the conference. Though he put up a donut against Kansas, and scored only 4 against Kansas St, he still had two 28-point outputs, a 27 point showing and a total of ten 20-point performances.
2) Will Pat Knight's second full season be an improvement over his first?
Good news, the Red Raiders doubled their 2008-2009 win total. Bad news, they only won 2 games in 08-09. So while 4 wins is a marked improvement, it's nothing to really write home about.
3) Is Pat Knight on the hot seat?
I don't know what they expect in Lubbock. They aren't a basketball hot bed, and have never really competed at the upper tier of the conference, so while 4 wins should put you on a hot seat, never having taste the sweet aroma of success, they may not be quick to run him out of town. (Before I get hate mail, I understand they have won 10 conference games twice last decade, but even in those years, they weren't feared like an upper echelon team.)
4) Do the Red Raiders have the personnel to match Knight's emphasis on defense this year?
Want to hear a fact? The Red Raiders placed 6th in the conference in scoring offense with 76.3 ppg, ahead of Oklahoma St as an example, yet they won 4 conference games. If you score the 6th most in conference, the way you lose ¾ of your games is by letting the opposition score more than you. Hence, no defense.
5) Will all the new JUCO players pan out for the Red Raiders?
It depends on your interpretation of "pan out." The top three scorers, all the guys on the squad who averaged double digits, weren't incoming JUCO guys. David Tairu, though, finished fourth on the team in scoring and rebounding with 9.2 ppg and 2. rpg. Brad Reese was fifth in both of those categories and was an incoming JUCO. So the JUCOs had an impact, but might not have been the best on the team.
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