Texas Tech basketball hopes to apply lessons learned from first road loss against No. 13 Tennessee
The film room is never a good time following a loss.
Mark Adams can attest to that and admitted it wasn't any better after the first-year Texas Tech coach flipped on the tape after dropping a 72-68 decision to Providence in the first true road test of the season.
Texas Tech vs. Providence: Red Raiders endure tough road loss to Providence
"They always say the team with the fewest mistakes wins," said Adams, whose Red Raiders squad suffered its first loss of the season at dropped to 6-1 overall. "We just made too many just, kind of, dumb, silly mistakes. As much respect as we have for Providence, we feel like, at the of the day, we beat ourselves. We've gotta get in situations where we take better shots, a little bit better use of the clock, we've gotta box out and not have all those turnovers."
Adams is hoping his players listened during those film studies — specifically about sharing the ball, limiting turnovers and shooting out of a zone defense — because another big test approaches in No. 13 Tennesee when both squads face off at 6 p.m. Tuesday as part of the Jimmy V classic inside Madison Square Garden in New York.
“Rick Barnes is known for his toughness and man-to-man defense,” Adams said. “So we have a lot of admiration for him as a coach and their program. … They’re normally 5, 10% zone. So we’ll probably see a little zone, but I think they’ll do what they do best and just get after some man (defense).”
Tennessee (6-1) comes into the contest on a four-game winning streak, downing Colorado 69-54 in a gritty road contest that had three players finish in double figures.
Kennedy Chandler, a freshman backcourt standout, led all scorers with 27 points and he was followed by guard Santiago Vescovi (13 points) and forward John Fulkerson (10 points).
The loss marked the first time the Volunteers scored below 70 points since a Nov. 20 loss to Villanova. Tennessee has shown an affinity for a fast-tempo offense, which results in a bevy of three-point attempts — averaging close to 10 a contest.
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“They’re pushing the ball, they’re putting up a lot quicker shots and they’re a very good three-point shooting team,” Adams said of Tennessee's offensive philosophy. “They’re really, on paper, as good offensively as our defense. … This will be a game where we’ll have to go out and take it to them. And play well enough that we can outscore them and out defend them. They won’t be giving us anything.”
That was a learning lesson the Red Raiders went through in the loss to the Friars last week. Despite building a 14-point advantage (27-13) with about eight minutes left to play until halftime before allowing Providence to chip away and make it a game.
Texas Tech went into the locker room with a 30-28 advantage, but the Friars erased that and used their home crowd to energize what appeared to be a lifeless offense early on and rattle the Red Raiders en route to the loss.
"So we spent a lot of time the last few days just working on our zone offense, again, and feel like we hopefully are making some positive steps making that thing better," Adams said. "That zone, it did interrupt us and hurt our momentum. And then I think we gained the momentum back in the second half — did a better job attacking it."
The few things they didn't do well: handling the crowd and hostile environment, per Adams. But, it was a great teaching tool for the coaching staff and players.
“It was the first time we really had a chance to look in the mirror and see how we really are and get better from that,” Adams said of playing a quality opponent on the road such as Providence. “Tennessee will expose some of our weaknesses and we’ll be able to see some of the things we do well to carry into the next game. And then again as we build toward Gonzaga and then the Big 12.
“Hopefully we’ll be in a position where we can really identify our strengths and our weaknesses.”
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That's the expectation against Tennessee — sans the ultimate goal of securing the program's first win over a ranked opponent this season. Texas Tech's last excursion to The Garden netted a win over then No. 1 Louisville that was engineered thanks to a solid defensive effort.
Seven games into the season, Adams feels he's still trying to find that defensive nucleus to guard the ball and earn stop when needed. The positive thing is, he has plenty of options to choose from and learned there may be a balance to playing physical defense as the Red Raiders had five players draw four or more fouls — with Kevin McCullar and Bryson Williams fouling out — against Providence.
Terrence Shannon, Jr. (16.5 points), McCullar (14.2 points, 5.8 rebounds), Williams (13.0 points, 5.6 rebounds), Davion Warren (12.1 points, 2.9 rebounds) and Kevin Obanor (10.6 points, 4.4 rebounds) keep the Red Raiders balanced on offense but were unable to get going when on the bench due to foul trouble.
“Bryson got in foul trouble, we had Kev (McCullar) get in foul trouble — we had to lose some pieces around him,” Adams said of the foul trouble against Providence. “And that, along with the hostile environment and the zone (defense), there were some distractions, there were challenges, some adversity that we didn’t respond as quickly as we should have.
“We’ve gone over those things and hopefully we’ll be a little better at that.”
TEXAS TECH VS. TENNESSEE
When: 6 p.m. Tuesday
Where: Madison Square Garden, New York
Records: Texas Tech 6-1. Tennessee 6-1
TV: ESPN
Radio: FM 97.3
Follow along: Follow @cmsilvajr on Twitter for live updates, with postgame recap and interviews to follow on www.lubbockonline.com.
Notable: Texas Tech is playing in Madison Square Garden for the fourth time in five seasons. The previous matchup saw the Red Raiders secure a 70-57 win over then No. 1 Louisville in the 2019 Jimmy V Classic.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech basketball hopes to apply lessons learned against Tennessee
