On heels of Pop Isaacs' career high, Texas Tech basketball rounding into form
There was a perfectly good explanation for Grant McCasland's hoarse voice Thursday night. The Texas Tech basketball coach spent every single timeout imploring his team to keep its foot on the gas.
The Red Raiders have been in several situations like the one they saw against Sam Houston. In many of its home games, Texas Tech jumped out to lopsided leads only for teams to trim the deficit late in the second half. It's happened each of the past two games against UT Arlington and Oral Roberts.
In those contests, the Red Raiders held leads of 20 and 19 points, respectively, before settling for wins of 11 and nine.
McCasland didn't want to have another second-half slip.
"The engaged competitiveness that it's going to take to win in the Big 12 has to be an every-possession mentality," McCasland said. "Can't take a possession off. Cannot, and it's got to be executed at a level that is about winning in the little details."
There was no lull against Sam Houston. After the Bearkats cut the deficit to 17 points, Chance McMillian hit back-to-back 3-pointers to kickstart a 21-2 run that resulted in a 96-60 rout for Texas Tech's fifth straight victory.
Texas Tech put pedal to the metal until the very end, getting its biggest lead of the game (38) with less than two minutes remaining before a 36-point victory.
In putting together their most complete effort of the season, the Red Raiders also received a breakout game from Pop Isaacs.
A 37.8% shooter from 3-point range as a freshman, Isaacs opened his sophomore year looking for those shots to go down. He entered Thursday shooting 24.7% from downtown, although Isaacs continued to make an impact without the long ball going his way.
Isaacs finally got hot against the Bearkats. He connected on five 3s, including a stretch of four consecutive makes, to finish with a career-high 28 points.
The Las Vegas native has hit career bests this season in points, 3-point makes (his five tied his previous mark) and assists (against Vanderbilt).
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"It felt good, honestly, just to see the ball go in," Isaacs said. "Obviously I haven't been shooting the ball to my best ability this year, but I know the work I put in and know the type of shooter I am. Teams wanna keep letting me shoot? Please do. Otherwise, we've got a bunch of dudes that make shots, too."
While Isaacs has worked to round into form, Kerwin Walton (18 points, 4-of-8 from 3), McMillian (11 on 3-of-5 from distance) and Darrion Williams (9 on 1-of-3 from deep) have carried the load beyond the arc.
Adding Isaacs' shooting to the mix, if it begins to level up to last year's average, opens the door for the Red Raiders offense.
"For him, he's got to think 'shot,'" McCasland said. "He can't think 'make a play.' He's got to think 'shot,' and then let the rest of it come off that. And that's where I think he's finding that balance, like when he's open, shooting them, but he's also allowing us to get paint touches before he's firing one up, so you always got to think 'shot' so they have to guard you, but you got to find that way and that balance of getting other people involved in shooting the right ones off and that's what I thought he did tonight."
Steffe away from team
McCasland confirmed after the game that freshman Drew Steffe is away from the team for what the coach called "family reasons." Steffe, a 6-foot-5 recruit out of Frisco Memorial, has not seen action this season with the intention to redshirt.
Steffe is "still a part of our team, and we welcome him back whenever he's ready," McCasland said. Steffe has not been at Tech's past two home games.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech basketball rounding into form after dominant home win
