War of attrition catches up to Texas Tech basketball at inopportune time | Giese

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Relying on seven or eight guys to carry a basketball team isn't unusual.

Coaches like Grant McCasland generally tighten up the minutes as the season goes along, choosing to stick with the best options available, players who can play both ends of the floor the best. Throughout the Texas Tech basketball team's season, the seven-man core worked exceptionally well.

The starting five of Joe Toussaint, Pop Isaacs, Darrion Williams, Kerwin Walton and Warren Washington brought a unique blend that carried the team after Devan Cambridge's season-ending knee injury. Chance McMillian played starters minutes anyway, giving the Red Raiders six rock-solid players to stick with in any situation.

Robert Jennings was a capable reserve for Washington, and Lamar Washington, at times, was a good piece to throw in for a different look.

But by having that kind of core, with six players eating up the majority of the minutes, it can take just one injury to set things off course.

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Warren Washington's on-going foot issue brought another change to the Red Raiders' complexion. At first, it was expected he'd miss a couple of games and be right back. Until then, the team would continue to function the same way, both offensively and defensively.

His return at UCF was short lived, though. Unable to be the player he's capable of, and what Tech needs him to be, and he hasn't seen the floor since. McCasland insists Washington is close to a return, and logic dictates that the super senior in his final year of eligibility will be doing everything he can to be ready for the NCAA Tournament run next week.

Texas Tech couldn't stay the course until then. Something had to change. With Jennings and Eemeli Yalaho playing more and more minutes, McCasland and his staff knew that, to get the most out of the players available, they had to change everything. Not dramatically, but enough to maximize the players at their disposal.

Out went the retreating defense on the perimeter and the high-post passes to the bigs to start the offense. Jennings and Yalaho's strengths necessitated quicker movements, not having to handle the ball and getting into the post as much as possible.

Those changes brought a renewed energy to the Red Raiders, one the team lacked throughout its 3-5 month of February. Closing the regular season with three straight wins, then adding a dominant showing against BYU in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 Tournament, showed another layer to the Red Raiders.

They didn't need their 7-foot center to be good at defense — actually, metrics show the team has been better without Washington as of late — and the offense could function just fine with constant ball movement and more activity on the perimeter.

Adjusting on the fly is one of McCasland's greatest strengths. His former boss, Baylor head coach Scott Drew, said as much at conference media days in October.

Drew said McCasland's teams get stronger as the year goes along, and the four wins in a row in March showed the leader of the Bears knows what he's talking about.

As good as the team had been in the last two weeks, losing Williams to an ankle injury showed how a neatly stacked deck of cards can crumble in a hurry.

The Red Raiders did what they could against top-ranked Houston on Friday, but one of the key components of Tech's resurgence in recent weeks was running much of its action through Williams instead of around him. Hard to run offense through somebody on the sidelines, and even more difficult to do it only knowing of his absence 15 minutes before tip against the best defensive team in the country.

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Depth has been a concern for the Red Raiders throughout the season. Numbers are so low that walk-on Jack Francis, who stands at 6-foot-3, had to play the role of BYU's 6-foot-11 Noah Waterman during the team's scouting sessions before the quarterfinals.

Those things are not going away for however long the team continues to play — which is at least one more game, perhaps more. It's certainly an area that McCasland will try to address this next offseason, one that should see a starting point of at least three of the regular starters, plus Cambridge, Jennings and McMillian.

For now, Texas Tech will be leaning on athletic trainer Mike Neal to help heal the wounded Washington and Williams, getting the team as close to full strength as can be.

In the game of basketball, there are many minor battles: rebounds, turnovers, etc. One of them is the battle of attrition, and it's one Tech has lost over the last few weeks.

The good news is there's still a chance to win that slugfest. For Tech's NCAA Tournament prospects, they'll need to deliver a knockout blow.

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This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: War of attrition catches up to Texas Tech basketball at inopportune time