Not your daddy's Texas Tech

When Tech came into AFH, they were a different team than they are right now, and I'm very curious to see how that works out.

Not sure if folks remember, but Zach Smith, one of their key players, was nursing an injured ankle. He only managed to play 6 minutes in the game and wasn't a factor, but he was still a key player and somebody who was important in their game planning. After the KU game, he played 19 minutes at K-State, but then hurt his foot for good and was put out for the season. From that point forward, Tech was a different team that had to work around that lineup adversity. Obviously, they were able to compensate and have been successful.

Now Keenan Evans is day-to-day with some kind of toe injury. He sat the 2nd half of the Baylor game and they lost. No word yet whether he'll play tonight, and/or what his status will be for Saturday.

Evans dropped 15 points, 6 boards and 3 assists on us last time in 29 minutes. Tech still used 9 other guys vs. Baylor, so depth doesn't seem to be an issue, but he averages 18 points (leads the team) a game and 29 minutes per game that they need to "find" if they lose him, or if he's not 100%. With a team averaging 76 points/game, losing 18 of those represents 24% of their scoring.

Tech is in a "must win" situation tonight vs. OSU to stay even with KU. Obviously this will be interesting to see, particularly with the Evans injury situation. More importantly, Tech will have a 2 day turnaround before KU goes there, and KU has already had at least 2 days to prep for the game already.

At the very least, this is not the same Tech team that Self prepped for when they came to Lawrence (expecting both Evans and Smith to play and contribute). If Evans is hurt, they're even more different.

Should be very interesting tonight. Do you rest Evans and hope that he has time to heal up before KU, or do you play him and risk his injury not improving or even becoming worse?

I don't find anything of Evans status, except day-to-day. They no doubt want the win tonight, but at what risk?
About Zach Smith, I believe he had injury issues all season and finally was done for the year after the KSU game (3rd Big 12 game for TT). Last year he averaged 31.5 min, 12 points, & 7 rebounds. This year, in the 15 games he played, averaged 21.5 min, 6.5 points, & 4 rebounds. Had 2 pts vs Baylor, 0 vs KU, & 6 vs KSU, then done.
If Evans is out or hobbled, that's a whole different story.

Yeah, that was kind of my point. I had forgotten that Smith was also out.

Smith really didn't do anything at KU, so his loss is more of one of those long-term adjustments based on something unexpected, and Tech has gotten past it. Kind of like how KU expected Preston and had to adapt to a world without him.

The Evans thing is still fresh and has a lot of uncertainty around it. A quick google search still says "day-to-day" as of noon eastern time. I would imagine that they'll post an update in the next couple of hours.

No matter what, I like the fact that we'll have a 2 day jump on prepping for the game since we played on Monday.

Now it's a "game-time decision". Sounds like they want to play this one close to the vest.

www.diehards.com/texas-tech/keenan-evans...ma-state-chris-beard