 "Photo: Sam Grenadier")
 "Photo: Karl Anderson")
Now that his team has lost three straight games, including its first two Big 12 Conference games, Texas Tech coach Pat Knight intends to drill the fundamentals of basketball back into his players' heads.
The lack of competitiveness in the second half against No. 11 Texas, who coasted to a 71-49 victory Saturday in the United Spirit Arena, has elevated Knight's frustration to an all-time high, he said.
"We've gotta work on every aspect of this game. We can't shoot, we can't pass, we can't hit layups from an offensive standpoint," he said. "Defensively, we can't guard anybody, we're not in a huddle position, we can't block out and rebound."
After the Red Raiders (10-7, 0-2 in Big 12 play) looked like an improved version of last season's team, winning seven of their first eight games, they have regressed at the worst time - just as conference gets going. To Tech's credit, injuries to guard Nick Okorie and forwards Trevor Cook and Michael Prince have affected the team's rotation.
Cook, who had 24 points against No. 4 Pittsburgh earlier this year, saw nine minutes of action against Texas on Saturday but looked dusty, missing all four of his shots while struggling to find open looks. An injury to Cook's back caused him to miss games against Stephen F. Austin, TCU and Baylor.
Okorie suffered an ankle injury in early December that sidelined him for losses at Lamar and UTEP and wins against New Mexico and Centenary. Prince missed two more games than Okorie - Stanford and Stephen F. Austin - because of a foot injury.
However, the injuries are not the No. 1 cause of Tech's mid-season crisis.
The inability to execute for 40 minutes, offensively and defensively, has been the only consistent part of Tech's game recently.
Prior to the Texas game, a pair of close losses to TCU and No. 23 Baylor were promising, but nothing consistent materialized. So far this year, the Red Raiders have more promising losses than promising wins. A 13-point loss to Pittsburgh in the Legends Classic earlier this season proved Tech can hang with any team in the nation.
Opportunities to knock off ranked teams have come and gone for the Red Raiders with losses to Stanford, Baylor and Texas.
If he could, Knight said he would make personnel changes, but halfway through the season, major roster moves are not likely to happen, he said.
"How you make those changes is recruiting. I gotta wait until next week for that," he said. "If this was the NBA, yeah we'd make trades tonight, but I can't. I'm stuck with what we have. You gotta work with it. But the way you address personnel is by recruiting, but you gotta wait on those guys.
"So we have to work with what we've got. I can't wish that I had so and so. I know what I have, and I gotta figure out what we gotta do with it."
Knight said he wishes he had a clear-cut leader, something the team has missed since Ronald Ross' departure in 2005. Coming into the season, Knight expected guard Alan Voskuil to lead by example, which does not fill the void of a vocal leader.
But Tech needs more than a lead-by-example player, and forward Mike Singletary has come close.
Singletary shows intensity on the court at times, but only when Tech is in control. His game-winning shot against Wichita State Dec. 3 could have been his coronation as the leader, but tough losses since then have raised leadership questions once again.
"All the vocal leadership is coming from the coaching staff, and that's part of the problem," Knight said. "We actually haven't had a real good vocal leader since Ronald Ross, and that's a huge problem because you gotta have that leader in the locker room.
"We're kind of frontrunners right now. When things are going good, we're out there talking, moving. Then all of a sudden someone jumps on you, after 10 or 12 points we kind of fold. Somehow we just gotta overcome that."
Tech will get a chance to show improvement when it plays conference-doormat Colorado at 7 p.m. in the United Spirit Arena. The Buffaloes (8-8, 0-2) have lost five of six games and rank either 11th or 12th in 14 different statistical categories in the Big 12.
Last season, Tech routed Colorado in Boulder, Colo., 87-69 for the Red Raiders' only conference road win of the season and its fourth win in the last five meetings against the Buffaloes. So today's game presents as good a time as any for Tech to correct some problems before going on the road to play Missouri and Texas A&M.
"We just take it one game at a time. Now our goal is we gotta try to beat Colorado," Knight said. "After that game will be Missouri. We're too young and don't have the firepower right now to set long term goals. This has gotta be a weekly deal."
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