Texas Tech football coach Mike Leach may not have the best offense in Lubbock anymore, or at least his football team is not getting all the attention.
His buddy and Tech basketball coach Pat Knight made a case to overtake him in the offensive production department in a wild, record-setting 167-115 win over East Central (Division II) on Thursday in the United Spirit Arena in the first round of the Legends Classic.
"Guys got minutes, guys got shots up. It was a good experience," Knight said. "For me, it's just another day of working basketball. We worked on some things that helped us."
Knight said he thought ECU (0-1) coach Terry Shannon was kidding when he told him before the game he planned to push the ball up court all game, which is exactly what he did.
"Wow, that was fun wasn't it?" Shannon said. "We came in with a couple of ideas. We wanna play an up-tempo game. We wanna force people to play our pace; we didn't have to force them. They went with us and boy they shot the ball well.
The most points Tech (3-0) had ever scored in a game was 128 points against Texas in a double-overtime win in 1994. That same game also set the record for most points by two teams combined with 253, but add up Thursday's final score and Tech has another record with 282 total points scored in an NCAA basketball game.
Forward Trevor Cook led the Red Raiders with a career-high 20 points, while guards Alan Voskuil and John Roberson had 17 each. Wally Dunn and Mike Singletary chipped in 16 points apiece; Nick Okorie had 15 points; D'walyn Roberts had a career-high 13 points; Rogdrick Craig had a career high 11, as did Darko Cohadarevic and Michael Prince.
After the game, Knight said there is no validity to his basketball team having a better offense than Mike Leach's, whose No. 2 Red Raiders play No. 5 OU on Saturday.
"No, no, it's a little different," Knight said. "The game we just played (was against) East Central Oklahoma, (Tech football) is playing Oklahoma, so there's a huge difference."
Countless school records were shattered in the win. Tech had 10 players in double-digit scoring, 35 assists, 67 field goals made and 113 field goals attempted - all new school records. Tech had 77 points in the first half and 90 points in the second half, as well as 90 points in the paint, 40 points off turnovers and 85 points off the bench.
Down 10-8 four minutes into the game, Tech stole the ball six times in a span of two minutes - Okorie had four of them. The steals led to a slam-dunk by Okorie and multiple fast break buckets. Voskuil nabbed a steal, dribbled to the wing and sank a 3-pointer, capping an 18-2 run that gave Tech a 26-12 lead only three and a half minutes after trailing by two points.
That's how fast paced this game was, Tech averaged 4.1 points per minute. Of course with that type of tempo, Knight said it is difficult to scold his players for playing little defense.
With so many open spots on the court, Voskuil was able to break out of his shooting slump, making his first four 3-pointers of the game after going 5-of-16 from 3-point range in the first two games of the season.
"I thought he let the game come to him this time, he was more relaxed," Knight said. "As a shooter you gotta have your legs, and so he was pretty much warmed up and was able to shoot the ball."
ECU came to within six points in the first half, but that was as close as the Tigers would sniff the lead for the rest of the game. Tech leaped ahead with a 17-4 run en route to a 77-57 halftime lead.
The game speed was even faster in the second half. Tech reached 130 points with 7:42 remaining after Dunn hit a 3-pointer.
Knight said his team can learn a lot from this game with No. 6 Pittsburgh two games away. Since he wanted to increase the tempo from the start of the season, this served as a good measuring stick as to how well his team can control the ball in constant transition.
The second thing Knight took away from this game, he said, dates back to last year, when Kansas beat Tech 109-51.
"It was good practice for us from that standpoint, pushing it up, pushing it up, trying to make decisions on the run," Knight said. "So from an offensive standpoint, I thought it was a good practice for us. Number two, I finally know what Bill Self felt like last year when we played them in Lawrence."
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