Patrick Mahomes Really Enjoyed Hammering Baylor In Lubbock
Lubbock's favorite quarterback was in town last night as the Red Raider legend cheered on the Texas Tech basketball game to an incredible second half. The Red Raiders were down 7 points at halftime before outscoring the Baylor Bears by 17 in the second half to beat them 83-73. Texas Tech also beat Baylor in Waco earlier this season, which makes it the team's first season sweep of Baylor since 2005.
Mahomes is officially over his AFC Championship hangover, and now that he gets to talk trash to former Baylor basketball star turned Chiefs tight end Mark Vital, he's feeling even better. Vital isn't going to enjoy this.
The game itself was like a lot of Texas Tech basketball games. Just kind of survive the first half and wear the opponent out in the second. In the postgame conference, Kevin Obanor said that Head Coach Mark Adams called a few players out, including himself. Obanor responded in a huge way, finishing the night with 23 points and 13 rebounds. Most of those points came in the second half.
With about 15 minutes left in the second half, Obanor hit this three pointer, which generated a huge response from both the crowd and Mahomes:
He'd hit another one on the next possession. Texas Tech would not give back the lead.
Bryson Williams, Terrence Shannon Jr. and Adonis Arms were all in double figures with Obanor. Meanwhile, Shannon led the team with five assists. Kevin McCullar's absence was noticeable, but the depth of this team keeps surprising me.
Another point that can be taken from the game last night is that Terrence Shannon Jr. is getting back to 100 percent. This is back-to-back games with one of his patented steal-fast-break-tomahawk-slams.
The players took notice of Mahomes sitting courtside. Shannon Jr. even said he'd see Mahomes in Austin this weekend.
Adonis Arms was happy to get that extra energy boost from the former Super Bowl champion:
Mahomes was just happy to get the energy from the Texas Tech fans.
And there was plenty of energy to go around last night. Have you ever seen 15,000 people Swag Surfing? Now you have, courtesy of The Raider Riot:
Now, not everyone was happy about ESPN2 showing Mahomes on the broadcast in every other timeout, especially when Texas Tech took a 10-point lead late in the game.
Other people were upset they didn't get to see more of Patrick Mahomes. Or at least meet him in person. Darby Rich is Texas Tech's strength and conditioning coach.
Next up for Texas Tech is round two with the Texas Longhorns. If the Red Raiders can sweep Beard's Bunch, then I think they'll be pretty solid on the 2-seed line for the NCAA Tournament with four very winnable games left on the schedule.
That's if Texas Tech can beat Texas in Austin.
(I think they will.)