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Takeaways: Rice's shooters present tough task for Tech on Saturday

Texas Tech coach Chris Beard met with members of the local media on Friday afternoon to preview his team's contest with the 6-1 Rice Owls that will take place at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday...



-First, Coach Beard's overall thoughts on the challenges Rice presents:

"(Marcus) Evans might be one of the best players in the state of Texas and all of college basketball. Obviously they can shoot the three really well, play great defense, so it's going to be a great game for us. It should be a game that could help both teams."

-Beard sees quite a few similarities between both Rice and Incarnate Word as far as how both teams like to approach things on the court. Tempo is the name of the game, and Rice certainly pushes that, scoring 86 points a game so far this season.

-One of the things that impressed Coach Beard the most about the Owls is that they've won three road games already this season, something Beard doubts anyone else has done this early on in the year.

-The star player for Rice is undoubtedly sophomore guard Marcus Evans, who is averaging 22.6 points per game, has shot 43 threes already, making 16 of them, and shoots 47 percent from the floor. The problem, however, is that Evans isn't the only dynamic offensive player for the Owls. Four of their five starters can all shoot from downtown, and none of those four have fired off fewer than 31 threes on the year. And seeing as Evans and a number of big men can drive to the basket as well, it's a tall task to defend Rice, as Coach Beard points out:

"It's a real challenge. If you want to try and stop the drive, they have perimeter shooters. If you want to try and stop the shot, they've got guys that can make plays in the paint like you mentioned, so it's a real challenge. It'll have to be team defense. We don't have anybody on our roster who can guard Evans one on one, so it'll have to be a real team effort from people stepping up at different times in the game."

-Junior forward Zach Smith has seemingly taken his offensive game to another level so far this season, as the Plano native is leading the Big 12 conference in shooting percentage at 64.8 from the floor. Sure, some of that has to do with dunks, but much of that has to do with his growth and ability to make mid-range jumpers consistently. Coach Beard's thoughts on Smith's growth this year:

"He was a good freshman at this level, and then he took the next step in his game last year. He was noticeably different to me from his freshman year to his sophomore year. I think the previous coaching staff deserves a lot of that credit, but above all Zach deserves a ton of credit. He's put in the time, and then I think he's taken the next step between his sophomore and junior year. Things as simple as - he leads our fastbreak a lot, bringing the ball up the floor as a guard. He guards multiple people," he said. " I think above all, Zach deserves credit for being a guy that seems to be improving throughout his college career."

-I asked Coach Beard what he saw from senior forward Anthony Livingston in the game against Incarnate Word on Wednesday, a contest where the big man disappeared a bit offensively. Beard noted that he was curious as to why Livingston didn't shoot much in the game, but after watching the film, the head coach saw that UIW really focused on him defensively. As a result, Beard came away more impressed that Livingston didn't try to force anything in the game and simply let the game come to him when he got an opportunity.


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