The Texas Tech basketball team is looking to remain unbeaten on the season as it is set to face Northwestern State tonight in Lubbock.
After a week off for final exams, the No. 11 Texas Tech basketball team returns to the floor tonight against a struggling Northwestern State team that is just 2-7 on the season. ESPN.com’s Matchup Predictor gives Tech a 99.3% chance to win this game and it is easy to see why.
The Demons are 0-6 on the road this season dropping those contests by an average go 23.6 points per game. They have lost at SMU, BYU, Rice, Houston, UTEP and Texas A&M and have been no closer than 11 points in any of those games.
Thus far, the Demons are being outscored by an average of 20.8 points per game which ranks 343rd out of 353 Division I teams in the nation. They are allowing 77.8 points per game while scoring just 63.8.
This season’s struggles are a continuation of a run of futility that extends back to the 2015-16 season which began the program’s current string of three-consecutive losing years. Last year, Northwestern State went just 4-25 overall and 1-17 in the Southland Conference.
Only one player on their roster, senior Ishmael Lane, is scoring in double figures. The 6-foot-8, 250-pound forward is averaging 13.7 points per game to go along with seven rebounds and 1.2 assists.
And like so many overmatched teams that Texas Tech has faced this year, do not expect the Demons to be able to stay in the game by way of the three-point shot. As a team, they are hitting just over 28% from deep and their most accurate long-range shooter, Vonte Ott, has attempted just 15 shots from behind the arc.
Tonight should be another laugher at home for a Texas Tech basketball team that has faced some of the worst teams in the nation in its home non-conference slate thus far. In addition to tonight’s hapless lamb that will be led to the slaughter, Tech has hosted four other teams in the bottom 20 in the nation in scoring margin including Mississippi Valley State (352 overall), Incarnate Word (345) Arkansas Pine Bluff (337) and Southeast Louisiana (330).
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Thankfully, the Red Raiders have taken care of business in those game avoiding the type of upsets that have befallen some of their Big 12 brethren. In the four previous games against bottom 20 teams, Tech has won by an average of 27.2 points.
Fortunately, this looks to be the final glorified scrimmage this season. After tonight, all three of the opponents remaining before Big 12 play begins (Abilene Christian, Duke and UT-Rio Grand Valley) have winning records. Abilene Christian is 9-1 and UTRGV is 7-4 while Duke is 9-1 and ranked second in the nation.
Still, tonight’s game is important for the Red Raiders. While the outcome is likely to never be in doubt, Tech needs to continue to refine its game ahead of the showdown with the Blue Devils on December 20th.
In their last game, Tech was lethargic against Arkansas-Pine Bluff committing 13 turnovers and hitting only 3-15 from three-point range. Tech was also terrible at the free throw line going just 10-20, something that must be cleaned up before Big 12 play begins.
Ultimately, here is not much that we will learn from tonight’s contest against one of the worst teams in the nation. But Texas Tech fans need to sit back and enjoy this type of game because the days of stress-free basketball will soon be coming to an end.