Texas Tech basketball bracketology: Red Raiders consensus No. 2 seed

After another solid week, the Texas Tech basketball team continues to receive plenty of love from national media outlets. Let’s check in with the latest bracketology and power rankings to see where the Red Raiders stand.

Texas Tech basketball fans are certainly enjoying the team’s 15-1 start. And because of the Red Raiders’ surge to the top of the Big 12 standings, we eagerly await each week’s bracketology and power rankings from around the nation to see how national media members view Chris Beard’s team.

This week, there is nothing to complain about as the Red Raiders are pegged as a No. 2 seed in virtually every bracketology prediction. CBSSports.com has Tech as a No. 2 seed taking on No. 15 South Dakota State. The Jackrabbits are currently 14-6 and leading the Summit League. Do not be confused however, this is not the team that senior Matt Mooney played for last year. The Texas Tech graduate transfer played for the South Dakota Coyotes for the past two years.

ESPN.com also has Tech as a No. 2 seed taking on UTSA. Should this come to fruition, it would mark the second year in a row that Tech would take on a mid-major team from Texas in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Last year, the Red Raiders beat Stephen F. Austin 70-60 in a game that was in doubt until late in the second half.

Over at the Washington Post, Patrick Stevens also has Tech as a No. 2 taking on Rider. Out of New Jersey, the Rider Broncos currently lead the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference despite a record of just 9-7. Like Texas Tech they are 4-0 in conference play.

NCAA.com’s Andy Katz puts Tech at a No. 2 seed and he has them squaring off with Princeton. This could be a fascinating game between two teams that play very deliberate and unique styles. But the Tigers would not be intimidated by the Red Raiders having already taken on Duke (a 51-point loss) and beaten Arizona State 67-66.

Finally, our friend Lucas Harkins at Busting Brackets is also on the No. 2 seed train. He envisions Tech taking on Radford from the Big South Conference. If Radford is a team that sounds familiar to Red Raider fans, it could be because in November, the Highlanders knocked off Texas in Austin 62-59. They also have a win at Notre Dame on their resume.

Not surprisingly, the Red Raiders are also rising in the latest round of power rankings. And virtually every site points to the team’s historical defensive pace as the reason for their climb. But there still remains an undercurrent of doubt about whether Tech can score enough to be a legitimate Final Four contender.

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Busting Brackets ranks the Red Raiders at No. 8. They point out that Tech’s offense ranks just 92nd in the nation and is far too heavily reliant on Jarrett Culver, which is certainly a fair criticism.

Sports Illustrated also has Texas Tech at No. 8. This week, they list the Red Raiders as one of five teams on the rise joining Maryland, Marquette, Ole Miss and Duke (these rankings were published before the Blue Devils’ loss to Syracuse on Monday night).

Andy Katz of NCAA.com has Tech at No. 7 in his Power 36. He has the Red Raiders as the highest-rated team in the Big 12, one spot ahead of Kansas.

Finally, ESPN.com puts the Red Raiders at No. 6. This marks a two-spot jump from last week as the wins over Oklahoma and Texas seemed to garner the Red Raiders some national credibility.

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Like all rankings and projections at this time of the season, where Tech sits in any bracket or power ranking is rather arbitrary. But you will have to excuse Red Raider fans, who still remember the awful state of the program in the first part of this decade, for delighting in the fact that Tech is being talked about as one of the top teams in the nation.

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