Today, the Texas Tech basketball team is in Norman, OK looking for a series sweep of the Sooners. Here’s what you need to know ahead of this key Big 12 showdown.
The Texas Tech basketball team, fresh off a dominant home win over West Virginia, is in Norman today to take on the Sooners. Last month, Tech beat the then No. 23 Sooners 66-59 in Lubbock. That day, Tech trailed at halftime and the game was tied with ten minutes left before the home team managed to pull out the victory.
In that game, Jarrett Culver with his 23 points and Davide Moretti with his 12 were the only Red Raiders in double-digits. Tech shot just 5-19 from deep but was aided by a perfect 17-17 from the foul line.
Since that first game….
Oklahoma has gone 3-5 and dropped out of the top 25 and down to 8th place in the Big 12. Those losses have been mostly competitive games except for a 13-point loss to Kansas State and a big 30 point loss to Baylor, both at home. In their most recent game, they pushed Iowa State to the limit in Norman before falling 75-74 in the final minute.
Meanwhile, the Red Raiders haven’t fared much better, going 4-4 in their last eight, falling to 4th in the conference. What’s concerning is that three of the those losses have come in their last three road games.
So the home team has struggled at home and the road team has struggled on the road. What happens on Saturday?
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Who’s Leading the Sooners?
Oklahoma is led by Senior guard Christian James who’s averaging 15.8 points and 7 rebounds per game. Sophomore forward Brady Manek is the only other double-digit scorer at 11.6 per game to go along with his 6.3 rebounds.
The 6’9″ Manek is probably OU’s biggest perimeter threat, shooting about 36% from behind the arc but unlike a lot of teams in college basketball now, the Sooners don’t really rely on the deep ball. They have three players shooting well over 50% but none of them shoot many three’s as the Sooners have made the third-fewest number of shots from behind the arc in Big 12 play (64).
Are the Red Raiders ok?
If you watched Tech play at Kansas last Saturday when they got down big and never really got back into it, you would probably say ‘no’. But if you only watched their dominant victory over West Virginia on Monday, I think you would say ‘yes’.
The fact is everyone struggles playing the Jayhawks in Kansas. But the Red Raiders have also lost road games at Kansas State and at Baylor recently.
So, the trouble seems to be playing away from Lubbock which won’t happen again after March 4th. Nobody plays at home in the postseason so it would be nice to see some positive signs from the Red Raiders on the road in February.
This game is the first of back-to-back road games in the state of Oklahoma before a three-game home stand. But if Tech does not sweep the Sooners and Cowboys in the next five days, they may fall out of contention for the conference title before we see another game at the U.S.A.
What happens in Norman?
Texas Tech defends the perimeter extremely well, but the Sooners don’t rely on that. Rather, Oklahoma has a lot of size and they take a lot of high percentage shots. Oddly, the only loss all season for them where they were able to out-rebound their opponents was in that game against Tech which included 16 offensive rebounds for the Sooners compared to just three offensive boards for the Red Raiders.
That stat has to turn around on Saturday for Tech to come away with a victory because while OU has struggled offensively in conference play, they continue to defend well. Anytime you have to count on shooting a high percentage, that’s a dicey proposition. You can always expect the defense to show up but even more so against a lesser offensive team like the Sooners. I would expect the coaches have emphasized the rebounding disparity in the lead up to this game and if that flips on the stat sheet, I think you can expect a comfortable Red Raider victory.