Texas Tech basketball No. 3 seed in wide-open West Region

The Texas Tech basketball team has earned the No. 3 seed in what looks to be a wide-open West Region of the NCAA Tournament.

For the second-consecutive season, the Texas Tech basketball has earned a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament. It is the third time in program history that the Red Raiders have been a 3-seed and in each of the previous two years (1996 and 2018) Tech advanced to the second weekend of the tournament.

And given the nature of this year’s West region, there’s reason to believe that another deep run in the Big Dance could be in store. That is because Tech’s region is the most wide-open of the four in the draw with a handful of teams that could conceivably reach the Final Four in Minneapolis.

Let’s break the region down by looking at the official seed list as released by the NCAA. The Red Raiders are the No. 10 overall seed which is directly in line with their NCAA Net Ranking.

But after looking at the overall seeding of the two teams in the West seeded above the Red Raiders, is becomes apparent that this quadrant of the bracket is devoid of a dominant team. The No. 1 seed, Gonzaga, is the lowest ranked of the four No. 1 seeds and though they are certainly capable of cutting down the nets in Minneapolis, the Bulldogs are also far less battle-tested than the other three No. 1 seeds (Duke, North Carolina and Virginia) which all had to fight through the brutal ACC this season. It is fair to wonder whether Gonzaga’s easy path through the West Coast Conference has prepared Mark Few’s team for the type of intensity and physicality required to win a title.

Likewise, No. 2 seed Michigan is the lowest-ranked No. 2 seed in the field. At 28-6 overall, the Wolverines are coming off a loss in the Big 10 Tournament championship game to arch-rival Michigan State. And last year, they reached the national championship game before being routed by Villanova so there is little doubt that the maze and blue are tournament tough.

But after starting the season with 17-consecutive wins, Michigan dropped three games to unranked opponents in the first two months of conference play. What’s more, they have lost three of their last nine games entering the Big Dance (though two came at the hands of a very good Michigan State team).

More from Wreck'Em Red

The No. 4 seed in the West, Florida State, is a dark-horse candidate to reach the Final Four. The second-highest seeded No. 4 seed has as much size as any team in the tournament with tons of length on the perimeter and two rim protectors in 7-foot-4 Christ Koumadje and 6-foot-10 Mfiondu Kabengele.

But the Seminoles have been inconsistent at times this year. While they have wins over Virginia, Virginia Tech and Louisville and they took Duke to the wire before losing on a 3-pointer at the buzzer, they have also dropped games to Boston College and Pittsburgh.

This is not to say that Tech’s path through the West will be a stroll in the park. All four of the top seeds in the region are more than capable of reaching Minneapolis. What’s more, there is plenty of quality in the middle of this region as No. 5 seed Marquette finished second in the Big East regular season race while both No. 6 seed Buffalo and No. 7 seed Nevada are extremely dangerous mid-major teams that spent virtually all season in the top-25.

But Tech’s region appears on paper to be the weakest in the tournament. When adding up the average overall seeding of the top four teams in each region, the teams in the West come in with the lowest average at 9.0. Meanwhile, the Midwest region’s top four seeds have an average overall seeding of 8.0 while the top four seeds in both the East and South regions average 8.5.

Also working in the Red Raiders’ favor this year is the fact that they will play the first two rounds in Tulsa, the closest first-weekend site to Lubbock. Just as last year’s team was greatly aided by a pro-Tech crowd in Dallas, there should be thousands of Red Raider fans that make the 6.5 hour drive from Lubbock or the four hour drive from Dallas to Tulsa to give Chris Beard’s team plenty of support.

Next. Big 12 Tournament needs to rotate locations. dark

One year ago, the Red Raiders had the misfortune of being in the same region as the No. 2 overall seed in the tournament, Villanova, which proved to be an unbeatable buzzsaw that rolled through the field in dominating fashion. It does not appear that such a powerful team is standing in the Red Raiders’ path to the Final Four this year (including none of the five teams I hoped to avoid) which makes one believe that this could be the year that Tech breaks through and reaches the Final Four for the first time in program history.

Home/Texas Tech Basketball