Texas Tech basketball: 5 early-season games that will loom large in March

@ Depaul for the year’s first true road game

The first-ever Big East / Big 12 Battle will send Tech on the road for its first game of the year on another team’s campus.  On December 4th, the Red Raiders will be in Chicago to take on DePaul in a game that will be a homecoming for true freshman Terrence Shannon Jr., a Chicago native.

The Blue Demons have not been to the NCAA Tournament since 2004 and are coming off an appearance in the CBI Championship Game.  After 19 wins last year, they return the majority of their roster and they certainly will have this game circled as an opportunity to make a statement.

The Demons will also welcome Kansas transfer Charlie Moore, who spent only one season in Lawrence after being named honorable-mention All-PAC 12 as a true freshman in 2017-18 at Cal.  Now, he’s returned to his hometown where he will bring some punch to the point guard spot.

In all, DePaul could start as many as four upperclassmen.  That means they will be yet another team that’s unintimidated by the Red Raiders and they will likely have a rowdy home crowd in their corner.

You have to love that Tech will test itself in a true road game this year before Christmas.  In the last two seasons, the first time Beard has taken his team to an opponent’s campus has been when Big 12 play started but this year’s young team needs to get its feet wet on the road before the stakes are that high.

If we see a focused and disciplined showing from Tech in Chicago, it will be an encouraging sign about this team’s ability to play well in a tough environment.  Though Tech fans weren’t all that excited about being paired up with the Blue Demons in this event, this is actually a good opponent for Tech to test itself against in its first road game.