Texas Tech basketball: What Red Raiders must do to beat Cowboys

4 of 4

Guard Davide Moretti #25 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images) /

Texas Tech must share and protect the basketball

If there is a statistic where these two teams are separated by a rather large margin, it is in the assist/turnover ratio. Thus, if Tech can share and protect the ball, they will likely prevail.

More from Wreck'Em Red

It’s not breaking news or a slice of revolutionary insight to insist that the team that handles the ball the best will win. That’s a premise of the game that we were all taught back in Little Dribblers.

But sometimes, even college teams forget that basic yet quintessential principle. Hopefully today, the start of Big 12 play and the elevated intensity that comes with it doesn’t make the Red Raiders play a style that isn’t what their head coach wants.

Remember that at 16.1 assists per game, Tech is in the top 30 nationally. Meanwhile, understand that OSU is just 194th at 12.4 per game.

When it comes to turning the ball over, the teams are almost identical. Tech is giving it away 13.8 times per game while OSU is averaging 13.3. Thus, Beard’s team has an assist/turnover ratio of 1.25 while OSU’s ratio is just 0.93. That’s the difference in third in the conference and last.

There’s a reason that ball-movement is going to be so critical today. In the middle of the defense, OSU has 6-foot-10 human eraser Yor Anei, who averages 2.4 blocks per game.

Earlier this year, he had 8 blocks in a game so to prevent him from having that type of impact, Tech has to make him move all over the floor on defense by keeping the ball one step ahead of him.

Also, the Red Raiders don’t want to fall into the trap of trying to get into a shootout from distance with OSU if Waters and Dziagwa get hot. That’s a recipe for disaster.

Tech is a team built to share the ball. There are only a couple of players (Jahmi’us Ramsey and Terrence Shannon Jr.) that are true rim-rockers who penetrate for the sole purpose of scoring or getting to the line.

dark. Next. Texas Tech basketball all-decade centers

The rest of the team needs to be thinking about how to draw the defense to them in order to create opportunities for their teammates. If Tech can do that and keep the turnovers at a minimum, the Cowboys likely will not be able to play enough defense to come out on top.

Home/Texas Tech Basketball