Texas Tech basketball: Scouting the Kansas State Wildcats

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Cartier Diarra #2 of the Kansas State Wildcats (Photo by Peter Aiken/Getty Images) /

KSU is no longer one of the Big 12’s top defensive teams

For the last two years, when Texas Tech and KSU have met, it was billed as a battle of two of the nation’s elite defenses. But that’s not the case this season being as both teams have taken a step back in that regard.

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KSU is now just a run of the mill defensive team ranking 5th in the Big 12 by allowing 60.8 p.p.g. But against major conference opponents, they have given up 65.3.

In the KenPom.com adjusted defense rankings (a measure of points surrendered per 100 possessions), they are 38th nationally at 91.6, which is decent but nowhere close to their performance a year ago when they were third nationally.

Because they have active guards, they still force 16.8 turnovers per game, which makes them the No. 98 team nationally. That’s just a tick below the 17.0 Tech is forcing on a nightly basis.

But though they are not an elite defensive team, they know that their only way to win is to turn games into a grind and cut down on the number of possessions there are in a game. Given their offensive limitations, they are going to try to get the shot clock inside ten seconds as often as possible on both ends of the floor.

They average only 69.5 possessions per game, which is 276th in the nation. That’s one way that they keep the scores of their games in a window where they can compete. In that way, their offensive pace is part of their defensive strategy.

They’ve let only two teams (Bradley, Marquette) surpass 70 points. They lost both of those contests so it would seem like 70 points would be a great goal for Tech in this one.

Another good sign for the Red Raiders in this one is the fact that KSU doesn’t block many shots. Sitting at No. 223 in the country, they’ve got just 46 rejections thus far. That’s certainly a welcome sign for a Red Raider team that has struggled to score in the paint in Big 12 play.

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In all, Tech is going to need to hit some open looks tonight, meaning that more than just one player has to be a long-distance threat, which has not been the case in the last two games. If that proves to be the case and the Red Raiders are able to have more success in the paint than we’ve seen recently, this could be a game that Beard’s team can use to turn its offensive momentum around and get back to its winning ways.

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