Texas Tech basketball: Numbers to know ahead of West Virginia rematch

The WVU bench had 41 points in the first meeting

Another element of the game that Shannon’s absence impacted was bench scoring because it forced Chris Clarke into the starting lineup.  It isn’t that Clarke is a prolific scorer but he is capable of giving his team a few extra buckets from the bench, which is something that the Red Raiders have not been able to count on with consistency this year.

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One time the Red Raiders were absolutely dominated when it came to bench scoring was in Morganton when WVU got 41 points from its reserves to dwarf the 15 Tech got.  That can’t be the case tonight.

What was frustrating about that 26-point advantage was that it canceled out a very promising effort from McCullar.  With six points that afternoon, he had his second-best scoring game against a major conference team to that point.

The problem was that WVU saw freshman guard Miles McBride go nuts with 22 points on 8-11 shooting.  Repeatedly hitting mid-range shots off the dribble, the Ohio native set his season-high in scoring, which he is yet to top.

He averages 10.4 p.p.g. this year and has eleven double-digit games with two being 20-point games.  When he went off against Tech, it allowed WVU to make up for a quiet night from its two leading scorers, Culver and Tshiebwe, neither of whom had more than nine points.

For certain, Tech is going to be much more prepared for McBride this time around.  If he is held in check tonight, it will bode well for the Red Raiders’ chances of picking up a win in this potentially season-defining conference game.