Texas Tech basketball: Four critical games in second-half of Big 12 play

Saturday at Texas

Outside of the trip to Waco on March 2nd, Saturday’s trip to Austin looks to be the toughest road game remaining on the schedule.  That means it is also a fantastic opportunity.

Sitting at No. 62 in the NET Rankings, Texas is ranked high enough that if the Red Raiders can pull out the win at the Erwin Center, they will secure a critical Quadrant 1 win.  Thus, this is a game that would do wonders for Texas Tech.

Of course, the Red Raiders have won just once in Austin since 1996.  That lone triumph came last season when Matt Mooney had 22 points to lead his team to a 68-62 win to snap a losing streak that stretched back to the Clinton Administration.

This year, the Longhorns are 9-3 at home but the only two of those victories that came against major conference opponents were wins against Kansas State and Iowa State.  Meanwhile, UT has dropped games to Kansas, OU, and LSU on their own court.

All-time, the Red Raiders are just 23-49 on the road against the Horns.  That includes just one win since the inception of the Big 12.

Don’t think that just because last year’s team broke the Erwin Center curse, the current team will simply waltz all over the Horns.  That’s because Shaka Smart’s team has shown some uncharacteristic fight in the two weeks since being embarrassed by 38 points on the road against West Virginia.

Though UT is just 2-2 in their last four games, the two losses were very close; a two-point setback at the hands of LSU at home and an 11-point loss at Kansas that was just a 4-point game with 10:38 to play in the second half.

What should concern Tech fans is that UT shoots a ton of 3-pointers and teams normally shoot more effectively at home than on the road.  If the boys in Burnt Orange are hot from the field on Saturday, especially from deep, it will be a tough task for the Red Raider to score their second-straight win in Austin.