Texas Tech basketball: Numbers to know for rematch with Kansas State

Kansas State leads the Big 12 in steals at 213

There isn’t too much that this year’s Wildcats do well.  But one area where they excel is in steals.  That’s likely going to be a huge focus for the Red Raiders given that a steal is what ultimately cost them the game against Oklahoma State.

In fact, of the 15 turnovers Tech had on Saturday, eight came as a result of steals.  That can’t be repeated tonight because this is an offensively challenged KSU team meant that if they come up with a ton of steals, they could find enough offense to hang around.

For the year, KSU has stolen the ball 213 times.  That comes out to an average of 8.52 per game.  No other team in the league averages over eight.

When these teams met in January, Tech had the ball stolen only five times.  But if you remember back to that game, turnovers of all varieties were a significant problem in the first half.

Though Tech went into the half leading 37-30 that night, the Red Raiders should have been ahead by nearly 20 points.  The only way KSU stayed in the game was by coming up with 12 turnovers.

In the second half, the Red Raiders gave the ball away only four times and that proved to be what turned the game.  There’s no question Beard has been reminding his team of that fact ad nauseam.

The strength of this Wildcat team is their tenacious guard play.  Xavier Sneed, Cartier Diarra, DaJuan Gordon, and Mike McGurl all average at least a steal per game.  Thus, every Red Raider guard will have to be conscientious when handling the ball.

Kansas State is 9th in the conference in scoring (645. points per game) and field goal percentage (41.3%) while ranking just 8th in 3-point shooting percentage at 32.1%.  If Tech can force the Wildcats to earn the vast majority of their points tonight by executing in the half-court and not help their guests by turning the ball over, it seems unlikely that the Wildcats will have enough firepower to go toe-to-toe with the Red Raiders.