Texas Tech basketball: Red Raiders benefit from OU loss to Texas

On Thursday night, the Texas Tech basketball team got a nice gift when the Texas Longhorns beat Oklahoma in Norman.

It is tough for Texas Tech fans to root for the Texas Longhorns. But that was the position we found ourselves in on Thursday night. Fortunately, Tech’s most hated rival came through.

By beating Oklahoma 69-65 in Norman, the Longhorns helped the Red Raiders secure the No. 6 seed in next week’s Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City. That’s a significant development for a Tech team that is in the midst of a brutal stretch of four games in eight days.

In the Big 12 Tournament, the top six seeds get an automatic bye into the second round. But entering Thursday night, Tech sat in the No. 7 spot in the league standings meaning that the Red Raiders would have to play one of the two opening-round games on Wednesday. That would make it nearly impossible for Tech to win that event, or even make a deep run, given that to get to the finals, it would require the Red Raiders to play three games in three days.

But now, the Red Raiders will get an extra day of rest as the No. 6 seed. And it is all thanks to the fact that Texas beat OU on Thursday night.

UT forward Jericho Sims had a monster game with 16 points and 12 rebounds while guard Andrew Jones also scored 16 points as Texas held on for a crucial win. Now, Tech stands to benefit from that Longhorn win.

Thanks to Thursday’s win over Iowa State, Tech now has a record of 9-7 in Big 12 play, while OU sits at 9-8 and has no more regular-season games left to play. Of course, Tech could also end up at 9-8 in league play with a loss to Baylor on Sunday afternoon. However, that would not change how the seedings shake out because Tech owns the tiebreaker over the Sooners after sweeping the season series between the two teams.

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As it stands right now, Tech would be set to face No. 3 seed West Virginia on Thursday of next week. That’s not necessarily a great matchup for the Red Raiders given that they were swept by the Mountaineers in the season series.

WVU has waves of guards that can make plays off the dribble while also hitting outside shots, which makes it tough for Tech to defend the entire floor against the Mountaineers. At 36.7% as a team, the Mountaineers are second in the Big 12 in 3-point shooting percentage and that’s been an area of the game that Tech has struggled to defend at times this season.

In last month’s 82-71 loss to WVU in Lubbock, the Red Raiders allowed Bob Huggins’ team to shoot 7-14 from deep, and in January’s 88-87 loss in Morgantown, Tech saw the Mountaineers shoot 12-19 from beyond the arc.

But on the other hand, these two teams are evenly matched from a talent perspective and the old sports theory suggests that it is incredibly difficult to beat a good team three times in a season. Thus, some might suggest that Tech would be due for a win over West Virginia should they meet again in Kansas City.

What’s most important though is the fact that Tech is going to get an extra day off after a tough week that will have asked Chris Beard’s team to play three games in six days. And it was all thanks to the help from a school that Red Raiders fans have been passionately rooting against for almost a century.

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