When the Texas Tech basketball team takes on Baylor today, here’s what needs to be different from the first time these teams met this year.
Today, the Texas Tech basketball team has one last opportunity to make a huge statement in the regular season. That’s because the Red Raiders will face No. 3 Baylor in Waco this afternoon with an opportunity to hand the Bears their second loss of the season.
The first time Tech and Baylor shared the court, it was a defensive battle won by Baylor 68-60 in Lubbock. But though the Bears came out on top, Tech put a scare into Scott Drew’s team.
Prior to that day, Baylor had won every game on the schedule by double digits and had not trailed by multiple baskets in the second half of any game. While Tech never could gain such an advantage over the Bears either, with 7:11 to go in that game, the Red Raiders held the lead, the latest into a game that Baylor had been behind at that point in the season.
Of course, moral victories are the most hollow accomplishments in sports and it’s useless to celebrate almost beating Baylor. Thus, nothing short of coming up with a win today will be cause for rejoicing.
A win would be the first in Waco for Beard, who has won at every other venue in the Big 12. But even more importantly, it would potentially propel his team to a higher seeding in this month’s NCAA Tournament.
Currently, Jerry Palm of CBS Sports has Tech as a No. 5 seed. That’s also what Joe Lunardi of ESPN.com has Tech slotted as in his latest bracket projection.
Of course, that would be a rather precarious position for the Red Raiders given how prevalent 12 seed vs. 5 seed upsets have been in the NCAA Tournament. In fact, since the tournament field expanded in 1985, there have been 50 instances of a 12 seed beating a 5 seed in the first round.
Unfortunately, it would appear that a No. 4 seed would be the best this Red Raider team could hope to earn this season. That is not an ideal situation to be in because it means that the likely opponent in a Sweet 16 game would be that region’s No. 1 seed.
But if Tech wants to push for a higher seed than that and make the selection committee take notice of how well the Red Raiders have been playing since the calendar turned to March, beating Baylor would be the best way to do so.
Of course, that’s not going to be an easy task. On the other hand, it is possible. But for that to happen, the following changes need to take place from the first meeting.