Texas Tech basketball: Red Raiders reportedly to play Georgetown

For the first time in the brief history of the Big 12/Big East Battle, the Texas Tech basketball team will be at home for the upcoming season’s marquee non-conference event.  And now it is being reported that one of the more storied programs in college hoops, Georgetown, will be the team headed to Lubbock.

According to college basketball insider Jon Rothstein, the Red Raiders and the Hoyas will square off on November 30 as part of the non-conference showdown, which will be in its fourth year in 2022.  Hopefully, this will be the year that Tech finally scores a win over a Big East foe.

Back in 2019, the Red Raiders fell to DePaul in Chicago, 65-60 in overtime.  That night, Tech allowed DePaul’s Jalen Coleman-Lands to hit a long 3-pointer with just eight seconds to play to send the game to overtime.  Then, the future Iowa State Cyclone and Kansas Jayhawk would go on to score eight of his 18 points in the extra frame to help push his team over the top.

The next season, Texas Tech was set to host St. John’s for the second year of the event.  However, due to COVID-19 concerns, the Red Storm decided not to play the game thus leaving the Red Raiders without one of their marquee non-conference home games for that season.

In 2021, Tech traveled to Providence to take on the Friars and the outcome was equally as frustrating as the DePaul game two seasons prior.  Tech would tie the game at 65-65 with 2:10 to play thanks to a Kevin Obanor 3-pointer but Providence would rattle off four straight points before ultimately sealing the win at the line.  But what drove Red Raider fans mad that evening was the fact that in the final two minutes of play, their team would give the ball away twice when trailing by just one score.

Now, Red Raider fans are going to finally get to welcome a Big East team to United Supermarkets Arena and that should make a huge difference.  After all, Mark Adams’ program went undefeated at home this past season.

As for Georgetown, things have not gone as swimmingly in recent years.  The proud program that has been to five Final Fours and which won the 1984 National Title has gone from being one of the sport’s blue bloods to being a relative afterthought.

Under current head coach Patrick Ewing, the Hoyas have posted a winning record just once in five seasons and have been to the NCAA Tournament only once.  What’s more, they’ve failed to reach the second weekend of the Big Dance since 2012.

Last year, Georgetown was a dreadful 6-25 on the season.  That included a mark of 0-19 in conference play.  That was the fewest number of wins the Hoyas have posted in a season since 1971-72 when they won only three contests.

Ewing enters 2022-23 having received the dreaded vote of confidence from his athletic director but he will be on the hot seat as soon as the season tips off.  And a trip to Lubbock is not what a coach who is hanging onto his job by a thread needs early in the season.

But that’s what lies in store for Ewing and the Hoyas at the end of November.  If Tech can’t get off the schneid in the Big 12/Big East Battle in this matchup, it will be a huge disappointment and another round of Big East frustration for Red Raider fans.  That’s because Georgetown basketball is just a shell of what it used to be.