Texas Tech basketball: What we want to see from Red Raiders vs. TAMU-CC

The Texas Tech basketball team will face Texas A&M-Corpus Christi tonight at United Supermarkets Arena in the final of three home games against mid or low-major programs to open the season.  It’s a chance for Grant McCasland’s team to fine-tune its overall play ahead of what will be a massive test next week.

On Wednesday, the Red Raiders will be in the Bahamas to take on Villanova in the Battle 4 Atlantis in what will be the first of three straight days that will ask them to face top-flight competition.  That’s going to be a telling event for this rebuilt program and the first true challenge of the McCasland era.

What’s more, when the Red Raiders return to the United States, they will take on Butler on November 30 in the Big 12/Big East Battle.  That will be a true road game played at the historic Hinkle Fieldhouse on the Butler campus.

In other words, the Red Raiders are about to see business pick up.  That’s why tonight’s game against TAMU-CC is critical.

This will be the sixth time these schools have met in basketball.  Overall, Tech leads the series 5-1 including the most recent meeting, a 77-57 win in 2020 in a game played in Frisco, Texas. The Islanders haven’t been to Lubbock since 2011, though.

Sure, there are some things that this team is doing well.  For instance, Tech has held its first two opponents below 50 points.  That’s the first time the program has opened the season holding two opponents below 50 since 1951 (according to the Texas Tech Athletic Department).

However, this is nowhere near a finished product for McCasland and there remain several areas where Tech could improve before heading to Atlantis.  So let’s take a look at what we hope to see from the Red Raiders in the third game of the young season.