Texas Tech basketball: Red Raiders set for toughest test yet in 2023-24

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Nov 17, 2023; Villanova, Pennsylvania, USA; Villanova Wildcats guard Brendan Hausen (1) shoots against the Maryland Terrapins in the first half at William B. Finneran Pavilion. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Ross-USA TODAY Sports /

Texas Tech can’t keep shooting below 21% as a team from 3-point range

So far, the Texas Tech basketball team has survived an early-season, team-wide 3-point shooting drought thanks to its defense and the relative weakness of its opponents. That likely won’t be able to continue today.

Nova is a team that has scored over 80 points twice (though against American and Le Moyne…whatever that is) and has been held below 70 points only once. Of course, that one instance was against the only major-conference team the Cats have faced, Maryland, which lost to ‘Nova 57-40. (Also, keep in mind that Maryland is a bad team which is just 2-3 overall on the season).

Villanova is an average 3-point shooting team in terms of percentage. At 35.3% on the season, they have five players shooting over 40% from deep on the year.

What is key, though, is that ‘Nova is a high-volume 3-point team. Averaging a whopping 29 shots from beyond the arc per game, they rank 27th in the nation. What’s more, their 10.3 makes per game are 24th overall.

https://twitter.com/TexasTechMBB/status/1726963289265938785?s=20

Contrast that to the Red Raiders. So far, their 21 shots per game from downtown is just the 230th-most in the nation. More alarming, though, is that Tech’s 4.3 made 3s per game is good for only No. 342 in the NCAA.

There could be an x-factor in this game though as both teams will be shooting in a setting that is unfamiliar to them and in a non-traditional basketball setting which is actually a grand ballroom that is converted into a basketball arena for the week.

Could that make shooting the ball tougher than it would be in a traditional arena? Tech fans hope not given how poorly our team has shot on the year.

Perhaps it will cool the Cats off, though. Either way, Tech is going to have to hit some shots from deep to keep pace with Villanova today.

At some point, we have to believe that the Red Raiders will break out of this team-wide funk. There are simply too many decent (and even, dare we say, good) shooters on this roster for McCasland’s bunch to keep shooting below 21%. Today would be a great time for the Red Raiders to get hot and start to turn that trend around.

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