The second game since JT Toppin’s injury is officially upon us. Texas Tech is still at home for the second game of a two game home stand and this time the Red Raiders are getting set to meet up with the Cincinnati Bearcats.
Cincinnati isn’t exactly the most impressive team in the country, but they’re riding a four game winning streak that includes a double digit win over the current No. 8 team in the country. Texas Tech can’t just look past this matchup.
As such, I have a few questions as the Red Raiders prepare to meet up with the Bearcats in Lubbock.
No. 1: Is Texas Tech prepared to battle Cincinnati’s front court for rebounds with Toppin sidelined?
How on earth are the Red Raiders going to battle for rebounds against the Cincinnati Bearcats? It’s not that Cincinnati is some sort of world’s best when it comes to getting rebounds, it’s just that I don’t know how Texas Tech will do it consistently well when missing a guy who gets 10.8 rebounds per game.
Getting Bamgboye on the court helps, he scored 12 points, grabbed six rebounds, and then blocked three shots against Kansas State. That’s all great and worth celebrating. How will Bamgboye do when facing Baba Miller, who has 10.2 rebounds per game? Or what about the 7-foot-2 Moustapha Thiam, who had eight rebounds against Kansas?
LeJuan Watts can certainly help make a difference in this area, but it’s going to be fascinating keeping up with the front court battles.
No. 2: Will the Red Raiders be able to make enough threes to get past a dominant defense?
The Cincinnati Bearcats aren’t the best defense ever, but they’re doing well enough to limit the opportunities that other teams have to get on the scoreboard in a pretty impressive way. Opponents are being held to 67 points per game and 31.6 percent shooting from behind the three point line.
So, how will Texas Tech do as the Red Raiders rely pretty heavily upon three point shooting to get points on the board?
The Red Raiders are led in three point shooting by Donovan Atwell (45.7 percent from behind the three point line) and Christian Anderson (44.2 percent from behind the three point line). And as a team, Texas Tech is making 39.2 percent of its threes per game. Theoretically speaking, this should be an area where the Red Raiders thrive vs Cincinnati. We’ll see.
No. 3: Will Texas Tech’s home court advantage force Cincinnati back to its old ways of losing on the road?
For so much of this season, the Cincinnati Bearcats have been absolutely abysmal in road games. They’ve managed to go out and win just a couple of them so far this season. A grand total of two road wins and it’s just about March. Cincinnati’s road record is 2-6, to be precise.
That’s not good (for them, that is).
But it’s absolutely worth looking at the fact that the Bearcats just managed to go to No. 8 Kansas and get a 16-point win that might feel like something to build off of for Cincinnati. And it’ll be worth paying attention to how Cincinnati plays in Lubbock as Texas Tech is 13-1 at home this season. They’ve been really impressive and it’d be nice to see that continue.