Today, the Texas Tech basketball team will face off with the West Virginia Mountaineers for the first and only time in the regular season. Of course, the hope is that the Red Raiders will get back to their winning ways after dropping their last game 69-66 at TCU on Tuesday night.
What's more, with a quick turnaround to take on Houston on Monday in Lubbock, the Red Raiders will hopefully take care of business today without having to exert an overabundance of energy. But then again, this is the Big 12 so there's no telling how the Mountaineers will come into this game.
For the season, West Virginia is just 16-10 overall and 7-8 in Big 12 play. What's more, since they lost their second-best player, Tucker DeVries (son of head coach Darian DeVries player for the season) just eight games into the season, they have been a much less dangerous team.
Still, since DeVries went down, they have managed to score wins over Kansas, Iowa State, and Cincinnati (twice). Thus, they are capable of coming into Lubbock and ruining the Red Raiders' day.
The Mountaineers feature one of the best guards in the Big 12. 6-foot-3 senior Javon Small is averaging 18.5 points, 5.5 assists, and 4.3 rebounds per game. He's the second-leading scorer in the conference and given the instances this year when Tech has struggled to contain elite guards, that's a matchup to watch.
However, even with Small scoring at a high rate, the Mountaineers struggle to put up points. Averaging just 69.1 points per game, they are second-to-last in the Big 12 in offensive output.
On the other hand, though, they do play strong defense. They give up only 64.1 points per game which is second-best in the league.
That means that WVU likely wants to play a slow-paced affair where each possession grinds the clock down and shortens the game to make up for their inability to score. Thus, it will be interesting to see if the high-scoring Red Raiders can dictate the style of play in their own arena today.
Today, it will be important for Tech to get back in the win column and continue to improve its tournament resume. This would be a Quad-two win so it won't do all that much for the Red Raiders' hopes of improving their NCAA Tournament seeding. However, dropping this game could really hurt Tech's hopes of being a top-16 seed in the Big Dance.
So Texas Tech fans will be tuning in to check out all the action as it unfolds from United Supermarkets and here's everything you need to know to make sure you don't miss a thing.
Texas Tech vs. West Virginia broadcast info
Tip: 12 p.m. Central
TV: ESPN+
TV CALL: James Westling (play-by-play), Sean Harrington (analyst)
RADIO: TEXAS TECH SPORTS NETWORK
RADIO CALL: Geoff Haxton (play-by-play), Chris Level (analyst)
Texas Tech vs. West Virginia series history
The Mountaineers lead the all-time series by an 18-10 margin with the Red Raiders earning an 81-70 win last season in Morgantown in the only matchup of the year between the teams. This will be the only regular-season game between the teams this season with WVU boasting a 6-5 advantage in games played in Lubbock in the series.
Texas Tech vs. West Virginia odds
Odds courtesy of FanDuel.com.
Favorite | Moneyline | Over/Under |
|---|---|---|
Texas Tech -11.5 | WVU +540 | 135.5 |
Texas Tech vs. West Virginia game notes
Notes courtesy of TexasTech.com.
- The Red Raiders (20-6, 11-4 Big 12) have won eight of their last 10 games and are 13-2 on their home court this season with three home games remaining on the schedule.
- Tech has the best attendance in the state of Texas, averaging 12,673 fans this season with two sell-outs (15,098).
- The Red Raiders lead the Big 12 by scoring 81.8 points per game and with a 1.59 assist-to-turnover ratio. The team is second in the conference by shooting 38.3 percent from 3-point range, 48.2 percent from the field, with a 56.4 effective field goal percentage and a 14.7 scoring margin of victory.
- Tech is currently averaging 81.8 points through 26 overall games and 78.5 in Big 12 play… The 81.8 ppg. are the most since the 1994-95 team averaged 88.8 points per game throughout its season and the 78.5 per conference game is second for the program record with the 2001-02 team averaging 79.4 in 16 games… Tech averaged 74.4 points per Big 12 game last season and 71.9 in 2018-19 during its championship run.
- The Red Raiders have matched the best start to Big 12 play in program history with the 2019 and 2022 teams also being 11-4 through 15 games… The Red Raiders went 14-4 in 2019 to win their only Big 12 regular season championship and post their best conference record