The Texas Tech basketball team will wrap up a two-game road test in the state of Utah tonight when the Red Raiders take on BYU in Provo. Coming off of a blowout victory over the University of Utah on Saturday, Tech will look to move to 11-3 overall and 2-1 in conference action.
However, BYU will likely present a tougher challenge than Utah did. The Cougars enter Tuesday at No. 45 in the NCAA NET Rankings (Texas Tech is No. 21) meaning that this is an opportunity to pick up an all-important Quad-1 win.
For the year, BYU is 10-3 overall and 1-1 in the Big 12. In their past two games, they couldn't have had much different results.
They opened league play with a 20-point win at home against Arizona State. Then, they fell at Houston by 31 points on Saturday.
Leading the way for first-year head coach Kevin Young is 6-foot-5 junior forward Richie Saunders. Averaging 13.5 points per game, he's a 41% 3-point shooter thus far.
In all, four Cougars average over 10 points per game. One intriguing player among that group is freshman point guard Egor Demin.
The native of Moscow, Russia is 6-foot-9 making him a matchup nightmare for opposing teams given his ability to handle and distribute the ball. He averages six assists per game to go along with 11.3 points and 4.4 rebounds. However, he's only a 31.9% 3-point shooter so the Red Raiders must try to make him take shots from the outside instead of getting into the paint where he can create problems.
Tonight, the Red Raiders have a chance to steal a road game and make up for the inexcusable home loss to UCF to open Big 12 play on December 31. Finding a way to come home from Utah 2-1 in conference play will be important given that the upcoming schedule is brutal with a home game against No. 3 Iowa State on Saturday before a road trip to Kansas State and a home game against Arizona.
If the Red Raiders want to make serious noise in the Big 12, they will have to win some tough road games along the way and tonight's contest certainly qualifies as such. The Cougars play in one of the largest arenas in the country and it is usually packed as they enjoy tremendous fan support in Provo, regardless of the sport. Therefore, the environment tonight will be far different than what Tech saw against Utah in a half-empty arena on Saturday.
This game will tell us quite a bit about the Red Raiders and how far they've come as a team. Thus, it is a game that Texas Tech fans won't want to miss so let's take a look at how fans can catch the game as well as other important information to know.
Texas Tech at BYU broadcast info
Tip: 8 p.m. (CST)
TV: ESPN+
TV CALL: Ted Emrich (play-by-play), Corey Williams (analyst)
RADIO: Texas Tech Sports Network
RADIO CALL: Geoff Haxton (play-by-play), Chris Level (analyst)
Texas Tech vs. BYU series history
The series tied 3-3 with Texas Tech winning the last three meetings against BYU. Tech earned an 81-67 quarterfinal win last season in the Big 12 tournament.
Texas Tech vs. BYU odds
Odds courtesy of FanDuel.com.
Favorite | Moneyline | Over/Under |
|---|---|---|
BYU -1.5 | Texas Tech +106 | 148.5 |
Texas Tech vs. BYU game notes
Notes courtesy of TexasTech.com.
- The Red Raiders (10-3, 1-1 Big 12) are coming off matching the program’s second-largest margin of victory in a Big 12 road game with a 93-65 win at Utah on Saturday and enter the matchup as the national leader in field goal percentage and effective field goal percentage along with topping the conference at 78.7 percent from the free-throw line and ranking second in 3-point percentage and scoring offense.
- As a team, Tech tops the nation by shooting 51.6 percent from the field and is 13th nationally with its 39.7% shooting percentage from 3-point range.
- The 93 points against the Utes were the most conference points in regulation since scoring 91 at home in a win over Kansas in 2019 and matched the sixth-highest scoring conference game in program history (record: 102-75 win over Texas A&M in 1998). In the record book, the 28-point conference road win is only behind a 30-point win at Iowa State (87-57) in 2020 and matched the second most at Oklahoma State in 2019 (78-50).
- The Cougars are 8-0 on their home court, average 82.5 points per game, lead the conference with 10.9 made 3-pointers per game and 30.2 attempts from deep per game along with owning an 11.2 rebounding margin advantage over their opponents. They are currently second in the Big 12 with a 56.8 effective field goal percentage behind only Tech and are fifth by shooting 48.0 from the field.