On Saturday, when Grant McCasland and the Texas Tech Red Raiders go to Orlando, they’ll be facing off against a team that bears an identical overall record to them. The Texas Tech men’s basketball team and the UCF Knights are both entering Saturday with 16-4 overall records.
Now, there is a bit of a difference between the two in that the Red Raiders are 6-1 when facing Big 12 teams while the Knights have a 5-3 Big 12 record, but still, there’s something interesting about the fact that Texas Tech will be meeting up with a team that has the same sort of overall record as it.
Now, I’m no advanced mathematician or statistician or anything of that sort. But, I still know that there’s a few numbers that help showcase what kind of matchup we might be in for this weekend. And I think those stats are worth looking at right now ahead of this weekend’s matchup between the two teams.
By the numbers: How do the Texas Tech Red Raiders and the UCF Knights compare ahead of their Saturday matchup?
One area to start with would be the scoring and the point margins that the two teams are putting up. And this is an area that is a lot closer than I think a lot of Texas Tech fans would want to see.
Texas Tech is averaging 84.2 points per game while holding foes to 73.8 points per game (which equals out to a 10.4 margin). Meanwhile, the UCF Knights are scoring 84 points per game (a nearly identical output to the Red Raiders) while giving up 77 points per game (a 7 point margin for the Knights). Texas Tech has a slight edge here thanks to the Red Raiders defense.
In rebounding, Texas Tech is grabbing 38.3 rebounds per game while opponents get 34.1 rebounds per game. And this is an area where UCF is notably better than the Red Raiders as the Knights are getting 38.5 rebounds per game while opponents get 31.6 rebounds per game. That’s a 4.3 margin for Texas Tech with a 6.9 rebound margin for UCF.
Texas Tech has a bit more star power with JT Toppin and christian Anderson averaging 22.1 points per game and 19.8 points per game respectively. Then there’s LeJuan Watts with 12.8 points per game and Donovan Atwell at 12.2 points per game.
The Knights don’t have anyone scoring over 20 points per game, but Riley Kugel is averaging 15.1 points per game while Themus Fulks has 13.9 points per game, Jamichael Stillwell has 12.5 points per game, and Jordan Burks has 12.5 points per game.
This game, at least on the surface with a look at basic stats, looks like it could be a bit more evenly matched than what Texas Tech fans will hope for. We’ll see what actually pans out. This Red Raider teams has been tested pretty extensively and has thrived in Big 12 play.