Well, Saturday’s loss against the Arkansas Razorbacks stinks. It really stinks. We’ve seen the Texas Tech men’s basketball team play some pretty impressive basketball at times this season, but the second half of yesterday’s matchup with Arkansas was not an example of that.
Texas Tech jumped out to a first half lead of 49-43 and then very subsequently stumbled through a second half in which the Red Raiders were outscored 50-37.
Which, you know, not fun. Not fun at all.
JT Toppin and Christian Anderson combined for 56 points for the Red Raiders, but no other Texas Tech player managed to get to double digits scoring. And that, my friends, could be a problem for the Red Raiders down the stretch of the season.
It’s worth noting that the Red Raiders did lose to the No. 17 team in the country in this very specific loss, but that’s now three losses on the season in which Texas Tech has lost to a ranked team.
Big 12 standings and records after Texas Tech men’s basketball lost to Arkansas in Dallas
- Iowa State Cyclones (10-0 overall, 0-0 Big 12)
- Arizona Wildcats (9-0 overall, 0-0 Big 12)
- Houston Cougars (10-1 overall, 0-0 Big 12)
- BYU Cougars (9-1 overall, 0-0 Big 12)
- Colorado Buffaloes (9-1 overall, 0-0 Big 12)
- Oklahoma State Cowboys (9-1 overall, 0-0 Big 12)
- UCF Knights (8-1 overall, 0-0 Big 12)
- Arizona State Sun Devils (9-2 overall, 0-0 Big 12)
- Baylor Bears (7-2 overall, 0-0 Big 12)
- Kansas Jayhawks (8-3 overall, 0-0 Big 12)
- Texas Tech Red Raiders (7-3 overall, 0-0 Big 12)
- West Virginia Mountaineers (8-4 overall, 0-0 Big 12)
- TCU Horned Frogs (6-3 overall, 0-0 Big 12)
- Kansas State Wildcats (7-4 overall, 0-0 Big 12)
- Utah Utes (7-4 overall, 0-0 Big 12)
- Cincinnati Bearcats (6-4 overall, 0-0 Big 12)
Obviously Big 12 play hasn’t started yet and the Red Raiders still have some opportunities to get a few things figured out before conference play gets rolling, but Texas Tech really needs to get more scoring from folks other than Toppin and Anderson when taking on ranked teams (which wasn’t the case when facing the Arkansas Razorbacks yesterday).
Texas Tech is still in a solid spot right now. The Red Raiders may have three losses right now, but none of them have come against bad teams, which is something worth considering when trying to project just how far the Red Raiders could go this season.