Tubby Smith is going into his 3rd season with our Red Raiders, and he has set a difficult 2015-16 schedule to achieve his 1st winning season with the club. Breaking down the current slate of games shows how deep the teams we will face really are. To show everyone the caliber of teams we will play, I decided to create a table showing the opponents 2014-15 record along with their postseason play.

As you can see in the table below we will play 12 non-conference games with all but 4 of those teams not seeing postseason action from last go around. Only 2 of those teams didn’t win 20+ games.

Still, the non-conference schedule victories should be attainable. It’s my theory that in the Puerto Rico Tip-Off Tournament we will suffer a loss to Utah, but rally to beat Mississippi State. We could finish out with a game against Tubby Smith’s old squad Minnesota that unfortunately might end on a sour note. After that tourney, Tech should be able to rip off a string of wins against some semi-decent competition. South Dakota State and even Sam Houston State give me a little scare, but I think we will only fumble a rough non-conference loss to Richmond. The Spiders are going to be better than people realize this year.

In the Big 12, I am going to be optimistic and say we will sweep both K-State and TCU this year. Also, to give a boost of confidence, I feel that we can take the Longhorns down in our 1st conference game of the season in the USA. Sprinkle in some home wins against West Virginia and Oklahoma State on the schedule. I’m afraid that Arkansas will kick our butts in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge.

So, all in all I went through and predicted each game as realistically as possible (in my own Red Raider mind) one by one. I was afraid it would come out as a losing record, but was admittedly somewhat surprised to get a .500 record of 15-15. Hey, that’s not all that bad! In Big 12 play I guessed that Tech could possibly come away at 7-11.

Our ball team has not finished at .500 or above since the 2009-10 season, and has not won 7 regular season Big 12 games since 2007-08. So, if we do get to my predicted record it will be a step forward for the program. We will still take our lumps this season, but this may be the chance to start getting our heads above water again.

I genuinely went through every game and gave my honest assessment, and am happy with the calculated hypothetical results. It doesn’t mean that anyone has to agree, and this wasn’t a post meant to try and get too technical… just a fun exercise to do since the schedule was released. What do you think our season will turn out like? Wreck ’em Tech!

Predictions