Date: Wednesday, March 2nd
Time: 6:00 pm
Good Guys: Texas Tech Red Raiders (18-10, 8-8)
Bad Guys: West Virginia Mountaineers (22-7, 11-5)
Location: WVU Coliseum | Morgantown, West Virginia
TV/Stream: ESPNU / WatchESPN
Radio/Stream: 97.3 FM/104.3 FM/950 AM
| THE STARTERS | Pts / Reb | |
|---|---|---|
| POINT GUARD | Kennan Evans (6-3/180) | 8.6 / 2.9* |
| SHOOTING GUARD | Toddrick Gotcher (6-4/205) | 10.9 / 3.7 |
| SMALL FORWARD | Justin Gray (6-6/210) | 8.7 / 3.7 |
| POWER FORWARD | Zach Smith (6-8/215) | 10.3 / 7.1 |
| CENTER | Matthew Temple (6-9/260) | 3.4 / 1.8 |
| THE BENCH | Pts / Reb | |
| SIXTH MAN | Aaron Ross (6-8/225) | 10.7 / 4.5 |
| SEVENTH MAN | Devaugntah Williams (6-4/205) | 10.8 / 3.3 |
| EIGHTH MAN | Devon Thomas (6-0/170) | 2.7 / 1.3* |
| THE STARTERS | Pts / Reb | |
| POINT GUARD | Jevon Carter (6-2/185) | 9.2 / 3.1* |
| SHOOTING GUARD | Teyvon Myers (6-2/170) | 2.5 / 0.8* |
| SMALL FORWARD | Esa Ahmad (6-8/225) | 4.5 / 2.8 |
| POWER FORWARD | Nathan Adrian (6-9/235) | 4.6 / 3.2 |
| CENTER | Devin Williams (6-9/255) | 13.1 / 9.1 |
| THE BENCH | Pts / Reb | |
| SIXTH MAN | Jaysean Paige (6-2/200) | 14.3 / 3.6 |
| SEVENTH MAN | Daxter Miles Jr. (6-3/185) | 9.7 / 2.3 |
| EIGHTH MAN | Jonathan Holton (6-7/220) | 9.5 / 7.9 |
* Assists.
1. KenPom has West Virginia as the #9 team in the nation overall, 27th in adjusted offense and 7th in adjusted defense. That press defense is going to be tough at home against West Virginia will be incredibly tough, and that offense has opportunities that are created by that defense. Texas Tech is 37th overall, 31st in adjusted offense and 63rd in adjusted defense.
2. West Virginia really has been the 2nd best team in the Big 12 and I think they, just behind Kansas, are the best equipped for a long run in the NCAA Tournament. They’re ridiculously deep, they can score, they play a frantic style of defense, they force a ton of turnovers and they’re not dependent on just one guy. Not only that, but Bob Huggins will drive his teams and sometimes that plays well and sometimes that grinds on a team. West Virginia’s longest losing streak is two games, and they lost those two games to the same two teams, Oklahoma and Texas and they just happened to play both teams, back-to-back, going to Oklahoma and then hosting Texas and then hosting Oklahoma and heading to Texas.
3. Head coach Tubby Smith said that he’s glad to see that Texas Tech didn’t just give up on Saturday against Kansas:
“Our effort and our persistence, the fact that we didn’t give up,” Texas Tech head coach Tubby Smith said. “When we were down 20 points (at Kansas), our guys could have folded and it would have been a real blowout. I thought we recovered and responded the right way. We didn’t get the offensive output we normally get from our bench, but we did some good things. We did a good job defensively. We held them under their average. They had one kid that went off and had those five threes. If he doesn’t do that, I think we had a legitimate chance to win.”
4. This is a good feature on Devaugntah Williams.
5. I was surprised to find out that this game opened up with West Virginia being favored by 11 points, although that line has moved down to 9 to 9.5, via OddsShark. West Virginia has only lost two games, the two games mentioned above, having a record of 14-2 at home and the splits between how they play at home and how they play on the road is pretty staggering. West Virginia is allowing a point differential of 13.1 at home and only 3.8 on the road. That means that West Virginia essentially blows out teams at home and if Texas Tech isn’t careful, they’ll see the same fate.