Game Info
Date: Wednesday, February 21st
Time: 6:00 pm
Good Guys: Texas Tech Red Raiders (22-5, 10-4)
Bad Guys: Oklahma State Cowboys (15-12, 5-9)
Location: Gallagher-Iba Arena | Stillwater, Oklahoma
TV/Stream: ESPNU
Radio/Stream: 97.3 FM/104.3 FM/950 AM
Lineups
| THE STARTERS | Pts / Reb | |
|---|---|---|
| POINT GUARD | Keenan Evans (6-3/190) | 18.2 / 3.4* |
| SHOOTING GUARD | Jarrett Culver (6-5/190) | 10.8 / 4.7 |
| SMALL FORWARD | Justin Gray (6-6/210) | 5.1 / 3.3 |
| POWER FORWARD | Zhaire Smith (6-5/195) | 10.8 / 4.7 |
| CENTER | Norense Odiase (6-9/245) | 4.5 / 5.1 |
| THE BENCH | Pts / Reb | |
| SIXTH MAN | Niem Stevenson (6-6/205) | 6.6 / 2.9 |
| SEVENTH MAN | Brandone Francis (6-5/205) | 5.6 / 2.1 |
| EIGHTH MAN | Davide Moretti (6-3/165) | 3.6 / 1.3* |
| NINTH MAN | Tommy Hamilton IV (6-11/250) | 5.9 / 3.5 |
| TENTH MAN | Josh Webster (6-4/175) | 0.4 / 0.7* |
| ELEVENTH MAN | Malik Ondigo (6-10/210) | 1.1 / 0.8 |
| THE STARTERS | Pts / Reb | |
| POINT GUARD | Kendall Smith (6-3/190) | 12.5 / 2.9* |
| SHOOTING GUARD | Lindy Waters III (6-6/205) | 8.5 / 3.7 |
| SMALL FORWARD | Jeffrey Carroll (6-6/220) | 15.0 / 6.0 |
| POWER FORWARD | Cameron McGriff (6-7/220) | 8.3 / 5.3 |
| CENTER | Mitchell Solomon (6-9/220) | 8.3 / 6.2 |
| THE BENCH | Pts / Reb | |
| SIXTH MAN | Tavarius Shine (6-6/200) | 10.7 / 2.0* |
| SEVENTH MAN | Brandon Averette (5-11/185) | 7.1 / 3.2* |
| EIGHTH MAN | Yankuba Sima (6-11/225) | 3.6 / 3.5 |
| NINTH MAN | Lucas N’Guessan (7-0/220) | 1.8 / 2.3 |
| TENTH MAN | Thomas Dziagwa (6-4/180) | 5.6 / 1.1 |
* Assists.
Starting 5
1. KenPom. KenPom has Oklahoma State as the 75th best team in the nation, 79th in AdjO and 81st in AdjD. Texas Tech dropped a spot to 8th overall, 68th in AdjO and 3rd in AdjD. Having not had the opportunity to watch a lot of Oklahoma State, this appears to be somewhat odd in that Oklahoma State doesn’t excel at any one thing.
2. Stats. Via RealGM, Texas Tech is a better effective field goal shooting team, 53% to 50% for Oklahoma State. Both teams grab offensive boards at about the same rate, 33% for OSU and 32% for Texas Tech. The Red Raiders get to the line much more often, 28% to 24% for the Cowboys and they both turn the ball over at the exact same rate, 16%.
3. Scouting. Oklahoma State has had some really great wins, sandwiched between some pretty terrible losses. After losing to Texas Tech in January, the Cowboys would go on to lose to Arkansas by 1 on the road, then lost to TCU at home by 13, beat Kansas at the Phog, lost to Baylor by 11 at home, beat West Virginia by 3, and have now lost their last two, by 10 to Kansas State and then by 20 to TCU on the road. The truth here is that if Carroll isn’t getting after it offensively, then it seems that the team struggles. Still though, Smith seems to be taking control of the offense as of late and he’s leading the team in scoring more times than not, it’s just that this effort hasn’t resulted in wins.
4. Reading Material.
- – No. 6 Red Raiders poised to bounce back:
Texas Tech’s Justin Gray turned in one of his best offensive performances of the season on the road against Baylor in a Big 12 contest over the weekend.
The senior guard finished with a season-high 13 points, besting his previous mark of 12 against Kansas in January, to lead a second-half charge that wasn’t enough in a 59-57 loss to the Bears inside the Ferrell Center in Waco.
“Just doing whatever my team needed, whatever coach Beard asked me to do,” said Gray, who had eight points, six rebounds and one steal in the final 20 minutes. “I’m ready for those moments. Whatever it may be: rebounding, defense, scoring, passing. Whatever the team needs me to do in order to win. I’m willing to do it.”
- NewsOK’s Nathan Ruiz – Sean Sutton’s love for OSU unfazed ahead of facing Cowboys in GIA for first time:
A decade removed from the last of the 17 seasons he committed to the Cowboys, Sutton, the former OSU head coach, the longtime OSU assistant and the son of an OSU legend, returns to Gallagher-Iba Arena on Wednesday, facing the Cowboys there for the first time in his coaching career. As a member of Texas Tech’s coaching staff, he is unsure of how he will be received.
“I never wavered, ever, through everything, my love for Oklahoma State,” Sutton said. “I doubt there’s many people that have ever gone to school there or played a sport that love Oklahoma State as much as I did and do.
“It’s like family to me.”
- Tulsa World’s Mark Cooper – OSU basketball: With two weeks left in regular season, Oklahoma State tries to reverse its form by getting back to basics:
In order for Oklahoma State (15-12 overall, 5-9 Big 12) to get to where it wants to be, it needs to remember what can get it there.
“We’ve got one taken charge in five games,” said OSU coach Mike Boynton, antsy for practice to begin. “We can’t be who we need to be to have success when we don’t guard, and our defense has been pretty poor for some time now.”
That Oklahoma State’s defense has become a fatal flaw clashes with everything Boynton has preached — both publicly and behind the scenes — since taking the helm last March. Oklahoma State’s first three days of practice at the end of September included no basketballs, a boot camp-style start to the season that was meant to hammer home the importance of good defense.
5. Official Site. The official site has your official preview and head coach Chris Beard discusses playing Oklahoma State:
“We are looking forward to another week in the Big 12,” Texas Tech head coach Chris Beard said. “As February ends and March nears, it’s always been our intention to be relevant and to be a part of the fight. We’ve put ourselves in a situation where we are. It starts with a road game at Oklahoma State, a program that we have a lot of respect for. Coach Boynton is doing a great job during his first year. They’ve overcome a lot of adversity, and they are playing good basketball right now. In the last couple of weeks, they’ve have won at Kansas and at West Virginia. That kind of speaks for itself. They’ve got good balance. They’re getting good guard play right now and good inside play. We know that Gallagher-Iba is one of the best home courts in the history of college basketball. We are excited at the opportunity this week. We know it’s going to be difficult, but we are looking forward to the challenge.”