Preview & Game Day Thread: Texas Tech vs. West Virginia

Game Info

Good Guys: Texas Tech Red Raiders (11-4, 4-3)
Bad Guys: West Virginia Mountaineers (10-4, 3-3)
When to Watch: Monday, January 25th @ 8:00 p.m.
Where to Watch: WVU Coliseum | Morgantown, West Virginia
How to Watch: ESPN | WatchESPN
How to Listen: 97.3 FM | Affiliates | TuneIn App
The Line: West Virginia -2.5

Advanced Stats

TEXAS TECH WEST VIRGINIA
KenPom 12 16
KP AdjO 36 24
KP AdjD 4 15
T-Rank 13 17
T-Rank O 41 36
T-Rank D 5 15
Haslemetric 13 26

Lineups

TEXAS TECH
THE STARTERS Pts / Reb
POINT GUARD Mac McClung (6-2/185) 16.3 / 2.4*
SHOOTING GUARD Kyler Edwards (6-4/195) 10.1 / 2.7*
SMALL FORWARD Micah Peavy (6-7/215) 5.9 / 3.0
POWER FORWARD Kevin McCullar (6-6/195) 11.2 / 7.2
CENTER Marcus Santos-Silva (6-7/245) 8.9 / 6.3
THE BENCH Pts / Reb
SIXTH MAN Terrence Shannon, Jr. (6-6/210) 12.8 / 5.0
SEVENTH MAN Jamarius Burton (6-4/205) 4.6 / 1.9
EIGHTH MAN Tyreek Smith (6-7/220) 2.7 / 2.3
NINTH MAN Chibuzo Agbo (6-7/215) 1.5 / 0.8
TENTH MAN Clarence Nadolny (6-3/190) 1.7 / 0.8
ELEVENTH MAN Vladislov Goldin (7-0/240) 2.8 / 1.3
TWELTH MAN Avery Benson (6-4/195) 1.6 / 1.0
WEST VIRGINIA
THE STARTERS Pts / Reb
POINT GUARD Jordan McCabe (6-0/199) 2.0 / 1.5*
SHOOTING GUARD Miles McBride (6-2/200) 15.3 / 4.1*
SMALL FORWARD Taz Sherman (6-4/190) 12.2 / 4.6
POWER FORWARD Jalen Bridges (6-7/220) 3.9 / 1.6
CENTER Derek Culver (6-10/255) 13.4 / 10.3
THE BENCH Pts / Reb
SIXTH MAN Gabe Osabuohien (6-7/235) 2.1 / 4.9
SEVENTH MAN Sean McNeil (6-3/210) 9.6 / 1.9
EIGHTH MAN Kedrian Johnson (6-3/180) 1.5 / 0.8
NINTH MAN Emmitt Matthews, Jr. (6-7/215) 7.7 / 3.9
TENTH MAN Seny Ndiaye (6-10/235) 0.3 / 0.3

* Assists.

Starting 5

1. Stats. West Virginia is a very good offensive team, but they are a team that doesn’t shoot particularly well, only 270th in eFG%, but what they do well is that they don’t turn the ball over, 66th in the nation, and they rebound the hell out of the ball on the offensive glass, 8th in the nation. The Mountaineers are in the top third of three-point percentage, 118th, but only 302nd in 2-point field goal percentage. Defensively, WVU is very good at forcing turnovers, 63rd in the nation, and they are absolutely terrific at defending the three-point line, 27th in the nation, but anything inside the line? Well, they would be 211th in the nation.

2. Scouting. McBride, Sherman, and Culver are the best players on the team. McBride is a terrific shooter, making 45% of his three-point shots, so that’s going to be a key defensive thing to watch for Texas Tech. Additionally, McBride is the primary ball-handler, has a high assist rate, a very low turnover rate, steals the ball a ton, and makes his free throws. Sherman isn’t as good of a shooter, but he’s not bad, but he takes a ton of three-point shots and makes 39% and doesn’t turn the ball over. McNeil is also a high volume shooter and makes 33% of his three-point shots. Culver is the rebounding and scoring player-man that you think that he is because he’s averaging a double-double. His biggest weakness? Free throws, where he only makes 58% of them, but leads the team in attempts.

3. How They Match Up. it is nice that Texas Tech hasn’t had a game in a week and West Virginia played on Saturday on the road at Kansas State. maybe that affects WVU a bit. I talked above about some of the WVU shooters and to give you some comparison to Texas Tech, the Red Raiders are 211th in 3-point percentage and 199th in 2-point percentage. Texas Tech’s best shooters are Edwards, who makes 36% of his three-point shots and McClung, who makes 33%, so not exactly great. Shannon is only making 32%, while McCullar is making 17%. Where Texas Tech excels are all of the other things and a guy like McCullar has a terrific offensive rating, is a terrific rebounder, doesn’t turn the ball over, blocks a ton of shots and has a high steal rate. Santos-Silva also sort of lights up the advanced stats, especially rebounding, and shooting the ball around the basket where he’s really effective.

4. Tweet of the Day.

5. Official Site. The official site has their preview right here:

Following two postponements, No. 12 Texas Tech is set to return to action at No. 14 West Virginia at 8 p.m. (CST) on ESPN Big Monday in Morgantown, West Virginia.

The Red Raiders (11-4, 4-3 Big 12) had scheduled games against TCU and Iowa State postponed after splitting against top-5 teams with a 79-77 road win at No. 5 Texas and a 68-60 loss to No. 2 Baylor, while the Mountaineers (10-4, 3-3 Big 12) ended a three-game stretch of postponements with a 69-47 win over Kansas State on Saturday on the road. This is the first matchup of the season between TTU and WVU who are scheduled to meet up again on Tuesday, Feb. 9 in Lubbock.

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