Preview & Game Day Thread: Texas Tech vs. Texas

Game Info

Good Guys: Texas Tech Red Raiders (10-6, 0-4)
Bad Guys: Texas Longhorns (14-2, 3-1)
When to Watch: Saturday, January 14th @ 7:00 pm
Where to Watch: Moody Center | Austin, TX
How to Watch: ESPN | WatchESPN
How to Listen: 97.3 FM | Affiliates | TuneIn App
The Line: Texas -8.5

Advanced Stats

TEXAS TECH STAT TEXAS
62
KenPom
8
97
KP AdjO
14
36
KP AdjD
26
54
T-Rank
15
105
T-Rank O
18
30
T-Rank D
38
65
Haslemetric
9

Lineups

TEXAS TECH
THE STARTERS Pts / Reb
POINT GUARD De’Vion Harmon (6-2/205) 12.5 / 3.7*
SHOOTING GUARD Richard Isaacs (6-2/170) 11.2 / 2.7*
SMALL FORWARD Jaylon Tyson (6-6/210) 9.3 / 4.9
POWER FORWARD Kevin Obanor (6-8/235) 15.8 / 6.1
CENTER Daniel Batcho (6-11/235) 11.2 / 7.8
THE BENCH Pts / Reb
SIXTH MAN Lamar Washington (6-4/205) 3.9 / 2.3*
SEVENTH MAN KJ Allen (6-6/255) 3.7 / 2.9
EIGHTH MAN Kerwin Walton (6-5/200) 3.1 / 1.1
NINTH MAN Elijah Fisher (6-6/190) 3.0 / 1.3
TENTH MAN D’Maurian Williams (6-3/200) 4.3 / 1.8
ELEVENTH MAN Robert Jennings (6-7/225) 3.3 / 2.3
TWELFTH MAN CJ Williams (6-1/155) 1.0 / 0.5
THIRTEENTH MAN Fardaws Aimaq (6-11/245) – / –
TEXAS
THE STARTERS Pts / Reb
POINT GUARD Marcus Carr (6-2/175) 17.3 / 4.4*
SHOOTING GUARD Tyrese Hunter (6-0/175) 11.3 / 2.9*
SMALL FORWARD Timmy Allen (6-6/210) 10.6 / 5.7
POWER FORWARD Dillon Mitchell (6-8/205) 7.6 / 5.3
CENTER Dylan Disu (6-9/225) 7.0 / 3.3
THE BENCH Pts / Reb
SIXTH MAN Sir’Jabari Rice (6-4/180) 9.9 / 3.8
SEVENTH MAN Christian Bishop (6-7/220) 6.5 / 3.1
EIGHTH MAN Brock Cunningham (6-6/210) 4.4 / 3.8
NINTH MAN Arterio Morris (6-3/190) 6.4 / 2.2
TENTH MAN – (-/-) – / –

* Assists.

Starting 5

1. Stats. Texas is playing really well. Like really well, even without Beard. Offensively, they’ve taken a step, they are 12th in 2-point shooting percentage, they don’t turn the ball over, 38th in the nation, and those two things help you get a top 20 offense. Defensively, they may not be as good as they’ve been, but they are really good, 20th in the nation in forcing turnovers and 69th in the nation in block percentage. The Longhorns still allow teams to shoot okay, 90th in the nation in 2-point percentage and 112th in 3-point percentage. There’s a window.

2. Scouting. Carr has been the best player, good passer and doesn’t turn the ball over, he’s a good shooter, making 42% of his 3-point shots and he’s leading the charge in terms of volume. Hunter hasn’t been the shooter he was at Iowa State, making 33% and he’s not the efficient player that Carr currently is. Morris and Rice both will shoot from outside, but they’re shooting 29% and 30% from outside. Allen has a high usage rate, passes the ball well he’s likely to be involved in the flow of the offense.

3. How They Match Up. T-Rank has Texas as 8.2 point favorites and Texas Tech isn’t a bad match-up here, but the turnovers are a killer and until that gets handled, I don’t know that I have a ton of answers. More turnovers make the defense worse (typically) because it then becomes at the very least a transition type of game and the opposing team can get some easy opportunities. Texas isn’t a high free throw team, so that could be an advantage. I’ll be interested to see what kind of answers Mark Adams comes up with after the Iowa State debacle, but I’m sort of out of solutions.

4. lagniappe | something given as a bonus or extra gift.

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

Texas Tech has won four straight games in Austin over No. 10 Texas going into a 7 p.m. Big 12 matchup between the two rivals on Saturday in its first game ever at the Moody Center. The Red Raiders have won 8 of the last 10 meetings in the series which will reach 154 games this weekend but are now looking to stop a four-game losing streak to open conference play.

Tech (10-6, 0-4 Big 12) is coming off an 84-50 loss at No. 14 Iowa State on Tuesday, while the Longhorns (14-2, 3-1 Big 12) stormed back from down 18 points to earn a 79-75 win over No. 17 TCU on Wednesday night at home. Tech, which had not lost consecutive games since the 2020-21 season, will now look to avoid a 0-5 start to its conference schedule for the first time since 2015 when that team started 0-6.

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