Game Info

Good Guys: Texas Tech Red Raiders (9-3, 0-0)
Bad Guys: Winthrop Eagles (8-6, 0-0)
When to Watch: Sunday, December 28th @ 1:00 pm
Where to Watch: United Supermarkets Arena | Lubbock, Texas
How to Watch: TNT
How to Listen: 97.3 FM | Affiliates | Varsity Network
The Line: Texas Tech -17.5

Advanced Stats

Lineups

* Assists.

Starting 5

1. Stats. Winthrop is an interesting team. Pretty darned good offensively, particularly in that they don’t turn the ball over, 14th in the nation, and a pretty good 3-point shooting team, 73rd in the nation. The Eagles don’t necessarily do anything elite, 169th in 2-point shooting, 116th in free throw rate, and 119th in offensive rebounding percentage. Defensively, things are a bit of a mess, they are 290th in defending opponents shooting 3’s and 224th in defending anything inside the arc. They don’t force turnovers, 189th, and they also don’t stop teams from offensive rebounds, 151st.

2. Scouting. The Eagles regularly play 9 or 10 guys and not just token minutes. Decent amount. In November, they lost to Arkansas by 1, so they can play with the big boys, but they’ve also lost to North Dakota by 2 and Coastal Carolina by 4. Duncomb is a post-up machine. He makes 62% of 2-point shot, gets to the line a bunch, is a good rebounder and a decent shot-blocker. Clouet, Rozier, and a possibly injured Tommy Kamarad are the 3-point snipers with Berry and Boyogueno not being too bad either. They are volume shooters, but I don’t know if they do much else. Rozier is the distributor on the team and none of those players are high usage players other than Duncomb, which means this is a team that moves the ball around a decent amount.

3. How They Match Up. Christmas was good for most of Texas Tech’s team. I have some questions.

A. Will Tyeree Bryan still start?
B. Is Luke Bamgboye recovered from his tweaked ankle?
C. Is Akuentok healthy yet? I don’t even know what’s wrong with Akuentok, that would be a start.
D. What about Moseley? He’s supposed getting back into the swing of things in January and it is almost January.

Despite the fact that this team beat a top 5 team in Duke, there are still a lot of questions that need to be answered, particularly with the depth and injuries.

Regarding this game, I went back and looked at the Duke game and I don’t think I realized teh issues that this team had in defending Duke. The only thing they did well was limit offensive boards, but they didn’t turn the Blue Devils over, they allowed Duke to shoot really well, and sent them to the line way too often. It’s the reason why Texas Tech hasn’t moved up the advanced analytics sites, it’s because of the defense.

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

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

No. 15 Texas Tech is set to play its final non-conference game of the season with a matchup against Winthrop at 1 p.m. on Sunday at United Supermarkets Arena. The Red Raiders (9-3) are 6-0 at home this season and own the third longest active streak in the nation with 45 straight non-conference home wins – including going 22-0 in those games under head coach Grant McCasland.

“Coach Prosser has an awesome offensive team and they’re really competitive,” McCasland said. “There’s not a game that they’re not in. We have a tremendous amount of respect for their competitiveness and ability to score the basketball. They’ve got a lot of guys in double figures, they don’t turn the ball over or beat themselves. This will be a great opportunity for us to improve, especially defensively, getting ready for conference play.”