Can the Texas Tech Red Raiders overcome a terrible conference record in order to make the NCAA Tournament? According to Joe Lunardi, the Red Raiders are well outside of the picture right now, but wins over the Texas Longhorns and the Kansas State Wildcats in their last two would go a long way to giving the committee something to think about on Selection Sunday. However, Texas already beat Texas Tech once this season and would love nothing more than to play spoiler in this lost season of theirs.
At 9 p.m. ET, tune into ESPN2 for live television coverage of this NCAA basketball game on Wednesday, March 1, 2017 at United Supermarkets Arena. We will have NCAA basketball odds at BookMaker.eu available for this and every game on the college basketball Wednesday schedule.
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Texas is still getting a little too much respect from the books. The Longhorns are 0-4-1 ATS over their last five games and failed to win any of those outright. Even worse, this team has yet to win a road game in conference and will finish the season 0-9 in Big 12 road tilts on the season if it doesn’t win in Lubbock.
Texas Tech might be 5-11 in conference play, but the Red Raiders have covered a lot of spreads. The Red Raiders covered five straight before consecutive ATS losses last week, despite managing just two wins in that timeframe. Only the Oklahoma State game was a large loss against the odds, otherwise this team has hung tough in each game lately.
Last Meeting
One of the first things to notice from the previous meeting between these two sides is the free throw shooting numbers. Both Texas and Texas Tech were atrocious from the line, but while that has become the standard for the Longhorns that isn’t typically the case for Tech. The teams combined to hit just 50 percent of their foul shots with the Longhorns hitting a bit under 50 percent and the Red Raiders hitting a bit north of that.
It was just a poor shooting performance in general for the Red Raiders, who didn’t have even one player shoot better than 50 percent from the floor. In all, Texas Tech combined to sink just 35.6 percent of its shots against Texas in this one. Texas’ swarming defense had something to do with that figure, but Texas Tech couldn’t hit open shots either.
Player to Watch
There have been few bright spots this season for Texas, but the Longhorns have a solid young big man in Jarrett Allen and he has flourished with increased playing time throughout the year. Allen is the team’s leading scorer and also the leading rebounder as well, averaging 13.6 PPG and 8.4 RPG per night. He is upping his output as well, tallying at least 17 points on 50 percent or better shooting in four of his last five games.
Allen shined against the Red Raiders when these teams met earlier, but there is still one thing that flusters him, free throws. Like the rest of the Texas team, Allen just can’t make free throws and that has kept him from really exploding.
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The Red Raiders have been pretty good at home in conference play this season. They have notched five wins, including victories over West Virginia and Baylor, and lost to Iowa State and Kansas by a combined three points on their home court. Only that home loss to Oklahoma State was a blowout, but otherwise this team has been extremely respectable in Lubbock.
Allen is playing hard, but Texas has packed it in at this point. The Longhorns were fighting for a while, but you can only lose so many close games before you check out mentally, and that’s where this team is at. Texas Tech should get an important victory in this one.
College Basketball Odds: Texas Tech 76, Texas 66
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