When Texas Tech's Big XII basketball slate was announced, it looked as though the Red Raiders would start it with a surefire W seeing as how Oklahoma State, a moribund program of late, was coming to Lubbock to open the festivities. That no longer appears to be the case. Certainly Texas Tech (10-3) will be a prohibitive favorite over Oklahoma State (12-1), but the Cowboys aren't the pushover they were expected to be. Among their 12 wins are a 24-point win over Texas A&M in College Station and a victory over a very solid Northwestern club in Chicago. OSU's only loss was by nine points in Oklahoma City.
Steve Lutz's team has much going for it, including balance, depth and size. Five players score at least 12 points per game, with Green Bay transfer Anthony Roy leading the posse at 17 per contest. The Red Raiders cannot afford to pay too much defensive attention to any single player because if they do, another player will get easy scoring opportunities and likely capitalize. Sound, general defense without overhelping will be important for Texas Tech.
Oklahoma State also boasts a 10-man rotation. Lutz probably won't be able to play 10 guys big minutes at Texas Tech, but if the Cowboys get into foul trouble he won't sweat it too much.
As for size, OSU's primary big men, Lefertis Mantzoukas, Parsa Fallah and Andrija Vukovic go 6-foot-9, 6-foot-10, and 6-foot-11, and they're not pencil-necked geeks either. At the guard spots no fewer than four Cowboys stand 6-foot-5 or 6-foot-6, and another, Christian Coleman, goes 6-foot-8. Look for Coleman to spend lots of time checking Texas Tech's Christian Anderson. Duke's Dame Sarr, a guard built similarly to Coleman, caused Anderson problems with his length before picking up a technical foul and spending the rest of the game on the bench next to Jon Scheyer. Regardless of the specifics, unless the injured 6-foot-11 Luke Bamgboye is back in the lineup, Texas Tech will be at a major size disadvantage against the Cowboys. However, it should be noted that the Red Raiders have played easily their best basketball of the season with a small lineup. Dynamite does come in small packages.
As one would expect from a team with as much balance as OSU, the Cowboys put up lots of points, 91 per game to be exact. In addition to Roy, who shoots 42 percent from distance and 93 percent from the line, Vyctorius Miller averages 16 points per game, shoots 54 percent from the floor, and 50 percent from downtown. And Vukovic is a good offensive rebounder. Keeping him off the offense glass will be important to Texas Tech's defensive success.
The Cowboys do turn the ball over 13 times per game and the Red Raiders have at times been good at creating turnovers. Doing so would boost Texas Tech's chances in this game, especially if live-ball turnovers lead to transition buckets, which fire up the home crowd.
Tipoff is set for noon and the game will be broadcast on ESPN2.