A Brief Texas Tech Preview

Texas Tech sucks. It's harsh, but it's true. They aren't as bad as the TCU squads of years past, but I feel comfortable saying they are the worst Big 12 team by a pretty big margin. They do rank 92nd in defense, and have held a couple decent teams in check on that end of the floor, but the offense is so bad (ranked 232nd) that they have little hope to compete in the league.

If we are searching for potential cracks in the KU armor here, Texas Tech is above average at shooting inside the arc, and while they are a bad three point shooting team (31.2 percent) those sort of things can overcorrect over the course of a one game sample, so Tech could shoot something like 45 percent from three, shoot close to 50 percent from two, and stay close. The Red Raiders are also third in the entire country at getting to the line, but if they're able to do that inside Allen Fieldhouse I will be very surprised indeed.

Kansas's defensive rebounding struggled in the win over Baylor, and the Red Raiders are another good offensive rebounding team, ranking 35th nationally. Their tallest player is just 6'9", but Baylor wasn't terribly tall either and abused Kansas on the glass.

Speaking of Tech's tallest player being 6'9", could this finally be the game that gets Perry Ellis going? Tech has been a good 2 point defense all year, but with their lack of size and lack of experience, maybe Ellis can use some of that veteran guile to get going here.

Texas Tech's best player is probably Devaugntah Williams, a JuCo transfer from Missouri-West Plains. Williams is shooting 47 percent from two, 40 percent from three, and rarely turns it over.

Elsewhere, freshman Zach Smith has been a Cliff Alexander like shotblocker, ranking 79th in the country in block percentage, and Randy Onwwuasor ranks 72nd nationally in steal percentage.

Cliff Alexander might not be playing in this one due to some back troubles, though this is probably the best game for him to sit. Because of Tech's rebounding ability, I think we'll see some more Landen Lucas in this one, and we'll probably see a lot of Jamari Traylor (which means I'm not going to hold my breath hoping for Ellis to break out in this one).

Kansas is favored in this one by 15, and I will try to improve on my 9-5 ATS record by picking the Jayhawks to cover at home, and I'll take them to win 69-51.