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Preview: Oklahoma v. Texas Tech

Texas Tech faces off against OU at 12:30 on Saturday afternoon. Knight can get down to business of winning some conference games. As I find broadcast information, I'll post it later, but I believe the game will be broadcast locally in Dallas on Channel 21. Here we go.

The Numbers:

Team K.P. Rank Off.Eff. Def.Eff. Points/Game Points Allowed Rebounds
Texas Tech 65 46 109 75.6 68.0 38.1
Oklahoma 18 95 2 69.2 55.1 38.4

Players to Watch:

Player Rebounds Assists Points
Longar Longar 7.8 1.3 13.3
Tony Crocker 3.9 1.9 11.0
Taylor Griffin 6.8 1.3 6.9

Keys to the Game:

1. Rebound, rebound, rebound: Longar is a beast inside and Griffin's not bad either. If Tech really wants to take control of this game, the focus has got to be on rebounding and blocking out. No easy buckets (see Keys #2 and #3).

2. Let them go: It's not such a bad idea to let OU shoot from the outside. Tech's had trouble covering the permiter players against New Mexico and UNLV, but OU shoots a woeful 33.2% from beyond the arc. I'm not saying that I don't want any pressure, but if Tech can rebound then the chances are that OU will have a difficult time scoring.

3. They can't score but they can defend: Other than Longar, Crocker, Johnson, Neal, Godbold and Griffin are very inconsistent. Crocker, the freshman, has been the most consistent recently, but even he had a 4 game stretch early where he scored 8, 0, 3 and 3 points. Don't let OU beat you on the inside, no easy buckets, make them work for their points. OU is incredible on the defensive end (#2 in the country in buckets allowed per 100 possessions) and Tech is really going to have to work for their buckets on Saturday. It will help to have Burgess at full speed, we can hope for some easy buckets.

Probable Starting Lineups:


Oklahoma and Texas Tech
Tony Crocker, G, 6-5, Fr. / Martin Zeno, F, 6-5, Jr.
Taylor Griffin, F, 6-7, So. / Michael Prince, F, 6-7, So.
Longar Longar, C, 6-11, Jr. / Ezmir Rizvic, C, 7-0, Jr.
Michael Neal, G, 6-3, Sr. / Charlie Burgess, G, 6-1, Jr.
Austin Johnson, G, 6-3, So. / Jay Jackson, G, 6-1, Sr.