Preview | Texas Tech Red Raiders vs. Oklahoma St. Cowboys

(12-16, 4-9)

Date | February 26, 2011 Time | 6:00 pm CST Good Guys | Texas Tech Red Raiders Bad Guys | Oklahoma St. Cowboys Location | Gallagher-Iba Arena | Stillwater, OK TV | B12N Radio | Affiliates GAME CAST | Fox Sports

(16-11, 4-9)

PREVIEW

WHAT TO EXPECT | I'm wondering if we can expect much of the same as the last time these two teams met. Earlier, Texas Tech beat Oklahoma St. 75-74 in overtime, and it was a 3-pointer with 53 seconds left that would eventually lead to a Texas Tech win and pulled Texas Tech within a .500 record. So can we expect most of the same? In Lubbock, Texas Tech shot better than OSU, had fewer turnovers and shot free throws at a much higher rate. The only one of the four-factors that Oklahoma St. had an advantage was offensive rebounding (and rebounding overall) where the Cowboys had 24 offensive boards to Texas Tech's 12 offensive rebounds. I don't think that free throw discrepancy continues in Stillwater, where Texas Tech attempted 39 free throws to Oklahoma St.'s 20 free throw attempts in Lubbock.

The bad thing for Oklahoma St., and perhaps Texas Tech, is that the Cowboys have lost 4 straight (Nebraska, Texas, Texas A&M and Kansas) and like Colorado, if Oklahoma St. has any intentions on making it to the NCAA Tournament (probably unlikely) the Cowboys have to secure a win against Texas Tech.

DT's Tommy Magelssen writes that despite Texas Tech's recent skid, SF Mike Singletary is not giving up:

"You’ve just got to keep going," Singletary said after Wednesday’s loss. "That’s the type of team we are; we just keep going. You know, there’s a lot of games in preseason that we wish we could have back, but, I mean, it’s over now — you’ve got to keep going.

"We got a couple of games left here in the Big 12 to finish it out, and we want to go out with a good record in the Big 12 Conference."

More after the jump.

KEY MATCHUPS | The offensive stalwart Keeton Paige went off on Texas Tech for 26 points, although it took him 15 shots to get those 26 points and Paige's counter-part, John Roberson, only had 12 points . Clearly OSU won that matchup from a scoring department and I'd love for Roberson to really focus on Paige defensively. He's only averaging 13 points a game. I mentioned above the incredible rebounding disparity in the last game and SG Markel Brown (8 rebounds), PF Marshall Moses (8 rebounds), PF Darrell Williams (7 rebounds) all helped crash the boards for Oklahoma St. and so that means guys like Reese, Roberts and Lewandowski need to keep these guys off the backboard and cannot allow the 24 offensive rebounds and 44 rebounds overall.

PROBABLE STARTERS

FOUR FACTORS |

Fancy basketball glossary found here.

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