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Game Preview | Northern Arizona Lumberjacks vs. Texas Tech Red Raiders

The Texas Tech Red Raiders won their first game of the year and look to make it two in a row early in the season against the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks.

USA TODAY Sports
GAME DETAILS
TEAMS Northern Arizona (1-0, 0-0) vs. Texas Tech (1-0, 0-0)
WHERE United Spirit Arena | Lubbock, Texas
WHEN 7:00 pm Monday November 11th
CONSUME Radio - TTSN | TV - FSSW

Key Matchup

PF Max Jacobsen vs. C Dejan Kravic | Jacobsen was NAU's best and most efficient player in their win against UTSA, scoring 17 points on 6 of 8 from the floor. A couple of blocks and just a few rebounds, I really like what Kravic could do here. No three-point shots so I'll be interested to see how Texas Tech adjusts. Kravic didn't have the most active night against HBU in terms of scoring the ball, but he did finish with 6 points, 5 boards, 3 assists and 3 blocks. I like the idea of having an active box score, so I'll take that sort of production the first game of the year.

Texas Tech N. Arizona
Robert Turner (6-3/180) PG Dixon Aaseem (6-0/185)
Dusty Hannahs (6-4/210) SG Quinton Upshur (6-5/207)
Jaye Crockett (6-7/210) SF Jordyn Martin (6-7/210)
Jordan Tolbert (6-7/225) PF Gaellan Bewernick (6-6/215)
Dejan Kravic (7-0/235) C Max Jacobsen (6-8/230)


Take Aim

Really nice production from the bench and some of the younger guys. I just loved what Alex Foster brought to the game against HBU. Foster finished with just 5 points, but he had 7 rebounds, including 4 offensive goards. I love a guy that creates his own offense. After a year of being unable to play because of a knee injury, Aaron Ross finished with 6 points and 3 boards. Toddrick Gotcher had 7 points and Jamal Williams had 8 points. There wasn't just a lot of depth over the past few years, especially on the bench. It seems like there are some guys that are going to be able to add some versatility to this team moving forward.

Game Day Links

  • The official site has your game preview, with a pretty cool first note about how Texas Tech and Northern Arizona were both in the Border Conference at one time. How times have changed.
  • The LAJ previews the game and includes a quote from HC Tubby Smith on where he would like to see some improvement:
    "The only thing I’m really concerned about is we missed a lot of baskets inside," Smith said. "If we could just get Dejan (Kravic) to be a little more poised, a little more strong around the basket, we’ll be OK. We had some fouls that were unnecessary, that put them in the one-on-one early, so that didn’t help either. We’ve got to get our guys playing better defense, playing with their feet better."
  • The DT also previews the game and Smith had some nice praise for Tolbert after Friday's win against Houston Baptist:
    "Jordan was outstanding, the birthday boy was outstanding," Smith said. "I was happy for him. If we can get that type of effort out of him and keep him out of foul trouble, he’s going to be a special player for us. I thought he set the tone right away. We got a nice lob to him and I think that kind of got his motor going. He’s always active, with 12 rebounds and 16 points, I like that. I could take that every game."