THE INFORMATION
Game Details | |
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TEAMS |
Oklahoma Sooners (15-4, 4-2) Texas Tech Red Raiders (10-9, 2-4) |
WHERE | United Spirit Arena | Lubbock, Texas |
WHEN | 3:00 pm Saturday January 25th |
CONSUME | Radio - TTSN | TV - Big 12 Network |
THE CHARACTERS
Starters | ||
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Texas Tech | Oklahoma | |
Robert Turner (6-3/180) | PG | Jordan Woodard (6-0/185) |
Toddrick Gotcher (6-4/195) | SG | Buddy Hield (6-4/208) |
Dusty Hannahs (6-4/210) | SF | Isaiah Cousins (6-4/186) |
Jaye Crockett (6-7/210) | PF | Cameron Clark (6-7/211) |
Jordan Tolbert (6-7/225) | C | Ryan Spangler (6-8/232) |
THE ANALYSIS
Key Matchup | Clark vs. Crockett: I've moved Hannahs to the starting lineup for this game as Oklahoma essentially starts four guards (in some respects, Clark is considered a guard, and this should be a fantastic game for the matchup between Clark and Crockett. They are both their respective team's leading scorer and Clark actually does a fantastic job of filling up the box score. Clark averages 17.0 points, 5.9 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 1.4 steals a game. Crockett is no slouch either, averaging 14.3 points, 6.4 rebounds and 1.4 assists a game.
Take Aim: Oklahoma has a fantastic starting five. All five starters average double-figures led by Clark, but Hield averages 16.6 points a game and 4.4 rebounds and 2.0 assists a game. Woodard does a terrific job at the point, averaging 10.0 points a game and 4.5 assists. If Tolbert matches up with Spangler, he's going to have to do his part to keep him off the boards as he is 0.2 rebounds away from averaging a double-double for Oklahoma.
KenPom has Oklahoma as the 43rd best team, and a top fifteen in AdjO, #14 in the nation overall, but their defense is lacking, only 152nd overall in AdjD. Texas Tech isn’t that far down the list of KenPom rankings, ranking 76th overall and 28th in AdjO and 197th in AdjD. Sometimes I have to remind myself that Texas Tech is really playing some pretty basketball offensively and the Red Raiders will have to recruit a few more players defensively.
The fact that Oklahoma isn’t any sort of great shakes defensively makes me think that Texas Tech has a real opportunity here. Oklahoma has a better starting five, but with two potent offenses, I could see how the depth for Texas Tech could be a real benefit. And Dejan Kravic most likely won’t get the start (I’ll be surprised if he does, just because it’s a bad matchup, should have a serious advantage off the bench.
Game Day Links:
The official site with the official preview (via TexasTech).
Texas Tech looks to upset another top 25 team (via LAJ). Here's Robert Turner on what the crowd means to him and the team:
"I can’t wait to play in front of that crowd again and how loud it was and how they had our back," Turner said. "They always say the crowd is like the sixth man, and it really was. It’d be big to have a lot of people like that again."
Our friends at Crimson and Cream Machine take a look at the Red Raiders (via C&CM).
Isaiah Cousins is profiled from last year as a freshman to this year, who also does a great job of filling up the stat sheet (via NewsOK).
Action: Hot dogs!