Game Details:

Date: Saturday, January 31st
Time: 11:00 am
Good Guys: Texas Tech Red Raiders (11-10, 1-7)
Bad Guys: West Virgina Mountaineers (17-3, 5-2)
Location: WVU Coliseum | Mortantown, WV
TV/Stream: ESPNU
Radio/Stream: Broadcast Affiliates and TuneIn App

Probable Starting Lineup

		Pts / Reb		Pts / Reb
POINT GUARD	Robert Turner (6-3/190)	8.7 / 1.6*	Gary Browne (6-1/195)	6.7 / 1.7*
SHOOTING GUARD	Devaugntah Williams (6-4/205)	10.6 / 3.1	Juwan Staten (6-1/190)	14.9 / 4.4*
SMALL FORWARD	Randy Onwuasor (6-3/190)	5.4 / 3.1	Daxter Miles, Jr. (6-3/185)	6.1 / 2.4
POWER FORWARD	Zach Smith (6-8/205)	5.2 / 5.2	Jonathan Holton (6-7/220)	9.4 / 6.0
CENTER	Isaiah Manderson (6-10/240)	4.3 / 3.0	Devin Williams (6-9/255)	11.0 / 8.0

* Assists.

Three Keys to the Game:

1. Scouting the Mountaineers. Well, I can say that I'm not at all looking forward to the constant pressure of playing West Virginia after Wednesday's loss. The full court press style that West Virginia plays is absolutely troublesome and the other issue is that Texas Tech is playing on the road, which is also problematic. The only good thing is that the game is at 11:00 am, noon in Morgantown, so maybe the students will still be asleep. The last time these two teams met, Texas Tech stayed in this game largely because of free throws as the Red Raiders had 37 attempts for the game, but also continued to shoot themselves in the foot with 22 turnovers. And it was a balanced scoring attack, with five players in double figures, Staten, Browne, Williams, Miles and Carter.

2. Stats. After a near 50 point loss to Oklahoma, this is not the sort of team that I want to see Texas Tech play. It's not necessarily these four stats that are bothersome, it's the fact that the WVU defense is better than Texas Tech despite playing at a much higher pace offensively. This could be a really bad game.

Not much has changed for West Virginia since the last time these two teams met. The Mountaineers are #15 overall in KemPom ratings, 43rd in AdjO and 13th in AdjD. The Red Raiders are 186th overall, 281st in AdjO (woof) and 95th in AdjD.

*AdjO and AdjD via KenPom.

3. Matching Up. For Texas Tech, I think that the guards are going to have to really step up their game. During the Iowa State game, the guards did a much better job of handling the pressure and they'll have to prove themselves again. That's the key for me, handling the pressure. I'd also add that with the additional time that it takes to bring up the ball there will be less time to set up the offense, so the guards are really going to have to direct a lot of traffic and move quickly after bringing the ball up.