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Matchup: Kansas Jayhawks 12-1 (1-0) at Texas Tech Red Raiders 10-3 (0-1)
Where to Watch: ESPN2
Moneyline: KU -4.5 O/U 138.5
The main storyline heading into this one is going to be the health of some key players for the Red Raiders. As of this morning the seven guys that were available for Tech against Iowa State are all good to go. As for the guys that missed the game, including Kevin McCullar, Mylik Wilson and TJ Shannon, they will be game time decisions.
Hopefully a few of those guys will be available as we welcome in one of the top dogs in the Big-12 in the Kansas Jayhawks. The Jayhawks are 12-1 overall with a 1-0 record in the conference after defeating the Cowboys of Oklahoma State 74-63. They have a victory over the always tough Michigan State Spartans, and their only loss came against a shaky Dayton Flyers team on a buzzer beater.
The Jayhawks are lead by their strong trio at the guard position with Ochai Agbaji, Christian Braun and Remy Martin. They haven’t been as dominant as I thought that they’d be to start the season but they have found a way to win 12 games so far and will be a tough challenge as always.
Texas Tech will be hoping to get at least some of the guys that they were missing back into the lineup. The guys who battled on Wednesday played outstanding defense and should be capable of doing that again with the home crowd behind them.
I’m looking to see Davion Warren cut back on the turnovers and make smarter plays with the ball. The difference in the Iowa State game was the costly turnovers and how poorly we shot at the free throw line. While we did finish with a smaller amount of turnovers than the Cyclones, we were shorthanded and trying to claw back into that game.
I think if we have enough guys back then we can play great defense and do enough on offense to get the job done. We have guys that are able to guard multiple positions and will be able to take advantage of their smaller guards on the offensive end. I predict a 72-68 win for the Red Raiders with Adonis Arms being a guy that steps up for us on offense.