Texas Tech (15-8) at (16) Oklahoma State (20-5)
GAME NOTES: Big 12 rivals collide in Stillwater tonight, as the 16th-ranked Oklahoma State Cowboys play host to the Texas Tech Red Raiders. Coming off a 70-69 win over visiting Texas A&M on Saturday, coach Bob Knight's Red Raiders are hoping to string together consecutive victories for the first time since winning five straight from December 18-January 6. Since that time, which was also the start of conference play, Texas Tech has gone just 5-7 and currently sits in a seventh-place tie with Texas A&M with just four regular season games remaining, including tonight's tilt. Tech has enjoyed much of its success this season at home (10-2), but has struggled outside of Lubbock, going 5-6 overall -- 5-5 in true road contests. As for Oklahoma State, it is coming off perhaps its biggest win of the season, as the Cowboys upset No. 3 Texas at home on Saturday, 82-77. The win moved OSU to 9-3 in league action, which has the team tied with the Longhorns for third place, but just a game back of current Big 12-leaders, Oklahoma and Kansas. The Cowboys are a near-perfect 12-1 at home this season and can ill-afford a slip-up tonight, as the mighty Jayhawks lie in wait for OSU's arrival in Lawrence this Saturday. Oklahoma State owns a commanding 20-8 lead in the all-time series with Texas Tech, including a 79-70 triumph in Lubbock back on January 26th. The Red Raiders won two of the three meetings between the two teams last season.
The Big 12's top team in terms of taking care of the basketball, Texas Tech has been a bit of an enigma this year, as one game the Red Raiders look like world-beaters, and the next they look ordinary and at times completely out of sync. In Saturday's one-point win over visiting Texas A&M, Andre Emmett, back after serving a one-game suspension, scored a game-high 26 points on 9-of-22 shooting from the floor. Robert Tomaszek finished with 17 points in knocking down 8-of-10 from the field and joined Emmett as the two rebounders for the team with eight boards apiece. Overall, however, TTU was outrebounded in the contest, 40-30. Kasib Powell rounded out the team's double-digit scorers with 10 points. Emmett continues to lead the Big 12 in scoring with 21.7 ppg, while he is hitting his total shots at a rock-solid 52.0 percent clip. He is also the team's leading rebounder with 5.9 rpg, leading Powell, who nets 15.3 ppg, by half a board as he grabs 5.4 rpg. Overall, the Red Raiders are shooting 47.9 percent from the floor in putting up 75.2 ppg. By contrast, their foes are scoring 66.6 ppg in hitting 43.1 percent of their total shots.
Up by 15 points at one point in the contest, things got a little scary for Oklahoma State on Saturday, as Texas wasn't about to go quietly into that good night. The Longhorns showed why they have been a top 10 team all season long, as they battled hard only to fall by five in Stillwater. Coach Eddie Sutton's club had three players foul out, but put four in double figures in winning only its second game in its last five outings. Victor Williams led the OSU charge with 20 points on the strength of four three-pointers, while Melvin Sanders added 19 points by hitting five treys. Tony Allen finished with 16 points and a team-high five rebounds, and Cheyne Gadson tallied 15 points and dished out eight assists. As a team, OSU shot a solid 49.0 percent from the field and an even better 55.0 percent from long range. The Cowboys did however, struggle at the free-throw line in converting 21-of-36 (.583). OSU proved an opportunistic bunch as if forced 16 Texas turnovers. Victor Williams (15.7 ppg, team-high 82 assists), Allen (14.9 ppg, 5.3 rpg), Sanders (13.4 ppg, 4.8 rpg) and Ivan McFarlin (10.6 ppg, team-leading 7.0 rpg) have all been consistent performers for the club this season, as it averages 71.3 ppg on 46.1 percent shooting from the floor and 38.2 percent from downtown. The team's foes have found the going a little more difficult, however, as they are averaging just 62.1 ppg (second-lowest in the Big 12) in hitting their total shots a mere 39.2 percent of the time (ranking the team number one in the conference).
The Cowboys are flying high after their upset of Texas, and while conventional wisdom says the team may be in for a letdown, particularly with this game sandwiched between the one with the Longhorns and one upcoming at Kansas, Sutton is too good a coach, and his players way too talented to let an opportunity for a win in front of the hometown faithful go by the wayside.
I like this game a lot. Especially with Oklahoma St.'s home record of 12-1 and how poorly Texas Tech plays away from home at a record of 5-5.
