Texas Tech University Athletics
Tech Takes On Oklahoma Tuesday Night
January 15, 2001 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 15, 2001
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RED RAIDERS LOOKING TO MOVE TO .500 IN LEAGUE PLAY
Texas Tech enters Tuesday's game against the Oklahoma Sooners with a 1-2 record in league play and 7-7 mark overall. The Red Raiders hope to avoid dropping below .500 for the first time this season and would like to move to .500 in league play.
Standing in Tech's way is an Oklahoma team not accustomed to its current status. The Sooners are 1-2 in the Big 12 and are coming off a home loss to fifth-ranked Kansas.
Oklahoma State handed Texas Tech a 65-46 setback in Stillwater over the weekend. The scoring total for the Red Raiders was the lowest for a Texas Tech team since a 62-44 loss at Texas on Feb. 17, 1999.
A TEXAS TECH WIN WOULD...
- Improve Tech's record to 8-7 and 2-2 in league play. The 2-2 record would mark Tech's best start in Big 12 play since the 1997 season when the Red Raiders opened 5-1.
- Give the Red Raiders their first win over the Sooners in six tries. (OU leads the all-time series 15-10 and have won the last five entering the game.)
- Give Texas Tech its first win over OU in Lubbock since the 1971 season. Tech is currently 0-4 at home against the Sooners (all Big 12 games) since then.
- Up James Dickey's career coaching record to 166-112.
- Improve Tech's all-time record to 1,099-829.
A TEXAS TECH LOSS WOULD...
- Drop Tech below .500 for the first time this season with a 7-8 overall mark and 1-3 record in league play.
- Give the Sooners their sixth-straight win the in series and fifth-straight in Lubbock.
- Move Tech's Big 12 streak to two losses.
- Be Tech's second in a row to a team from Oklahoma.
NOTING THE LOSS AT OKLAHOMA STATE
- Texas Tech dropped to 7-7 on the season and 1-2 in league play.
- The Red Raiders turned in the team's lowest scoring total (46 points) since a 62-44 loss at Texas on Feb. 17, 1999.
- Cliff Owens narrowly missed his fifth double-double of the season and led Texas Tech with 15 points and nine rebounds.
- Marcus Shropshire failed to convert a three-point attempt for the first time in six games. He entered the game with 16 made threes in the previous six games, including three each in the last five.
- Mikey Marshall and Rodney Bass recorded career-highs in steals with three each.
- Texas Tech held OSU leading scorer Maurice Baker to 10 points.
- The Red Raiders' 17 points in the first half was the lowest of the season in the opening frame for Tech.
- 32 of Texas Tech's 46 points came in the paint. Owens and Andy Ellis led the way with a combined 25 points.
LEADING THE RED RAIDERS
Andy Ellis continues to lead the team with 16.6 points per game, followed by Cliff Owens' 12.9 points. Jamal Brown is averaging 11.0 points per game and is leading the team with 7.5 assists. Andre Emmett is averaging 8.1 points per game off of the bench, while Marcus Shropshire is logging 6.6 points per game. Jayson Mitchell has slumped of late on the scoreboard, but is averaging 6.8 points per game on the season. Ronald Hobbs is a strong contributor off of the bench with 6.3 points per game.
RED RAIDERS HELD TO SEASON-LOW AT OKLAHOMA STATE
Texas Tech's 65-46 loss at Oklahoma State marked the lowest scoring output for the Red Raiders this season and the lowest since a 62-44 setback at Texas on Feb. 17, 1999. Tech's 17 first-half points also is a season-low.
TECH OPPONENTS TAKE SCORING, REBOUNDING LEADS
Oklahoma State's 19-point win and 16-rebound advantage on the boards propelled the Tech opposition to the top of the charts in each category. Tech trails its opponents by a 0.8 margin in the scoring column and 0.3 margin on the boards.
BROWN RANKS AMONG NATION'S TOP FIVE
Point guard Jamal Brown not only leads the Big 12 with 7.5 assists per game, but ranks fifth in the nation. Marist's Sean Kennedy is the nation's leader in assists with 9.6 per game. Brown has posted four double-digit assist games this season. He dished out 11 in each game against UL Lafayette and UTEP. Brown handed out 10 balls against Texas A&M-CC and 10 more at TCU. In addition to his assists totals, Brown has recorded three double-doubles this season.
ELLIS TURNING IN ANOTHER STRONG SEASON
Center Andy Ellis leads the team with 16.6 points per game and is second on the boards with 6.4 rebounds. Ellis ranks seventh in the Big 12 in scoring. Ellis posted back-to-back double-doubles earlier this season against UTEP and Ball State. He has scored in double-figures in all but one game this season and has led the team in scoring in seven games and has four game-high honors. He also leads the team with five 20+-point games.
SHROPSHIRE'S STREAK COMES TO A SCREECHING HALT
After lighting up the scoreboard and the three-point column in the last five games, freshman guard Marcus Shropshire hit a brick wall at Oklahoma State. Shrop, draped by defenders all afternoon, struggled from the field with an 0-for-7 performance, including five missed threes. Entering the game at OSU, Shropshire had buried three threes in each of the previous five games. He is currently averaging 6.6 points per game, 9.8 points per game in the last six.
BROWN ALSO COOLS OFF
Despite a season-low four assists against Oklahoma State, junior point guard Jamal Brown still leads the Big 12 with 7.5 assists per game. Brown entered the game with an 18.0 point per game average in the previous two games, but struggled on 2-of-10 shooting at OSU and scored four points.
GLASS CLEANING COMES NATURAL FOR OWENS
Throughout his career senior forward Cliff Owens has had a knack for crashing the boards and leading Texas Tech in rebounding. Owens led the Red Raiders with 7.7 rebounds per game as a sophomore in 1997-98 and paced the team again the following season with 7.0 boards per game. After sitting out last season with an ankle injury, Owens once again leads the team on the glass. He is currently averaging 7.6 rebounds and has led the team in 10 games. Four times he has garnered game-high honors.
HOBBS SEARCHING FOR STROKE
Sophomore guard Ronald Hobbs was off to his best start in his young collegiate career this season, averaging 9.7 points per game after the first six games. Since that time, however, Hobbs has struggled offensively. In the six games he's played since, he is averaging 3.0 points per game and his shooting percentage has dropped from 48.8 percent to 45 percent. Over the last six games, Hobbs is shooting 41.2 percent.
TECH'S STRUGGLES IN FINAL FIVE
The Red Raiders have had a problem in the final five minutes of games this season. The opposition is outscoring Texas Tech 143-115 this season in the closing minutes. The Red Raiders led UTEP 71-64 with five minutes remaining, but lost 81-80 after yielding a 17-9 run.
BENCH PRODUCTION
Texas Tech is receiving an added boost this season from the bench. Tech's nonstarters are averaging 20.1 points per game - 25.9 percent of the team total. Last season, bench scoring averaged 11.2 points per game.
STRUGGLING IN THE 80'S
Seven times during the 2000-01 season, the Red Raiders have allowed opponents to score more than 80 points and six of those seven have gone down in the loss column for Texas Tech.
ELLIS NAMED TO PRESEASON TEAMS
Texas Tech junior center Andy Ellis has been tabbed by three college basketball publications as a preseason All-Big 12 selection.
Ellis is listed as a second-team All-Big 12 selection by The Sporting News and Athlon Sports. Street and Smith's has Ellis listed as an All-Big 12 selection along with Jamaal Tinsley (Iowa State), Kimani Ffriend (Nebraska), Drew Gooden (Kansas) and Bernard King (Texas A&M).
Ellis, who injured his hand last month, averaged 16.9 points per game and 8.9 rebounds during the 1999-00 season before dislocating his left shoulder against Nebraska in the 14th game of the season that forced him to sit out the remainder of the year.
