Red Raider Preview: Texas

Wednesday, March 8

Kansas City, Mo.

8:30 PM

Texas Tech Athletics

Texas

March 07, 2017 | Men's Basketball

Game32TexasNotes

The Red Raiders will look to end a four-game losing streak at the Big 12 Championships.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Texas Tech men's basketball team turns its attention to the Phillips 66 Big 12 Championships and takes on Texas during Wednesday's opening round at the Sprint Center.

Tipoff is slated for approximately 8 p.m. CT televised by ESPNU along with www.WatchESPN.com and the Watch ESPN app. John Sciambi and Miles Simon will serve as the announcing team.

The Texas Tech Sports Network will carry the game live on its flagship stations 97.3 FM, 100.7 FM and 950 AM in Lubbock. Geoff Haxton and Chris Level will have the call. The radio broadcast also will be available on the Texas Tech Sports Network radio affiliates, online at www.TexasTech.com and the TuneIn Radio app. Fans can interact live with Wednesday's broadcast @GunsUpRadio on Twitter.

The Red Raiders (18-13) ended the regular season in a seventh-place tie with TCU and earned the No. 7 seed for the Big 12 Championships courtesy of the tiebreaker and a regular season win over West Virginia who finished second in the standings.

Texas Tech will look to defeat the Longhorns (10-21) multiple times in the same season for the first time since 1995-96 when the Red Raiders went undefeated during the final season of the Southwest Conference. A win Wednesday also would snap Texas Tech's four-game losing streak at the Big 12 Championships dating back to 2013.

"It's an exciting time of year for us that are involved in college basketball," Texas Tech head coach Chris Beard said. "It's kind of a new season for us, and we intend to take advantage. There is nothing easy about the Big 12. It's a fine line especially in a situation like this where we just played Texas a couple of days ago, but I've been in this situation before. More than anything, I think this time of year is about you more than the opponent. The teams that play well in March, that win these meaningful games and compete for championships, are teams that are playing their best basketball right now. One of our mini objectives has been to peak at the right time. As disappointing as some of these losses have been lately, I still do think we are playing better basketball. My deal is to just enjoy this chance to compete in Kansas City. It's our seniors' last chance, and I'm looking forward to seeing how they respond."

Texas has lost seven consecutive games, most recently a 75-64 decision to then No. 11 Baylor on Senior Day. The Longhorns have won four straight and five of their last six first-round games at the Big 12 Championships.

Texas holds an 84-56 series advantage on the strength of winning 39 of the 46 meetings between the two programs as Big 12 members. The Longhorns have posted an 8-3 mark on a neutral floor. Texas Tech's lone win in Big 12 Championships action was a 92-81 triumph in the 2003 semifinals.

About Texas Tech
The Red Raiders have collected 15 Big 12 victories over the last two seasons, the program's best two-year total since the 2006-07 and 2007-08 seasons when Beard served as an assistant coach under Bob and Pat Knight.

Keenan Evans, an All-Big 12 Third-Team and United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) All-District VII selection, has worked his way to 19 straight games in double figures and upped his scoring mark to 16.9 points per game in Big 12 action. The 16.9 points per game were sixth on the conference leaderboard and the highest average for a Texas Tech player since Jarrius Jackson in 2006-07. Evans has amassed seven of his nine games of 20-plus points this season. He is rated second with a 43.9 percentage from beyond the three-point line and an 84.9 percent free throw clip.

Zach Smith picked up All-Big 12 Honorable Mention status for the second consecutive season. He has provided double figures in 12 of his last 18 outings. Smith has registered eight double-doubles on the season, his last one was a 16-point and 10-rebound effort versus Iowa State on Feb. 20. He has notched 12.3 points, 7.2 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game. Smith has racked up 40-plus blocks in three consecutive seasons, and his 135 career blocks are second on Texas Tech's all-time list only behind Tony Battie at 162 stuffs.

Anthony Livingston and Aaron Ross have added 9.9 and 9.2 points per game, respectively. Ross has made four of his nine career starts since the Iowa State game on Feb. 20. He has worked his way to double figures 34 times in his career. Ross pumped in 13 points and a season's best six rebounds as part of Texas Tech's Senior Night win over the Longhorns. Livingston has drained a team-leading 53 treys. His 39.8 percent three-point clip is seventh in the Big 12 rankings. Livingston's three triples at Kansas State last time out were the most dating back to the Oklahoma game on Feb. 4.

Justin Gray has tallied double digit points in four of his last six games to boost his average to 9.1 points per game. Texas Tech has won 10 of its 13 games when Gray secures 10-plus points this season. He has hit on 106-of-178 from two-point territory, while his 28 blocks are second and 30 steals are third on the team. Gray has managed 18 of his 32 games in double figures versus Big 12 opponents.

Niem Stevenson has started seven of the team's last nine games. He has racked up 12.3 points per game dating back to the Baylor game on Jan. 25. Stevenson also has dished out 24 assists versus 10 turnovers during that 11-game span. He has garnered eight times fueled by a pair of 20-point performances against Kansas and Baylor in mid-February.

Thomas Brandsma, Shadell Millinghaus, Devon Thomas and Matthew Temple round out the 10-man playing rotation for Texas Tech. Thomas has handed out 86 assists which has nearly doubled his total from a season ago. He also has contributed a team-leading 32 steals.

Texas Tech has played 27 of its 30 games this season which includes its last 16 games without Norense Odiase who averaged 8.5 points, 4.2 rebounds and 0.7 blocks per game last season.

About Texas
The Longhorns have been sparked by Jarrett Allen, an All-Big 12 Third Team and All-Big 12 Newcomer Team pick. He has improved his averages to 16.2 points and 9.8 rebounds per game versus league opponents. Allen has amassed eight of his 12 double-doubles in Big 12 play. Allen has knocked down 58.2 percent of his shots and sank 13 of his 18 field goal attempts in two games against Texas Tech.

Andrew Jones has claimed double figures in 13 of his last 15 outings en route to 13.0 points, 4.5 assists, 3.8 rebounds and 1.3 steals per game. He filled the box score with 12 points, seven assists and three blocks versus Baylor last time out. Jones has connected on 26 of his team-leading 39 three-balls versus Big 12 competition.

Kerwin Roach, Jr. has dialed up 9.8 points per game coupled with a team-leading 3.8 assists and 1.6 steals per game. He has recorded 16 games in double figures and multiple steals in 15 outings. Shaquille Cleare has chipped in 8.4 points and 6.0 rebounds per game. He has fired in 10 of his 13 games in double digit points against Big 12 opponents which includes a 15-pont performance on 7-of-8 shooting during the Texas Tech game on March 1.

"I thought we played some our best post defense (against Texas on March 1)," Beard said. "We are obviously at a huge disadvantage size and athleticism wise with Shaq [Cleare] and [Jarrett] Allen, but I thought we played one of our better team defensive games. It's not just the big guys either, it's our guards. We had some good backside help, we had better ball pressure and that will have to continue. There is no way we can stop those guys, but we have to at least contain them and make other players on the Texas roster beat us."

Up Next
The winner of Wednesday's opening round matchup advances to face No. 11 West Virginia in the quarterfinals on Thursday. Tipoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. CT, and the game will be televised by ESPNU along with being available on www.WatchESPN.com and the Watch ESPN app.

Visit www.TexasTech.com for the latest news and information on the men's basketball program. Fans also can follow the program on its social media outlets at www.Facebook.com/TexasTechMBB and @TexasTechMBB on Twitter and Instagram.