Red Raider Preview: No. 8 Kansas

Saturday, February 24

United Supermarkets Arena

3:15 PM

Texas Tech Athletics

No. 8 Kansas

Tickets

February 24, 2018 | Men's Basketball

Game Notes

The Red Raiders and Jayhawks will meet with first place on the line in the Big 12 standings.

LUBBOCK, Texas – The No. 6 Texas Tech men's basketball team will take part in its third Top 10 matchup of the season when No. 8 Kansas visits the United Supermarkets on Saturday.

Tipoff is slated for 3:15 p.m. CT, and the game will be televised by ESPN along with the ESPN app. Dan Shulman, Jay Bilas and Maria Taylor will serve as the announcing team.

The national spotlight will be on Texas Tech as ESPN's College GameDay Covered by State Farm will be live from the USA from 10-11 a.m. CT. Admission to GameDay is free. Fans do not need a game ticket to the Kansas game to attend the 60-minute GameDay show. Doors for the GameDay show will open at 8:30 a.m. CT. Seating is not reserved, and fans are asked to use the northwest and southwest entrances.

The Texas Tech Sports Network will carry the game live on its flagship stations Double T 97.3 FM, 100.7 FM the Score and 950 AM in Lubbock. Geoff Haxton and Chris Level will have the radio call. The radio broadcast also will be available on the Texas Tech Sports Network radio affiliates, online at www.TexasTech.com and the Tune-In Radio app. Fans can interact live with Saturday's broadcast by following @GunsUpRadio on Twitter.

Texas Tech (22-6, 10-5 Big 12) enters Saturday's play in sole possession of second place and a game behind 13-time defending regular season Kansas (22-6, 11-4 Big 12) in the Big 12 standings. The Red Raiders are one-game clear of West Virginia and Kansas State who are tied for third place heading into the weekend.

Texas Tech has won nine of its 10 home games against Top 25 opponents with five of the nine victories coming by three points or less. The Red Raiders have strung together 17 straight home wins which is the second-longest streak in the nation.

The Jayhawks have found their groove with three consecutive victories, most recently a 104-74 rout of Oklahoma last Monday. Kansas has won its last seven true road games over AP Top 10 teams with its last setback coming at No. 4 Missouri on Feb. 2, 2012.

The Jayhawks have won 33 of the 38 meetings in the all-time series, but Texas Tech was able to secure the program's first victory at Allen Fieldhouse by an 85-73 margin on Jan. 2. A win Saturday would give the Red Raiders the first home-and-home Big 12 sweep of Kansas during the Bill Self era.

"I think there are parallels in any journey," Texas Tech head coach Chris Beard said. "Of course, we talk to our guys all of the time about how we respond to adversity. We've had a couple of these situations this year. We find ourselves in one right now. We lost two road games in the Big 12 to two teams that are fighting to get in the tournament without one of our best players. To me, it's not like the boat is sinking. We have to figure out how to get the boat back in the right direction. This is the Big 12, you can't get too high or too low. You have to continue to give yourselves a chance. We have it down to a three-game season, and we are in the race for the Big 12 championship. I'm really proud of our guys. Don't lose the fact that we've got a team here that's competing for a conference championship in the toughest league in basketball with three games left."

ABOUT TEXAS TECH
The Red Raiders will look to end a season's long two-game winning streak. Texas Tech faced a similar situation a month ago after losses at Texas and at Iowa State and overcame a double-digit halftime deficit to upend Oklahoma State by a 75-70 margin on Jan. 23.

The Red Raiders continue to be ranked in the top spot in the Big 12 leaderboard and among the nation's Top 10 in scoring defense (63.1 PPG) and field goal percentage defense (39.5). Texas Tech also checks in inside the NCAA's Top 20 in three additional categories which includes turnovers forced (16.4) and steals per game (8.0).

Evans has been battling a toe injury during the last two games but has posted 17.6 points per game which is third in the Big 12 rankings. He also has averaged 3.3 assists and 1.3 steals per game. Evans has secured double figures in 24 of 28 games. He tallied 15 points, six rebounds and three assists at Kansas earlier this season.

Jarrett Culver and Zhaire Smith have come away with 11.1 points and 10.9 points per game which ranks fifth and sixth among Big 12 freshman. Smith has buried 57.7 percent of his shots and upped his scoring mark to 15.0 points per game in his last six games.

Culver has garnered double figures 14 times. He chipped in 15 points and six rebounds against Oklahoma State last time out. Culver has notched 10-plus points in four of his last six outings.

Texas Tech's bench is led by Niem Stevenson (6.9 PPG), Tommy Hamilton IV (5.9 PPG), Brandone Francis (5.5 PPG) and Davide Moretti (3.5 PPG).

Stevenson has picked up double figures in two of his last three appearances headed by a Big 12 season's best 14 points at Oklahoma State. He also provided four rebounds and four assists.

Hamilton IV has pumped in 7.4 points per game over his last eight outings and heads into Saturday's action 29 points away from reaching 1,000 for his career.

Justin Gray and Norense Odiase have chipped in 5.3 and 4.4 points per game, respectively. Gray has reeled off double figures in back-to-back games whereas Odiase played one of his best games of the season with 12 points and eight rebounds at Kansas.

"Niem is playing well as of late," Beard said. "We have three stat sheets we look at from time-to-time. The last 5 games is always an indication. A big part of our game is confidence and momentum. I've been impressed with his assist-to-turnover ratio this year. He's made some real improvements with his game. I think at the top of the list is that he's been really coachable. I've coached Niem about as hard as I've ever coached anybody. He's really responded and seems to be playing good basketball down the stretch. That's what we need from a senior."

ABOUT KANSAS
The Jayhawks are the Big 12 leaders and have made 10.2 three-pointers per game. Kansas also ranks inside the Big 12's Top 3 in scoring offense (82.4 PPG), offensive field goal percentage (49.3), three-point field goal percentage (39.7), assists (17.2) and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.5).

The Jayhawks are one of two nationally along with William & Mary to have five players over 12.0 points per game.

The four-guard attack of Devonte' Graham (17.6 PPG), Svi Mykhailiuk (15.4 PPG), Lagerald Vick (13.0 PPG) and Malik Newman (12.3 PPG) has combined to drain 267 three-pointers. Graham, Mykhailiuk and Vick are all connecting at over a 38 percent clip from three-clip territory.

Graham has secured three of his nine games of over 20-plus points since Feb. 6. He dialed up 23 points versus Oklahoma last time out. Like Evans, he is a finalist for the Bob Cousy, Wooden Award and Naismith Trophy. Graham garnered 27 points and six assists against Texas Tech in the first outing.

Newman has pumped in double figures in nine of his last 10 outings headed by three of his four games of 20-plus points. He has canned 10 triples over his last four games and came away with 20 points and five assists during the Oklahoma game.

On the interior, Udoka Azubuike has been effective and efficient on both ends of the floor with 14.0 points, 7.1 rebounds and 1.7 blocks per game. He has sank 25-for-28 on the field over his last four appearances. Azubuike paces the country with a 77.1 shooting clip.

UP NEXT
Texas Tech wraps up the road portion of its schedule at No. 21 West Virginia on Monday. Tipoff is scheduled for 8 p.m. CT. The game will be televised by ESPN2 and the 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 by liking TexasTechMBB on Facebook along with following @TexasTechMBB on Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat.