Red Raider Preview: Big 12 Championships

Thursday, March 8

Kansas City, Mo.

6:00 PM

Texas Tech Athletics

Texas

Red Raider Preview: Big 12 Championships

March 07, 2018 | Men's Basketball

Game Notes Big 12 Championship Bracket Championship Central Live Stats Watch ESPN

The Red Raiders will face Texas in Thursday’s quarterfinal round.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The No. 14 Texas Tech men's basketball team heads into the postseason and faces Texas during Thursday's quarterfinal round of the Phillips 66 Big 12 Championships in Kansas City.

Tipoff is on-tap for 6 p.m. CT at the Sprint Center, and the game will be televised by ESPN 2 along with the ESPN app. Dave Fleming, Robbie Hummel and Kris Budden will serve as the announcing team.

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 Thursday's broadcast by following @GunsUpRadio on Twitter.

The Red Raiders (23-8) have earned an opening round bye at the Big 12 Championships for the first time since the 2004-05 season under Bob Knight. Texas Tech captured a second-place finish in the Big 12 standings, the highest in program history. The 23 victories also are the most for the program during the regular season going back to the 1995-96 season under James Dickey.

The Red Raiders are led by Chris Beard who recently picked up USBWA District VII and Big 12 Co-Coach of the Year accolades. Keenan Evans tucked away USBWA District VII Player of the Year and All-Big 12 First-Team honors, while Zhaire Smith garnered All-Big 12 Honorable Mention coupled with Defensive and Newcomer Team selections.

"The objective is to try to play your best basketball as the season goes on through February and March," Beard said. "What makes it a little more complicated this year for us is some of the adversity we've overcome with injuries and guys getting back. We're no different than most teams. Everybody is dealing with something this time of year. Obviously, the outcome you are looking forward is to winning each game, but it's not that simple. You have to control what you can control. For us, that's trying to play the best basketball we can. In our game the other night against TCU, it was great in the second half to kind of see some things that we maybe haven't seen in a while. It's looking like our team might be getting back on track. Certainly the objective is to try to play the best basketball we can as the season goes on, and to do that it's all the individual parts. Each player playing the best they can, each coach doing the best we can and hopefully together we'll be playing our best basketball when it matters the most."

ABOUT TEXAS TECH
The Red Raiders are ranked at the top of the Big 12 leaderboard in scoring defense (64.5 PPG) and opponent field goal percentage (40.2). Texas Tech has never led the Big 12 in those two categories at the end of the season.

Evans has posted 17.4 points, 3.3 assists and 1.3 steals per game. He poured in 23 points, all during the second half, to fuel the Red Raiders to a Senior Day win over TCU last time out. Evans has recorded double figures in 25 of 30 games on the season and came away with five of his 10 performances of 20 or more points since Jan. 23. He piled up a career-high 38 points during an OT win over Texas on Jan. 31.

Jarrett Culver and Zhaire Smith have picked up 11.5 points per game apiece. The duo are tied for fifth place among Big 12 freshman and accounted for 713 combined points which ranks fifth and sixth in program history for players during their freshman campaigns.

Smith has strung together nine consecutive games in double figures and will look for his second streak of 10 straight games with 10-plus points on the season. Smith and Rick Bullock in 1972-73 are the only freshmen in program history to accomplish the feat.

Culver has pumped in double figures during three of his last four outings and six of his last nine appearances. He has notched 16.2 points per game and hit on 11 three-pointers in his last four games. Culver secured his first career double-double with season's best 26 points and 12 rebounds during the West Virginia game.

Texas Tech's bench has been led by Niem Stevenson (7.4 PPG), Zach Smith (6.2 PPG), Tommy Hamilton IV (5.7 PPG), Brandone Francis (5.5 PPG) and Davide Moretti (3.4 PPG). Hamilton IV, Stevenson and Smith returned to the starting lineup for a Senior Day start against TCU.

Stevenson has pieced together double figures in three of his last four games where he has upped his scoring average to 13.0 points per game. He poured in a career-best 24 points at West Virginia and has picked up 10-plus points in back-to-back games for the first time since the Rice and Florida Atlantic games back in December.

Smith heads into Thursday's action five points shy from becoming the 41st player in program history to reach 1,000 for his career. Francis has tallied 6.4 points per game in Big 12 play and canned 31 of his 64 field goals from three-point territory.

Justin Gray and Norense Odiase have secured 5.2 and 4.3 points per game, respectively. Gray has produced a pair of double figure games and tallied 13 of his 30 points at the free throw line during his last four games.

"Ultimately, you have to go play the game," Beard said. "For us when the ball goes up at 6:00 pm on Thursday night, the team that plays better is going to win. Everything you've done before that really doesn't matter. Anything somebody things about you on paper really doesn't matter. The better team is going to win. I think that's what is great about our sport. With March Madness, that's why it exists. With us, our objective is to play the best basketball we have as the year goes on."

ABOUT TEXAS/IOWA STATE
The Red Raiders posted a 2-2 record against the Longhorns and the Cyclones with the home team holding serve during all four matchups.

Texas is led by a trio of players in double figures which include Dylan Osetkowski (13.7 PPG), Mohamed Bamba (13.0 PPG) and Kerwin Roach II (12.3 PPG). Roach II matched career-highs with 22 points and eight assists versus West Virginia. Jericho Sims is the reigning Big 12 Newcomer of the Week.

Iowa State are fueled by freshmen sensations Lindell Wigginton (16.6 PPG) and Cameron Lard (12.5 PPG). Donovan Jackson has garnered 15.3 points per game and buried 93 of his 140 field goals from three-point territory.

UP NEXT
The winner of Thursday's quarterfinal matchup advances to meet either No. 18 West Virginia or Baylor in the semifinals on Friday. Tipoff is slated for approximately 8:30 p.m. CT from the Sprint Center in Kansas City. The game will be televised by ESPN or ESPN2 along with the ESPN app.

Texas Tech heads to the Big 12 Tournament as either No. 2 or No. 3 seed for Thursday's quarterfinal action. Tip time is set for either 6 p.m. CT or 8:30 p.m. CT from the Sprint Center in Kansas City. The game will be televised by either ESPN or ESPN2 along with 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.