PREVIEW: Tech, UIW to play in South Padre Island

LUBBOCK, Texas – Texas Tech is making a break for South Padre Island this weekend to take on Incarnate Word at 4 p.m. on Saturday in the South Padre Island Battle on the Beach showcase event that will be played at the SPI Convention Centre. Terrence Shannon, Jr. will make his season debut after being cleared to play immediately on Wednesday.

The Red Raiders (3-0) have started the season with three straight home wins and are venturing outside of Lubbock for the first time this season, while UIW (0-3) comes into the game with losses to Texas State, Baylor and Concordia. TTU is 3-0 all-time against the Cardinals after earning a 79-51 win last season on Dec. 29, 2020 where Kevin McCullar and Marcus Santos-Silva led the team with 11 points each. Full PDF game notes and a press conference previewing the matchup will be posted and distributed later this week.

Bryson Williams led TTU with 18 points and seven rebounds in the 84-49 win over Prairie View A&M on Monday, while Davion Warren added 15 points and McCullar went for 12 points, seven rebounds, three assists and three steals. Mylik Wilson and Adonis Arms had five assists each for TTU which is averaging 18.7 assists through three games this season. Shannon has missed the first three games of the season after having his NBA Draft process reviewed and resolved. A junior from Chicago, Shannon was named to the 2022 Preseason All-Big 12 Team along with being selected to the John R. Wood Award, Jersey Mike's Naismith Trophy and Jerry West Award watch lists.

The Texas Tech basketball program is making its second trip down to South Padre Island and is 0-2 after losses to Saint Mary's and South Florida in the 2010 South Padre Island Invitational. Along with the TTU-UIW matchup, the SPI Battle on the Beach will feature a 1 p.m. game between UTRGV and Northern Arizona. Both games will be streamed on ESPN+.

RANKINGS: Texas Tech is receiving votes in the Associated Press and USA TODAY Coaches Poll, but remains unranked this season after spending the entire 2020-21 season in the rankings for the first time in program history. TTU was as high as No. 7 last season and finished the year at No. 21. While not in the polls, the Red Raiders are currently No. 12 in the Kenpom.com ranking and No. 8 in the site's adjusted defensive efficiency ranking.

STAT RANKINGS: It's really early and games played/opponents vary throughout the NCAA, but let's have some fun with national stat rankings. With a 3-0 record, TTU is tied for the nation's best won-lost percentage along with 96 other teams. Mylik Wilson leads the nation with a 15.1 assist-to-turnover ratio with 15 assists and only one turnover, while Bryson Williams is 14th nationally with a 73.3 shooting percentage (22-for-30). TTU is currently third nationally and leads the Big 12 with 20.7 and is sixth with a 21.0 rebounding advantage (135-72). The Red Raiders are coming off a game against PVAMU with 24 offensive rebounds and a 50-26 rebounding advantage. Tech currently leads the Big 12 with 24 3-pointers made with 10 against PVAMU and Grambling and is third in the Big 12 with a 25.3 scoring margin advantage through three games after its 35-point win over PVAMU.

NEUTRAL COURTS: TTU will play three regular-season games on a neutral court this year with its game against Tennessee in Madison Square Garden and a trip to Phoenix to play Gonzaga also coming up. The Red Raiders and Volunteers are set to play in the Jimmy V Classic at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 7 at MSG with the game being televised on ESPN. TTU and Gonzaga are scheduled to play in the Jerry Colangelo Classic on Saturday, Dec. 18 at the Footprint Center in Arizona with the game being televised on CBS.

RED RAIDER REPORT: Texas Tech is scoring 87.0 points per game with four players averaging in double figures through three games. Williams leads the team with 18.7 points and 7.7 rebounds per game, while McCullar is adding 14.7 ppg. and 7.3 rpg. Davion Warren is adding 16.0 points per game and Kevin Obanor is at 11.3 pgg. coming into the contest against UIW.

Williams has now racked up 82 double-digit scoring performances in his career and has 1,683 points through 124 games. A super senior from Fresno, California, Williams led Tech with his 18 points on Monday by shooting 7-for-10 from the field and is now 22-for-30 (73.3 percent) for the season. He has led the team in scoring in two of the first three games currently leads the Big 12 by shooting 73.3 percent from the field. He has a season-high 22 points coming in the opener against North Florida where he went 9-for-11 from the field and had 16 points on 6 of 9 shooting against Grambling. Along with his scoring, Williams had nine rebounds against Grambling and seven in the other two games. McCullar is averaging his 14.7 points per game with a career-high 24 points against Grambling highlighting his early season. A junior from San Antonio, McCullar leads the team with 35 shots taken and is at 45.7 percent shooting and is coming off going for 12 points, seven rebounds and three steals against PVAMU. He is also averaging 7.3 rebounds per game with a season-high nine coming against Grambling in his 24-point performance.

Warren is at 16.0 points per game with three double-figure scoring performance through his first thee games at Tech. He's coming off going for 15 points on 6-for-10 shooting against PVAMU and has a season-high 19 points against Grambling where he went 5 of 7. A Buffalo, New York native who played at Hampton for two seasons, Warren is shooting 66.7 percent from the field and is 5-for-9 on 3-pointers after going 3 of 5 from beyond the arc on Monday night against PVAMU. Warren is coming off a senior season at Hampton where he averaged 21.2 points per game which was the 13th best in the nation. Obanor is at 11.3 ppg. for the season after going for eight points on 3 of 6 shooting against PVAMU. He had a season-high 17 points in the opener against UNF and also had nine against Grambling. He leads Tech with eight 3-pointers made with three against UNF and Grambling before going 2 of 4 on 3-pointers against PVAMU. Obanor is in his first season at Tech after three seasons at Oral Roberts. He currently has 1,340 points with 130 made 3-pointers through 89 career games.

Wilson comes into the fourth game of the season with that national-leading 15.0 assist-to-turnover ratio along with adding 5.3 points and 2.0 steals per game. A junior who played at Louisiana the past two seasons, Wilson had a season-high seven assists in the opener against UNF and then added five more against PVAMU. He had a career-high eight assists last season against Coastal Carolina while playing in Lafayette. He scored a season-high seven points against PVAMU. Marcus Santos-Silva began his super senior season with 13 points against UNF and is now averaging 6.3 points per game. A Taunton, Mass. native, Santos-Silva started his career with VCU for three seasons and is now in his second year in Lubbock. He has scored 1,088 points and has 816 rebounds in his career. He comes into Saturday's game against UIW with 196 rebounds as a Red Raider through 32 games.

Adonis Arms is adding 5.7 points, 4.0 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game in his first season at Tech. He is coming off going for seven points against PVAMU with two 3-pointers after scoring a season-high nine points in the win over Grambling. Arms is a super senior who is at his fourth school, including spending the past two seasons at Winthrop where he played in the NCAA Tournament last season. He had a season-high five assists in the win over PVAMU in 15 minutes. Chibuzo Agbo matched his career-high with six points against PVAMU and had a career-high five rebounds in the win. A sophomore from San Diego, Agbo had four offensive rebounds in the game and also hit his first 3-pointer of the season.

Shannon was an All-Big 12 Third Team selection last season after averaging 12.9 points per game. He scored in double figures in 22 games last season, including leading Tech with 20 points against Arkansas in the NCAA Tournament Second Round. He scored a season-high 23 points and recorded a double-double with 10 rebounds in the win at LSU and also went over 20 points in wins over Oklahoma and Kansas State. Shannon finished his sophomore season with 30 3-pointers after going 3-for-4 against the Razorbacks in the final game of the season after matching a career-high with four 3-pointers in the Big 12 Championship quarterfinals against Texas. Through two seasons at Tech, Shannon has scored 644 points, grabbed 231 rebounds and came away with 58 steals. He averaged 9.8 points per game as a freshman, including scoring a career-high 24 points at DePaul. Along with his scoring, Shannon had 39 assists this season (1.4 per game) highlighted by a career-high six assists in the road win at Iowa State.

TTU has started the season with a starting lineup of Obanor, Williams, Warren, Wilson and McCullar in the first three games.

INCARNATE WORD: The Cardinals went 8-14 last season and have started with an 0-3 record after an 82-78 loss to Concordia on Tuesday in their home opener. UIW fell 87-60 last week at Baylor after dropping a 75-57 decision to Texas State in its opener. Josh Morgan leads UIW with 20.3 points per game with a season-high 28 points on 9-for-18 shooting against CTX with seven 3-pointers. A freshman from Canada, Morgan was 7-for-13 on 3-pointers in the loss to CTX and now has 11 3-pointers through three games. RJ Glasper is adding 11.3 points and Drew Lutz is at 11.0 ppg. coming into the matchup against TTU. UIW is being held to 65.0 points per game and have been out-rebounded by a 99-82 margin.

UP NEXT: Texas Tech will return from the coast for a two-game home stand during Thanksgiving week. The Red Raiders host Omaha at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 23 and Lamar at 3 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 27 at the United Supermarkets Arena. TTU has won nine straight non-conference home games. Tech had a 54-game non-conference home winning streak end with a 76-74 overtime loss to Kentucky on Jan. 25, 2020 before going on the current nine-game winning streak.

PREVIEW: Tech, UIW to play in South Padre Island

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Players Mentioned

Chibuzo Agbo

Adonis Arms

Kevin McCullar

Kevin Obanor

Marcus Santos-Silva

Davion Warren

Bryson Williams

Mylik Wilson