Mini-preview: Texas Tech

I had every intention of writing a Tech preview similar to all the others. That was, until I realized that I had yet to see them play even a half of basketball this year. I’m not sure how that’s happened as my weeknights are spent watching entirely too much college sports, but if I’ve seen them I effectively blocked it out of my memory. Which is probably for the better.

For the season, they’ve faced up against 4 competent opponents and Colorado. Their four competent opponents were: Pitt, Stanford, Baylor and Texas – they lost all four by: 13, 45, 12, & 22, respectively. In case you were wondering, they did hold off Colorado last night by a score of 63-55. I can’t even imagine how hideous an exhibition that must have been. Their second best win to date came by a measly 3 points over a dismal Wichita State team. And in addition to the four losses mentioned, they’ve found themselves on the wrong end against UTEP, Lamar and TCU. Getting the picture yet?

From a quick glance at the stats, they have 10 guys averaging double-figure minutes and 4 guys with double-figure scoring averages. Roberson is still the only guy on their roster who can create something on offense and he’s proving it by leading them in scoring at 14 and by being the only guy on the team that assists on a regular basis (6/game) – next closest is Voskuil at 2. Speaking of Voskuil, he’s still camping out behind the three-point line with 119 attempts on the year – 55 of them makes, good for 46%. At 6’6” Mike Singletary is next in line in scoring (10.9) and leads them in rebounding with just under 6 a game.

And frankly, that should be plenty on the Red Raiders. I’m not saying Pat Knight won’t get the job done eventually, but right now they couldn’t look worse. They don’t play much defense and really they aren’t very competent on offense either. Quite simply, they just don’t have the players and I can’t envision them winning more than 4 league games this season.

Up next: Oklahoma State