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Texas Tech basketball looking to home crowd to energize team against rival Texas
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- Texas Tech basketball looking to home crowd to energize team against rival Texas
Late February is when things can get a bit tricky for teams. The postseason is on the horizon and some, like the Texas Tech basketball team , know they're in pretty good shape when it comes to the NCAA Tournament.
Saturday's loss at UCF, a 75-61 setback , came with a bit of a wakeup call, though. Head coach Grant McCasland could see that his team just didn't have it in them to come away with the win.
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"I just, for the first time," McCasland said, "felt like we had a little bit of resistance and fatigue to do what it takes to win."
McCasland pointed out the obvious, that missing sharpshooter Chance McMillian (sore hip) and Warren Washington (foot) being limited in his return played a role in the Red Raiders (19-8, 8-6) being unable to find their rhythm. By the time they did, fatigue had set in.
With four regular season games left, plus the Big 12 Tournament to go before March Madness, McCasland knows the importance of playing your best basketball heading into the postseason.
"You can feel it with our team," McCasland said, "and we're kind of getting to that point where we're competing, but we're not at our best. ... I do sense that our team is trying to play through some difficult times physically, and the shoulder of the season, with the limited amount of guys we're playing, you can kind of feel the toll on them. I think the fight that it takes to win is really important to me. Really important, and that's the edge that we've got to get back to where everybody feels connected to winning."
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If there's one thing that can turn a team around, it's the support of the home crowd, which Texas Tech will have in spades on Tuesday when Texas visits United Supermarkets Arena for an 8 p.m. showdown on ESPN.
Students began camping outside of the arena before the Red Raiders had even tipped off against UCF. The tents have multiplied since then, ready to welcome the Longhorns for the last time in who knows how long.
Should Tuesday's game be a sellout, it'll mark the fifth time in Big 12 play in McCasland's first year at the helm. No Texas Tech team has had five conference sellouts in a season since the 2001-02 team had six.
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As his team works through the ebbs and flows of the late season, McCasland hopes the fan support can boost the team's spirits and play with their biggest rival in town.
"That's why you love college, right?" McCasland said of the campers. "This is what makes it awesome. This is what you want to be a part of. There's a different edge, as we know, to playing Texas, especially with them going to the SEC and you don't know when you'll get another opportunity.
"... Being a part of college basketball and being a student at Tech, winning's a big part of it, and our students love to win."
Texas Tech fans gesture the timeout call as Kansas State takes a timeout against the team during the Big 12 basketball game, Saturday, Jan.13, 2024, at United Supermarkets Arena.
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Texas Tech and Texas are neck-and-neck in several stat categories throughout Big 12 play. The Red Raiders rank third in 3-point field goal percentage offense, 13th in 3-point percentage defense, ninth in rebounding margin and fourth in assist-to-turnover ratio. The Longhorns rank fourth, 14th, eighth and fifth in those respective categories.
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Texas' high-scoring guard Max Abmas is in an offensive funk of his own. Abmas has been limited to single-digit scoring numbers in each of the Longhorns' last three games. In that time, he has shot 2-of-15 from 3 and just 7-of-32 from the field overall.
The Longhorn offense as a whole has struggled. Averaging 71.8 point per conference game, Texas has failed to crack 70 points in four of their last five games, including the last three games.
No Big 12 team that has won at least half of its conference games has missed out of the NCAA Tournament since 2015. Texas Tech is one win away from reaching that mark while Texas needs to win three of its last four to get there.
LAST TIME OUT: No. 23 Texas Tech basketball goes cold in road loss to UCF
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Key statistic
There's an argument to be made for which team needs this win more. Texas Tech has all but locked up an NCAA Tournament bid but going into a slide late in the year could make Selection Sunday more of a sweat than it needs to be. Meanwhile, the Longhorns are having trouble finding themselves on many bracket projections.
Entering the week, Texas was 40th in the NET ranking, which makes the game a Quad 2 game for Texas Tech — as the Red Raiders were 35th after the loss to UCF, it's still a Quad 1 game for the Longhorns. For Texas Tech, that setback in Orlando could be a big blemish in a few weeks if UCF (69th) drops further down the NET rankings. Right now, it's a Quad 2 loss. Should the Knights — who still have to play Iowa State, Houston and TCU — drop below the 76 spot, it'll turn into a Quad 3 loss, a big boo-boo when it comes to seeding.
For Texas Tech, it's about padding the resume. For Texas, it's about keeping itself in the NCAA Tournament conversation at all.
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Score prediction: Texas Tech 77, Texas 70
Bottom line:A lot of it hinges on the availability of Washington and McMillian, who McCasland said will be game-time decisions on Tuesday.
Big 12 Men's Basketball
Texas at Texas Tech
When: Tuesday, 8 p.m.
Where: United Supermarkets Arena
TV: ESPN
Records: Texas Tech 19-8, 8-6; Texas 17-10, 6-8
Notable: Texas Tech has defeated Texas seven of the last eight times the Longhorns have paid Lubbock a visit, which includes the last three meetings in United Supermarkets Arena.
Big 12 Standings (Entering the week)
Team Overall Conference
Houston 24-3 11-3
Iowa State 21-6 10-4
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Kansas 21-6 9-5
TCU 19-8 8-6
Baylor 19-8 8-6
Texas Tech 19-8 8-6
Oklahoma 19-8 7-7
BYU 19-8 7-7
Texas 17-10 6-8
Kansas State 16-11 6-8
Cincinnati 16-11 5-9
UCF 14-12 5-9
Oklahoma State 12-15 4-10
West Virginia 9-18 4-10
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech basketball hosts Texas: Scouting report, predictions
