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Texas Tech basketball has lost its edge. Red Raiders need to find it on final road swing | Giese
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- Texas Tech basketball has lost its edge. Red Raiders need to find it on final road swing | Giese
The end of the regular season is fast approaching, and the Texas Tech basketball's team outlook has become a bit cloudy.
February was a brutal month for the Red Raiders , featuring a team-wide sickness, injuries to two of their top six players and a 3-5 record that now has Texas Tech looking like a shell of itself. With three regular-season games left, just about every possible seed in the Big 12 Tournament is still up for grabs for the Red Raiders except for four: the top two and the bottom two.
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Houston and Iowa State have proven to be the best teams in the conference, so barring some drastic drop-offs down the stretch, those schools will be the ones to decide the league championship and the top seed heading to Kansas City in about 10 days.
West Virginia and Oklahoma State, meanwhile, could move up a bit in the standings, but the Mountaineers and Cowboys have proven to be the worst teams in the conference. They're battling UCF and Cincinnati — teams that dealt Texas Tech losses in February — for the bottom two spots in the standings.
Texas Tech is among the other 10 teams jumbled together with third and 10th place separated by just two games. The Red Raiders are also in a spot where, if they don't act now, supplies for a double bye are running out. There's still a chance teams like Tech and BYU have to play on the tournament's first day, where the bottom four teams play each other to get their Wednesday matchups.
More: Grant McCasland takes the blame for Texas Tech basketball getting 'embarrassed' by Texas
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In short, as much as some see the Red Raiders as a lock to make the NCAA Tournament , there are no givens at this point. Drop down to the 11th seed in their own conference and, well, Grant McCasland's main goal of going dancing in Year One comes into jeopardy.
This is where Texas Tech's final road swing of the season, which should've been an afterthought, has now come into the forefront. The Red Raiders head to Morgantown for their only matchup with West Virginia on Saturday before going to Stillwater for their second contest against Oklahoma State on Tuesday.
The Mountaineers and Cowboys may be the conference's doormats, but both have shown an ability to play major spoilers this year. West Virginia has already knocked off teams like Kansas and Texas at home. Oklahoma State went 3-4 last month after losing second-leading scorer Bryce Thompson to injury. Three of those losses were by single digits.
Still, there's a reason those two teams are at the bottom of the conference. They're among the worst defensive teams in the Big 12, each allowing about 77 points or more per game. They're also the worst rebounding teams in the conference — Texas Tech is right there with them in that regard.
Texas Tech's guard Joe Toussaint (6) dribbles the ball against Texas in a Big 12 basketball game, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024, at United Supermarkets Arena.
But Texas Tech, the version that went through February crawling through the mud, even with Warren Washington on the court, can't afford to overlook anybody. The once-potent offense has become mundane. Its 3-point shooting hasn't been the strength it was in January.
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And toughness, the team's calling card for the season with the slogan "Toughest Team Wins" has been more of a taunt against the Red Raiders than a warning for what the team plans to do each game. The team can be tough. Not as much as McCasland would like, but enough that it can get the job done. That hasn't been the case much of the last month. It certainly wasn't in losses at UCF and at home against Texas.
McCasland said before the Texas loss that, in essence, the Red Raiders have lost their edge. Playing without Washington is part of it, so is the grueling nature of a 31-game schedule before even getting to the postseason. Either way, the spark that got Texas Tech to the top of the Big 12 standings is gone.
The coach is still confident in his team. Even with everything that went down against the Longhorns, McCasland was still upbeat in his postgame press conference. The smile on his face resembled the one he had after getting hammered at Houston.
More: Perhaps the Texas Tech, Texas divorce is for the best | Giese
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It's just one game in the Big 12, McCasland said after both, not wanting to make too much of any given result or another.
It's a fair and balanced way of thinking. But the Red Raiders need to ramp back up before it's too late.
Taken as a whole, the Red Raiders are still good, and capable of doing everything that got them here again. February can be seen as a blip in the radar, a necessary struggle to get the team back into its groove. Or it could be a sign that the cracks have widened and can't be repaired.
Whichever it is, we'll know a lot more by the time the Red Raiders return home next week.
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Trends to watch
The Mountaineers are just 1-6 in their last seven games, the win coming at home against UCF. Texas Tech has lost three of its last four games.
West Virginia's leading scorer Raequan Battle (16.9 points/game) has scored 21 points or more in four of the last five games.
Texas Tech has failed to reach 70 points in a game six times this season, including the last two, and is 2-4 in those contests.
The Red Raiders have shot below 32% from 3-point range in each of the last four games.
Score prediction: Texas Tech 72, West Virginia 71
Bottom line:The Red Raiders got back on track with its 3-point defense against Texas, which will need to continue against the top 3-point shooting team in Big 12 play — WVU has hit 37.5% of its 3s in league action.
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Big 12 Men's Basketball
Texas Tech at West Virginia
When: Saturday, 5 p.m.
Where: WVU Coliseum; Morgantown, W.V.
TV: ESPN2
Records: Texas Tech 19-9, 8-7; West Virginia 9-19, 4-11
Notable: The game will mark Joe Toussaint's return to Morgantown, where he spent last year playing for the Mountaineers.
Big 12 Standings
Team Overall Conference
Houston 25-3 12-3
Iowa State 22-6 11-4
Kansas 21-7 9-6
Baylor 20-8 9-6
Texas Tech 19-9 8-7
BYU 20-8 8-7
TCU 19-9 8-7
Texas 18-10 7-8
Oklahoma 19-9 7-8
Kansas State 17-11 7-8
UCF 15-12 6-9
Cincinnati 16-12 5-10
Oklahoma State 12-16 4-11
West Virginia 9-19 4-11
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech basketball has lost its edge. Red Raiders need to find it again soon
