#12 Kansas Looks To Keep Title Streak Alive Against #14 Texas Tech

Location: United Supermarket Arena. Lubbock,TX

Date and Time: February, 23rd. 8 PM EST. ESPN

All-Time Series: Kansas Leads 35-5.

Background Information:

Kansas’s dynasty of the early 2000’s all the way till now will go down as one of the best in College Basketball’s history. And Kansas has been somewhat limping throughout the season with guys expected to play and big time minutes have been either suspended or injured.

Silvio De Sousa hasn’t played all season due to a financial allegation with receiving grants and money from the school. Preseason First Team All-Big 12 Udoka Azubuike. Udoka came down with a season ending injury. As well as Guard KJ Lawson has had to deal with injuries as well. Even with all of that, Kansas is still right in the hunt for a 15th consecutive Big 12 Championship.

Memphis Transfer, Dedric Lawson as been fantastic and is up there for the Naismith Award with 19.2 PPG and 10.3 RPG. Someone that has stepped up in a huge way is G Ochai Agbaji. The Freshman’s minutes have become huge down the stretch with Azubuike and Lawson’s injuries as he Agbaji has averaged 10.8 points per contest and 5 rebounds.

Chris Beard in just 3 short seasons has turned Texas Tech from the laughing stock of the Big 12 all the way to a conference championship contender. Beard led Tech in 2017-2018 to 27-10 record and a Elite Eight Appearance. This season, he has Tech ranked in the Top 15 and a 9-4 conference record (Tied for 2nd with Kansas).

Jarrett Culver will end up being a Top 5 player in the Big 12 once the season is over and David Moretti has been shooting the ball lights out all season long (44% from long range). Minnesota Transfer Matt Mooney, has been playing well, but I thought he’d have more of a scoring presence than he does. But in the end, he has played well.

This game has huge implications, not for just each team, but for the rest of the conference. Kansas State has a one game lead over Kansas and Texas Tech and with a Tech win and a K-State win on Saturday over Oklahoma State will put the Wildcats 2 games above the Jayhawks. And with a home win already against KU, they don’t necessarily have to beat KU to win the conference with the lead they could have.

Keys to a win for Kansas:

Kansas is a really good defensive rebounding team as they rank in the Top 40 in that category. Getting second chances will be huge for this team as Tech bolsters the #2 Defense in the entire nation and can lock you down at some points.

There’s only one player from Tech that plays a considerable amount of minutes and is over 6-8 (Tariq Owens). With a hostile environment, I don’t expect Kansas to catch fire from the field, so crashing the glass and creating second chance opportunities will be crucial for the Jayhawks)

Keys to a win for Texas Tech:

Like mentioned above, Texas Tech’s true strength is defense as they give up just 57.2 PPG. They had a game where they gave up 45 points to Kansas State At Manhattan. This defense is for real. The worst loss this season was to Kansas in Lawrence, so having a repeat of that could be worrisome.

But consistent 3 point shooting from Moretti and Matt Mooney will be key to a win. Kansas will chunk up 3’s and some like Lagerald Vick and Agbaji will be able to hit some. The key is to keep up or overpass the Jayhawks in that department.

Final Verdict:

Texas Tech has a huge opportunity to not only surpass Kansas, but give themselves a legitimate chance at the Big 12 championship. With a rowdy crowd and a defensive stall, Texas Tech is able to get a big resume-building win and climbing up the Big 12 Standings. Texas Tech 68, Kansas 57.

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