2012-13 UNO Men’s Basketball – Game 3 Preview – Texas Tech

Well we know now that Saint Mary was a disappointing evening. Do we know much more than we knew Sunday evening? No, welcome to life at a smaller school. Can’t count on the media to ask the questions you have because there aren’t enough fans to demand it. So we’ll go with what we have and hope to learn more when the game tips off on Wednesday in Lubbock. This one is on TV (DirectTV channel 677 – Fox Southwest Plus) and hopefully I can watch it somewhere!

Texas Tech

Anyone ever heard of Texas Tech? Didn’t think so. I had to do a lot of digging to find out anything about them… Texas Tech is a newer school, founded as Texas Technological College in 1923. They changed the name to Texas Tech University in 1969 and has continued to grow since then. It now is home to over 32,000 students including 26,000 undergraduates. Only 36 times the size of Saint Mary…

There are many notable alumni from Wes Welker and Danny Amendola in the NFL to Dallas Braden in MLB. The NBA is home to former Red Raider Tony Battie and women’s basketball star Sheryl Swoopes played her college ball in Lubbock. Non-athletics alumni are numerous but finding one you might know of is always a challenge. Poker player Todd Brunson attended but did not graduate. Fox News correspondent Jim Angle graduated from Texas Tech in 1969. Some musician named John Denver also went there.

Lubbock is home to around 230,000 and I went there this summer! It’s pretty flat and feels like it’s in the middle of nowhere. I think Omahans would like it as it feels like a nice city that is big but not too big. It’s notable for being the birthplace of Buddy Holly and several country musicians, as hard that is to believe.

Texas Tech spent 24 years in the Border Intercollegiate Athletic Association starting in 1932. You’ve never heard of the conference but you’ve heard of some of the members: Arizona State, Northern Arizona, New Mexico, New Mexico State, UTEP, Hardin-Simmons (D3 school), and West Texas A&M (Division 2 school UNO one played in the Kanza Bowl in 2009). In 1956 the Ted Raiders moved into the legendary Southwest Conference with schools such as Arkansas, Baylor, Rice, Texas, Texas A&M, SMU, and TCU. The Southwest Conferenced ended in 1996 when four of those schools left to join the newly formed Big 12.

Texas Tech won six BIAA regular season titles, seven regular season SWC titles, and five SWC conference tournaments. In their first 15 tries at the Big 12 Tech has yet to win anything with their best finish being a tie for 3rd in 2001-02. They’ve made the NCAA tournament 14 times reaching the Sweet Sixteen five times and never advancing past that. They haven’t been to the NCAA tournament since 2007 and have gone a woeful 20-64 in the Big XII over the last five years.

Texas Tech has had some…. problems this last offseason. Allegations of Billy Gillispie forcing injured players to practice, promising coaching jobs to coaches he never delivered led to him resigning in September. Chris Walker took over as the interim coach and will get his first try at head coaching after stints on the staffs at Loyola Marymount, Vanderbilty, Pepperdine, Villanova, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Villanova, and Texas Tech.

Texas Tech got a home win in their first game of the year, 89-79 vs. Prairie View A&M. Texas Tech wad led by Jordan Tolbert’s 16 points, Jamal Williams Jr.’s 15 and Daylen Robinson’s 14. They got seven rebounds from Tolbert and Dejan Kravic.  Texas Tech shot just over 50% from the field and 30% from three and had a 13 point lead at the half which got as low as six but never any lower.

Texas Tech has played Omaha before one time, in 1941 on the 10th of December in Lubbock. Texas Tech won 42-31.

Starters: 
Guard – Josh Gray – 6-1 – Freshman – Lake Charles, Louisiana – Averaging 10 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists.
Guard – Jamal Williams – 6-4 – Junior – Brooklyn, New York – Averaging 15 points, 6 rebounds and 2 assists.
Guard – Toddrick Gotcher – 6-4 – Redshirt Freshman – Garland, Texas – Averaging 8 points, 2 rebounds, and 26 minutes.
Forward – Jordan Tolbert – 6-7 – Sophomore – Fort Worth, Texas – Averaging 16 points, 7 rebounds and 2 steals.
Forward – Dejan Kravic – 6-11 – Junior – London, Ontario – Averaging 9 points, 7 rebounds and 5 blocks.

Omaha

Omaha is now 1-1 on the year and looking to respond after a disappointing showing on Sunday night against Saint Mary. I’ve expressed doubts that Justin Simmons would start (as a response to the technical foul/kicked ball incident on Sunday night). We really have no way of knowing because there hasn’t been much media coverage. The game notes still list him as a probable starter but I’m putting my money on Alex Phillips starting instead. We’ll see.

Starters:
Guard – CJ Carter – 6-0 – Sophomore from  Omaha, Neb. – Averaging 12 points, 2 rebounds and 4 assists.
Guard – Justin Simmons – 6-3 – Junior from Milwaukee, Wis. – Averaging 8.5 points, 4.5 rebounds and 4 assists.
Forward – Alex Welhouse – 6-7 – Senior from Kaukauna, Wis. – Averaging 10.5 points, 5 rebounds and 1.5 steal.
Forward – Koang Duluony – 6-4 – Senior from Omaha, Neb. – Averaging 7 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.5 steal.
Center – John Karhoff – 6-8 – Junior from Omaha, Neb. – Averaging 15 points, 5 rebounds and 1.5 assists.

3 Things to watch:
1) FT Shooting – One thing that can help calm a team on the road and keep a game close is free throw shooting. If Omaha could get to the line more than Texas Tech and hit their shots it would give them a big boost in their upset bid. Texas Tech did foul Prairie View A&M 26 times and sent them to the line for 34 free throws. Omaha had 27 free throws against Saint Mary and 31 against Northern Illinois. Their offense can lead to a lot of free throws with a lot of driving to the basket and hopefully tonight they shoot even better than they have so far (67%).  Of course Tech is likely to get a lot of free throws too so this factor might be mostly a wash.

2.) Omaha’s Achilles’ Heels (Turnovers and Defensive Rebounding) – It’s hard not to put these in here since they are clearly two of Omaha’s big problems right now. 18 turnovers in the first game and 20 in the second, numbers that repeated tonight will probably lead to a loss. 12 offensive rebounds given up in each of the first two games, the opponent grabbing 34% of all the shots they miss. Texas Tech was great on the offensive glass against Prairie View A&M when they grabbed 40.7% of all their missed shots. Lot of concern with these two statistics for me going into tonight. Definite blowout potential if Texas Tech wins these two areas decisively.

3.) Rest/Rotation – This one is in here largely for the Justin Simmons factor. He traveled with the team but will his role be altered after Sunday’s performance? Sunday in the second half Alex Phillips played 18 minutes and led the Mavericks scored 10 points. Marcus Tyus also saw as many minutes as CJ Carter in the 2nd half though he didn’t score. Were these one game aberrations or trends to follow long-term? Matt Hagerbaumer has three rebounds on Sunday night in six minutes, clearly the team’s best rebounder. Does Omaha find ways to get him into the game more to help on the boards?

Prediction: Texas Tech should find a way to win this one. A lot would have to go right for Omaha that we haven’t seen go right so far this season.  I’ll take the Red Raiders to win 86-68.

Linkage/MEDIA INFO!!!:
Omaha.com Preview
Omavs.com Preview
TexasTech.com Preview
Live Stats
Live Audio
Live Video ($10)
TV – Fox Sports SW Plus – Direct TV channel 677
Radio – 1620 AM (Robert Ford on the call)

Sounds like CoverItLive has changed their product and are now looking at a pay model… not happening here.  If you want to tweet about the game at all you can tweet at me @maverickmaniacs and we can chat that way :). If anyone would like to join me for the game I’ll be at Old Chicago at 144th and Center to watch :).

I’d recommend following myself (@MaverickManiacs) or UNO’s Basketball twitter account (@UNO_Basketball) for updates.

Go Mavs!