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Game Day Vitals
- West Virginia Mountaineers (9-5, 1-0 Big XII) @ Texas Tech Red Raiders (8-6, 0-1 Big XII)
- Series Record: 3-1, last meeting was in Big XII conference tournament, ended on buzzer beater 71-69
- Location: United Spirit Arena (Capacity: 15,020) Lubbock, Texas
- Vegas Lines: (-1) for the good guys O/U: 142.0
- Date: Monday, January 6th, 2013 at 7:00 pm EST
- Television: Big XII Network / ESPN3 / WatchESPN
- Stations carrying the game locally include: MASN (Capital region), PCNC (Pittsburgh), WIYE-My 5 (Parkersburg), WVFX (North Central West Virginia), WQCW (Charleston-Huntington), and WTOV-DT2 (Northern Panhandle).
- O/U on Tubby/GG Smith name drops: 2.5 (GG Smith coaches the Loyola MD squad WVU played earlier)
- Radio Affiliates
Opponent Information
(click to embiggen)
- Texas Tech Red Raiders (8-6, 0-1 Big XII)
- Conference - Big XII
- Head Coach - Tubby Smith (yeah, that one), First year at Texas Tech, 513–230 (.690) for career
- Last Result - Loss vs. #13 Iowa State in Lubbock 73-62
- Official Red Raiders athletics website
- SBN Texas Tech blog - Viva the Matadors
Twitter with Jaye Crockett
Senior forward Jaye Crockett is a true threat on this Texas Tech team. He does, however, spit the truth every once and a while on Twitter.
How you expect to get a bf and half the football team knows you have a temperpedic mattress ?
— Jaye Crockett (@jcrockett30) January 8, 2013
Boom. Exceptional subtweet. Makes me wonder if she has the Raider Rash.
Game Preview
After a nice road win in Fort Worth and past opponents doing well (Missouri being 12-1 and Wisconsin continuing their absolute rampage,) WVU is sitting at a decent spot of RPI 68 after being in triple digits last week. A win tonight would certainly improve the ranking further, but a loss might bring us back into the 90s.
As for the Red Raiders themselves, they have already improved under the first few months of Tubby Smith's tutelage. One area that Texas Tech is proficient in is scoring in the paint with 6-7 forwards Jaye Crockett and Jordan Tolbert. Between the two upperclassmen, they average 25 points and 12 rebounds. However, outside these two dynamic big men, the Red Raiders lack the spark to put them over the edge and have yet to beat any quality teams. Texas Tech does shoot 48% from the field with their high percentage shots in transition, but they are in the low 200s nationally for rebounding and only average 73.5 points a game.
The key to this game for the Mountaineers is to not allow second chance points. This should be an good game to see how much Devin Williams and Brandon Watkins have matured thus far with interior defense being the Red Raiders main point of attack. The Eers guards will have to remain disciplined to not commit those touch fouls when providing help underneath. As long as West Virginia can stay out of foul trouble, the front court should be able to do wonders. Look for Juwan Staten to have another double-double.
Prediction: WVU 75 TTU 68