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Oklahoma basketball: Sooners will need a complete game at Texas Tech

By Chip Rouse

LUBBOCK, TX - JANUARY 08: Jamal Bieniemy #24 of the Oklahoma Sooners looks to shoot the ball against Davide Moretti #25 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders during the second half of the game on January 8, 2019 at United Supermarkets Arena in Lubbock, Texas. Texas Tech defeated Oklahoma 66-59. (Photo by John Weast/Getty Images)
LUBBOCK, TX - JANUARY 08: Jamal Bieniemy #24 of the Oklahoma Sooners looks to shoot the ball against Davide Moretti #25 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders during the second half of the game on January 8, 2019 at United Supermarkets Arena in Lubbock, Texas. Texas Tech defeated Oklahoma 66-59. (Photo by John Weast/Getty Images) /
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For the last 24 hours at least,are all the energy and attention at Texas Tech has been far removed from hosting the Oklahoma basketball team on Tuesday night.

The football season, which ended in Lubbock over two months ago, rose from the ashes on Sunday when former Red Raiders quarterback and superstar Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs won  Super Bowl LIV.

It wouldn’t surprise me to see Mahomes in the stands at United Supermarkets Arena Tuesday night — probably as a stopover on the way to Disneyland after being named Super Bowl MVP — cheering on his alma mater. Fortunately for Oklahoma, Mahomes won’t be playing in the game, but the Red Raiders have generated plenty of magic of their own this college basketball season.

Oklahoma and Texas Tech are among four teams tied for fourth place in the Big 12 with 4-4 records halfway through the conference season. The Red Raiders, co-league champions a year ago, are one of college basketball’s biggest enigmas this season. Their 13-8 season record is a serious misrepresentation of how good a team the Red Raiders’ actually are.

Oklahoma leads the all-time series with the Red Raiders

Among the Red Raiders’ 13 wins is a 13-point victory over then-No. 1 Louisville. Their losses include narrow defeats to No. 1 Baylor, No. 15 Kentucky and on Saturday at No. 3 Kansas by a combined 10 points.

Texas Tech may have come up just short against several ranked opponents, but it has mopped up against lesser competition, as good teams should.

Oklahoma leads the all-time series with the Red Raiders 39-26, but Tech has held serve on its home hardwood with a record of 17-13, including four consecutive wins over the Sooners.

The home team has won seven of the last eight games in this series. Oklahoma’s last win in Lubbock was in 2015, a four-point, 79-75 overtime victory.

With Brady Manek, Kristian Doolittle and Austin Reaves all averaging at least14 points a game, Oklahoma is one of just two teams from major conferences that can make that claim. Manek has scored 18 or more points in four of the Sooners’ last five games.

The Red Raiders don’t have a trio of scorers in the top 10 in the Big 12. What they do have, however, is four starters averaging at least 11.6 points, and a fifth starter averaging 9.1 points a game.

Jahmi’us Ramsey leads the Red Raiders with 15.9 scoring average, fourth best in the Big 12, and is also a major three-point threat, ringing up 43 percent of his three-ball attempts.

Texas Tech is one of the youngest teams in the Big 12 with only two seniors on the roster. The Red Raiders have a lot of experience on the floor, though, in junior Davide Moretti, who has played in 95 games for Tech and come away with 71 wins.

Moretti is the team’s second leading scorer, with a 13.5 average and ranks ninth all-time at Texas Tech with 145 made three-pointers. He is not the player you want to have at the free-throw line late in the game if you are a Sooner fan. Moretti leads the Big 12 and is fifth nationally with a free-throw percentage of .920.

To win this game, first and foremost the Sooners are going to have to make shots. They cannot afford to go into long scoring droughts. And they will need big games from at least two if not all of their big three (Manek, Doolittle and Reaves). When OU shoots a better field-goal percentage than its opponent, the Sooners are 12-1 this season.

A couple of other interesting stats to keep in mind:

  • Oklahoma is 13-4 when it holds its opponent under 80 points.
  • The Sooners are 8-1 when they outrebound their opponent.
  • OU is 3-0 this season in games decided by two or fewer points.

Bottom line

Although the Sooners have won on the road in the Big 12 this season (at Texas), they have not played particularly well in conference games away from home the past several seasons. Texas Tech is one of the more difficult road venues in the Big 12 and, although I hate to admit it, the Red Raiders are a better team than Oklahoma.

OU presently is on the bubble as far as making the NCAA Tournament and could really use a road win at Texas Tech to boost its postseason resume. It won’t happen this time…maybe later when the two team get together in a rematch in Oklahoma City (Feb. 25).

Texas Tech 74, Oklahoma 65

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