Oklahoma basketball: No ifs, ands or buts, OU must defeat Texas Tech

It’s crunch time as far as Oklahoma basketball’s NCAA Tournament hopes this season are concerned. The Sooners have four regular-season games remaining and the Big 12 Tournament in which to make their case.

First up in that stretch is a home game Tuesday with 22nd-ranked Texas Tech that will be played at Chesapeake Energy Arena in downtown Oklahoma City.

The Red Raiders come to Oklahoma City with a record of 18-9 overall and 9-5 in the Big 12, good for third place currently. The Sooners own a 39-27 advantage in the all-time series between the two teams and is 24-8 when hosting Texas Tech at the Lloyd Noble Center.

Texas Tech has won its last four games against Oklahoma, including a 69-61 home win earlier this month, and five of the last six.

Even though Tuesday’s game is being played in OKC, a mere 20-minute drive from the Norman campus, it counts as a Sooner home date. OU has already played once this season at Chesapeake Arena, defeating Mississippi State, 63-62, as part of the Big 12/SEC Challenge. This will be the first Big 12 regular-season game played in an NBA arena.

Oklahoma is 6-1 under Lon Kruger in games played at Chesapeake Arena, home of the Oklahoma City Thunder of the NBA. To the Sooners’ favor, however, the home team has won eight of the last nine games in this series.

Texas Tech is the fourth ranked team Oklahoma has faced this month, with a fifth coming up on Saturday (at No. 20 West Virginia). The Sooners are 1-3 so far in that stretch.

Scouting report

Texas Tech is one of the best offensive teams in the Big 12, second only to Kansas in scoring, and they have always been solid defensively under head coach Chris Beard. A year ago, as runner-up to national champion Virginia in the NCAA Tournament, the Red Raiders were considered one of the best defensive teams in the country.

A big factor in Texas Tech’s success this season is the way the Red Raiders spread the scoring load around. Freshman Jahmi’us Ramsey leads the team, averaging 16.2 points a game. All five starters average at least 10 points per game. The Red Raiders are the best three-point-shooting team in the conference, averaging 7.3 made three-balls per game and shooting 36 percent from long range.

The Sooners’ continue to be the only Big 12 team featuring a trio of players all averaging at least 14 points a game. The problem is OU has not been able to get a big game out of more than one of the three  — Kristian Doolittle, Brady Manek and Austin Reaves — at a time. A good example of that was last Saturday in the loss at Oklahoma State. Reaves led the Sooners’ scoring with 22 points, while Manek was held to just one basket and two points.

Both Doolittle and Manek have had some big games this season, but rarely have all three Sooners scored in double figures, let alone hit their scoring average in the same game.

Scoring inconsistency has plagued Oklahoma all season. The Sooners’ offensive efficiency is one of the lowest in the conference. They own the third-worst shooting percentage (41 percent) in the Big 12 and rarely get second opportunities after a missed shot.

The Sooners are one of the best teams in the Big 12 protecting the basketball and they commit the fewest personal fouls, which could be a big factor against a good free throw-shooting team like the Red Raiders (second only to Oklahoma in free-throw percentage).

Bottom line

This is a contest that could go either way. The earlier meeting this season in Lubbock was close throughout the second half until the Red Raiders stretched the advantage to eight points late in the final minutes. Oklahoma has much more at stake than Texas Tech, but that was also the case last Saturday against Oklahoma State.

The Sooners have not played particularly well in losing three consecutive conference games. Of course, two of those losses were against the top two teams in the country. You could argue that OU played better against Kansas and Baylor, the best two teams in the Big 12, than they did in against Oklahoma State, the team with the second worst record in the conference.

Oklahoma was outmuscled, outhustled and outplayed against Oklahoma State. They can’t let that happen against Texas Tech. I’m hesitant, but I’m going with the homies in this one.

Oklahoma 66, Texas Tech 61