Men’s Oklahoma basketball is back on the hardwood on Tuesday, hosting 15th-ranked Texas Tech.
It will be the Sooners second Big 12 action of the season, and perhaps their biggest test of the season so far. Oklahoma takes a 5-1 record into Tuesday night’s contest at Lloyd Noble Center, and is coming off of two straight wins last week after suffering its first loss of the season, losing 99-77 to Xavier the week before.
Texas Tech is 6-2 this season, the two losses coming against then-No. 17 Houston and last week in a 58-57 heartbreaker against No. 5 Kansas.
Oklahoma is 10-8 all-time against the Red Raiders in the Lon Kruger era and 7-2 at home. The home team has won nine of the last 10 meetings in this series. The only time the road team has won over that span was in 2018-19 when Texas Tech defeated the Sooners in Norman. That was the same season that the Red Raiders made it all the way to the Final Four before losing in the national championship game to Virginia.
The Sooners are averaging 85.3 points a game and have two of the top-five scorers in the Big 12. Brady Manek is averaging 16.7 points a game and Austin Reaves is right there with him at 16.3 per game. But Oklahoma doesn’t just rely on its two senior leaders. The Sooners have received good production from the supporting cast, with eight different players reaching double digits in the scoring column.
Oklahoma will need all the offense it can muster against a very good Texas Tech defense that is limiting opponents to 52 points a game.
Texas Tech is led by junior guard Mac McClung, who transferred from Georgetown, and Terrence Shannon Jr. McClung averages 15.0 points and Shannon 13.0.
Fast-break points
- Oklahoma has scored at least 38 points in every half through six games.
- Brady Manek averages three three-pointers per game, best in the best 12, and is fourth in three-point field goal percentage (45.0).
- The Sooners’ 10.5 turnovers per game leads the Big 12 and is 22nd nationally.
- Oklahoma is 21-1 the last two seasons when it shoots a better field-goal percentage than its opponent.
- Oklahoma averages just 13 personal fouls per game, the fifth fewest in the country and tops in the Big 12.