The No. 10 Texas Tech Red Raiders could possibly return home from their trip to Baton Rouge for their SEC/Big 12 Challenge matchup with LSU losers of three straight. Should that be the case, college hoops bettors will be lining up in droves to get a piece of Chris Beard’s squad on Big Monday thinking there’s no shot the team drops four in a row as competitive a brand of ball the team’s been playing of late. However, Lon Kruger’s No. 24 ranked Oklahoma Sooners have been playing some lights ball of their own having rattled off four straight wins against TCU, K-State, Kansas and Texas. Tech has won two of the last three meetings, but failed to log a single cover in each winning the pair by an average of just 5.0 points per game. Boomer Sooner and the Red Raiders have also played to defensive slugfests recently with each of the last five combining to average just 125.4 points to easily cash under tickets at online sportsbooks each time.
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Odds Analysis
Since dropping back-to-back decisions on the road at Baylor and Kansas, OU has completely turned its season around rattling off four straight wins and covers to become a player in the Big 12 title race. The Pomeroy Ratings currently have Austin Reaves and company ranked out as the No. 20 team in the country with top-40 offensive and defensive efficiencies. It does however possess losing 2-3 SU and ATS marks on the road, but will invade Lubbock winners of two straight. Texas Tech rates out as the 12th ranked team in the country per KenPom, and has efficiency ratings at both ends of the court ranked amongst the top-25. Tech has come out victorious in seven of its 10 played home games (4-6 ATS) with the losses incurred against Kansas, Oklahoma State and Baylor. The Red Raiders last covered a home game back on December 6 when they throttled Grambling as 32-point favorites. It’ll return home having failed to cover six straight.
Oklahoma Sooners
What a turn of events that’s gone down in Norman since the Sooners suffered a tough 63-59 loss in the Phog against a Jayhawks squad it had on the ropes but failed to administer the knockout blow against to ultimately win the game. That tough to stomach defeat saw them wax both TCU and K-State immediately after by an average of 31 points per game before avenging that loss to Kansas back home winning 75-68 as short 1-point home dogs. It then went on the road and outlasted the undermanned No. 5 Texas Longhorns 80-79 to secure a fourth straight win and cover. This stop in Lubbock will undoubtedly be difficult a game removed from battling the ninth ranked Alabama Crimson Tide back home in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge on Saturday afternoon.
Texas Tech Red Raiders
The Red Raiders will enter Saturday’s road tilt at LSU losers of two straight after dropping successive decisions to Baylor and West Virginia at home and on the road respectively. While the loss to the No. 2 Bears is acceptable, the loss a few days later in Morgantown simply was not. After battling back from a first half deficit to knot the score at 39 at the break, Tech seemingly took control of the game early in the second half and looked primed to log a solid road win. It wasn’t meant to be. Leading 75-63 with just over seven minutes remaining, the Red Raiders were simply unable to seal the deal in allowing WVU to climb all the way back before conceding the game-winning shot to Miles McBride in the game’s closing moments. Most bothersome was Tech’s wretched 3-point defense allowing yet another opponent to scorch them from deep. The Mounty’s converted 12 of 19 shots from beyond the arc!
Oklahoma vs. Texas Tech Prediction
This Big Monday battle should find the Red Raiders laying around 5-6 points with the total lined in the upper 130s to low 140s. These teams played to a competitive 69-67 final won by Texas Tech at the Lloyd Noble Center back on December 22. Mac McClung, Terrence Shannon Jr. and Marcus Santos-Silva combined for 80 percent of Texas Tech’s points, while De’Vion Harmon, Reaves and Umoja Gibson were the only players on the Sooners roster to log double-digits. Tech shot a blistering 49 percent from the field, but lost the rebounding battle 29-26 and converted on just 4 of 14 shots from beyond the arc. The game went down to the wire with OU having a shot to either tie the game or take the lead on 10 possessions over the course of the second half. It was never able to do so. I’m still not sold on this Texas Tech team. As great an addition McClung has been, it hasn’t amounted into much success in conference play with the team just 4-4 SU and 2-6 ATS. I like how OU has looked of late, and though they’re in the midst of a hellacious run through the schedule taking on ranked opponents just about every step of the way, I prefer them plus the points in the rematch regardless of them dropping five straight and going 1-3-1 ATS in their last five visits to United Supermarkets Arena.
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