Preview and Game Day Thread: Oregon St. Beavers vs. Texas Tech Red Raiders

Game Day Stat:

Oregon St.: The Beavers are struggling to score, averaging only 0.81 points per posession, against relatively lower teams like TAMU-CC and South Dakota. Remember, a PPP of 1.00+ is good, and through their first 2 games, Oregon St. is struggling to put the ball in the hoop. In fact, no Oregon St. player is averaging over double figures for thus far this year.

Texas Tech: It's early, but with Oregon St.'s struggles offensively, the Red Raiders have made some improvement defensively, holding opponents to a 38.8% effective FG% and to 0.71 points per possession. As previously mentioned, it's early, and two games against opponents who are not likely to be in the top 25 by the end of the year isn't a true barometer, but the results are encouraging.

Players Focus:

Oregon St.: C Roeland Schaftenaar (6-11/240) averaged over 10 points and close to 4 boards a game last year. Early in this season, he's doing about the same thing, and he might be one of those players where he is what he is, but this might be a good test for Texas Tech's Darko Cohadarevic, who appears to be a completely different player from last year to this year.

Texas Tech: I thought that last year, especially early, F D'walyn Roberts was pretty good, and the same thing is happening this year as well. Early this season, Roberts has been consistently good, averaging 10.5 points; 6 rebounds; and 2.0 blocks a game. I was unsure as to what Roberts role would be this season with the influx of new players, but Roberts should be a big part of this team and although he's' received little ink, he's been pretty good.

Notable Note:

Oregon St.: The Beavers has a pair of brothers on their squad, G Josh Tarver and G/F Seth Tarver, both are seniors and both start.

Texas Tech: G Nick Okorie sat out last night's win against TAMU-CC and received a DNP. I haven't read anything where he may be injured, but it is certainly curious as to why he didn't play last night.

Needs Repair:

Oregon St.: Someone just needs to absolutely go off for Oregon St. The struggles to score are across the board for the Beavers, although you could argue that Seth Tarver has been the most effectie player thus far offensively. Still, the Beavers need for someone to step up offensively and throw in 20 points to keep this game close.

Texas Tech: I hope like hell I'm not talking about this statistic all season, but the Red Raiders only had 12 assists to 13 turnovers. The biggest offenders were SF Mike Singletary (5) and PG John Roberson (3). Singletary has always been a bit careless with the ball, and both Singletary and Roberson had 1:1 ratios for the game, but I'd still lie to see the assists a tick or two above the current 1:1 ratio for the season.

GO RAIDERS . . .