Preview and Open Game Day Thread: Texas Tech vs. Oklahoma

Texas Tech Red Raiders (12-11, 2-6) vs. Oklahoma Sooners (24-1, 10-0) February 14, 2009 12:30 p.m. CST TV: Big 12 TV Game Cast: Fox Sports

The Numbers:

Probable Starting Lineups:

Preview

Morning notes not really necessary this morning, but LAJ's Jeff Walker does preview today's game and Pat Knight had high praise for Esmir Rizvic (not a typo), who may be needed today against OU:

"If everyone played as hard as (Rizvic), we wouldn’t have a lot of problems," Knight said after the game. "I thought he played really hard. He’s not going to score a lot or be a scoring threat, except for his jump shot, but he’s all over the place on defense and he played hard. He gave us a bit of a boost. "I liked what I saw out of them playing together and we’ll see how matchups are in future games. Definitely, our next game against Oklahoma we’re going to have to play two bigs so (he’ll) get a chance."

Keys to the Game:

1. Slowing Him Down: The "him" in this case is Blake Griffin, and no one has been able to slow Griffin down the entire year. Still, if perhaps Lewandowski could try and get some early fouls against Griffin, just to possibly put him on the bench. And yes, I realized there too many qualifiers in that last sentence.
2. Special Performance: If you click on the KenPom rankings you'll note that the computers are giving Texas Tech a 6% chance of winning this game. Something tells me that this is going to take a special performance from someone or two players, perhaps Voskuil and Roberson.
3. Keep Competing: It's a give-up to even type this out, but I think at this point, I just want this team to continue to compete. I'm not expecting a win in Norman, especially since the Sooners have only lost one game this season. Lowered expectations.

GO RAIDERS . . .

*Stats can be found at Ken Pomeroy: K.P. Rank = the Ken Pomeroy Rank; Offensive Efficiency = the national rank in terms of points scored per 100 possessions; Defensive Efficiency = the national rank in terms of points allowed per 100 possession. Numbers in parentheses are national rank.