Game Preview :: Texas Tech Red Raiders vs. Kansas Jayhawks

The Season Thus Far: Dominating? Sure, the Jayhawks recently lost to Tennessee, but this is a very young team, and for the most part, Kansas has been nothing short of outstanding this year. Kansas hasn't had a signature win thus far, but have beaten Memphis, Michigan and California in their non-conference schedule. Kansas got back on track with a good win in Nebraska to start their conference schedule.

More preview after the jump.

The Main Players: The heart and soul of the Kansas team is Collins. Their leading scorer and he's a guy that can get hot, especially at home, and take over a game. I'm a bit surprised that Aldrich hasn't had a bigger impact, he's one of the few post players that has the ability to dominate a game inside, and he certainly does that from a rebounding perspective, averaging over 10 boards a game. Freshman Xavier Henry is a special player and making an immediate impact. X. Henry (he has a brother, C.J. Henry) was one of the best high school players last year and he may be one of those one-and-done players that jumps to the NBA after this year.

Hope that Daryl Dora Makes an Appearance: There's a very good chance that the Jayhawks could easily blow out the Red Raiders today. Against Missouri, it seemed as if the offense was stagnant for most of the first half. Bad spacing and not the best movement within the offense. Perhaps this is a situation where it is taking some time for the newcomers to integrate into the flow of the offense. Today, this team is going to have to step up, which includes getting some production from Cohadarevic and Lewandowski. It would be great to get those guys to the line and hope that Aldrich and Robinson into foul trouble. The Red Raiders play best when they get to the line, and I'd love to see that.

Focus on the D: This team is getting progressively worse on the defensive end of the floor. Of course, I mentioned that the offense seems to be struggling a bit, but when good teams struggle on offense they need to rely on the defense to get back on track. The problem with this team is that I tend to believe that Singletary typically has a tough defensive matchup because he's not as athletic as most opposing teams' small forwards. Singletary can be a tremendous inside player and a terrific rebounder, but stopping the small forward that can hit threes and drive to the bucket is the same type of player that Singletary struggles to guard.

Get to the Line . . . and Make Them: You could blame the horrific 54% free throw shooting on the Missouri loss. Guys like Singletary, Okorie and SG DavidTairu, ususally reliable at the line, make only half of their free throws and SF Theron Jenkins only made 1 of 4 free throws.