Texas Tech Red Raiders vs. Indiana St. Sycamores | Game Preview

WHAT TO EXPECT

TOYING WITH THE STARTING FIVE | The Texas Tech starting five will probably be relatively fluid for some time. I'm fine with that as this is such a new group and maybe other than Lew, I don't expect much continuity, although Tolbert and Gotcher are making a case to remain in the starting five for the time being and I still think it's a matter of time before F Jaye Crockett is inserted in the starting lineup. And Lew's spot isn't safe either as Crockett could easily take that spot, but I think BCG wants to give Lew the benefit of the doubt and that his game against SFA was the exception, not the norm.

LOW SCORING AFFAIRS | ISU isn't a high scoring team and have won some relatively low scoring games. The Sycamores are not a great shooting team with an eFG% of 48.8% compared to Texas Tech's 62.3 eFG%. Texas Tech has been a good shooting team thus far, but I don't know if it's because Texas Tech hasn't faced a traditionally tough defense. This tournament, the Old Spice Classic, should answer some questions about whether or not Texas Tech really is that good of a shooting team and they've benefited from playing on their home court for the first three games or if this is what we might be able to expect. ISU and TTU both hold opposing offenses to a eFG% of around 44%, so they're similar teams in that respect and would guess that if Texas Tech can have a decent shooting night, the Red Raiders should prevail.

KEY MATCHUPS

SMALL GUARDS VS. BIG GUARDS | If BCG rolls out with a lineup of Wagner and Willis, then you could see this go a couple of ways in that either the smaller guards for TTU could give the bigger guards for ISU a bit of trouble, or the bigger guards for ISU could shoot over the Texas Tech guards. Willis, Wagner and Ty Nurse need to go out and make sure that Printy doesn't get many open looks and although G Dwayne Lathan doesn't start, he's averaging in double-figures and the 2nd leading scorer. Both Lathan and Odum get to the line quite a bit, so the guards will need to get out on them, but cannot let them drive to the bucket and the help defense needs to be there to support as well. I'd also expect, as long as practice has gone well, that SG DeShon Minnis will get some minutes as a defensive specialist as well as the versatile F Terran Petteway.

LEW VS. THE WORLD | After a pitiful game against SFA, where Lew should have dominated, he should send a message to his team and ISU that he won't let that sort of game happen twice in a row, a game where he didn't score, had 1 rebound and 5 fouls. He has to be better than that. This team will be so much better if Lew establishes himself and although he was trying to go over the top to defend the SFA players, he needs to be smart. He doesn't have the quickness to do that, but he should be able to guard most players based on his height alone.