It’s a home floor that the Kansas Jayhawks control a 50-game home win streak on, and it is arguably the most overwhelming place to play in all of college basketball.
If Tech is to get the job done in Lawrence, KS it will be using every Red Raider at their disposal. In Tech’s 77-76 win over No. 7 West Virginia, one of the greatest keys was being able to keep pace with the rotation of WVU’s head coach Bob Huggins.
Texas Tech’s head coach Chris Beard said ahead of this matchup against No. 3 Kansas, that being able to rely upon that depth once again will be paramount.
“I have no plan to play with Kansas with seven, eight, nine guys,” Beard said. “The only plan I have is to have all eleven of our guys playing as well as they possibly can.”
At the beginning of the season, you might remember that Beard said that it should be his team’s expectation to shoot 50-percent from the field. Something that if I’m honest with you, I laughed at, and shrugged off at the time. However, 14 games in, Tech is one of just 11 teams in all Division I to be shooting 50-percent or better. The Red Raiders rank fourth nationally in field goal percentage (51.4%), which is actually one spot better than Kansas (51.2%), and it’s something that has certainly caught the eye of Kansas’ head coach Bill Self.
“They’ve got two unbelievable stats. Their team offensive field goal percentage, and then their team defensive rebounding percentage,” Self said. “They’re not allowing anyone to get to the offensive glass on them, and they’ve got some big guys that can score. They just have really good balance.”
If that balance can lead to a win in Lawrence, it will do more than just snap the Jayhawks’ 50-game home win streak, but it would mark the Red Raiders first ever win at Phog Allen Fieldhouse.
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