No. 20 Texas Tech men\u2019s basketball will face the University of Wyoming at 2 p.m. Sunday in the United Supermarkets Arena with an emphasis on improved transition play off of defensive possessions.<\/p>\n
The Red Raiders brought down 29 defensive rebounds against the University of New Orleans Wednesday afternoon, but head coach Grant McCasland said he didn\u2019t see enough aggressiveness transition to offense. Regardless, Tech beat the Privateers by 32 points.<\/p>\n
McCasland said Wyoming\u2019s offensive presence will be a factor in Sunday\u2019s contest, and the Red Raiders will need to raise their effort defensively to get the victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor us, it\u2019s like, how can we have more energy and be more competitive and be tougher defensively that can keep creating opportunities for us offensively?\u201d McCasland said.<\/p>\n
The Cowboys have a 6-1 record with the No. 36-ranked scoring margin in the country at 18.1 points, compared to Tech\u2019s scoring margin of 10.7 points. With that margin of victory, Wyoming is No. 7 in the nation in points scored off the bench with 43 per game, according to NCAA statistics.<\/p>\n
Wyoming\u2019s leading scorer, senior guard Leland Walker, averages 12.6 points per game for the Cowboys. Walker spent his first two collegiate seasons at Eastern Kentucky University before playing last season at Florida Atlantic University.<\/p>\n
Comparatively, Tech\u2019s leading scorer, junior forward JT Toppin, ranks No. 18 in the country with 21.6 points per game. Additionally, Toppin is No. 5 in rebounds per game with 11.3, according to NCAA statistics.<\/p>\n
McCasland praised Wyoming\u2019s coaching staff for the Cowboys’ offensive output and said Wyoming is a team that can provide good experience on the defensive end for Tech.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just know that they\u2019ve got a team that on any given night, because they\u2019re well-coached, they can score enough on you to beat you, and they\u2019re going to be tough,\u201d McCasland said.<\/p>\n
The Cowboys and Red Raiders do have some familiarity besides playing one another in non-conference play last season.<\/p>\n
Current Wyoming head coach Sundance Wicks served on Tech assistant coach Jeff Linder\u2019s staff from 2020-23 while Linder was the head coach of Wyoming. In 2024, Wicks spent a season as the leading man at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay before returning to the Cowboys.<\/p>\n
McCasland said he\u2019s known Linder since the two were coaches together at Midland College from 2004-06. He said Linder\u2019s been not only a friend but a valuable asset to the Red Raiders\u2019 coaching staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know coach Linder\u2019s the best man,\u201d McCasland said. \u201c \u2026 I think we\u2019ve got the best coaches, and I\u2019m not talking about myself. I think we got the best coaches, and our staff is really prepared and has done a phenomenal job.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Red Raiders\u2019 and Cowboys\u2019 matchup will be streamed on ESPN+ with live statistics and ticketing options found on the Tech Athletics website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No. 20 Texas Tech men\u2019s basketball will face the University of Wyoming at 2 p.m. Sunday in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70808,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[168,170,169,34692,154],"class_list":["post-70807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lubbock","tag-lubbock","tag-lubbock-headlines","tag-lubbock-news","tag-mens_basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70807\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}