Following a late-game collapse against the University of Arkansas, No. 19 Texas Tech men\u2019s basketball will face the University of Northern Colorado at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the United Supermarkets Arena.<\/p>\n
The Red Raiders held a lead over the University of Arkansas Saturday until the 7:42 mark in the second half before ultimately falling to the Razorbacks 93-86. In those final minutes, Arkansas outscored Tech 22-16, with multiple defensive collapses aiding in the loss.<\/p>\n
Head coach Grant McCasland said Saturday\u2019s late-game defensive efforts stemmed from a preventative mindset and lack of connection.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt like we went through a phase where we were trying not to lose,\u201d McCasland said. \u201cThere was a lack of grit connected. Individual guys showed some great effort, and then collectively, maybe there\u2019s just too many minutes being played, honestly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Northern Colorado has started 9-1, which is the best start in program history, according to Northern Colorado Athletics.<\/p>\n
The two squads matched up last season in Lubbock, with the Red Raiders winning 89-64. However, that\u2019s not the only connection the two squads have, as Tech assistant coach Jeff Linder was the head coach of the Bears from 2016-20.<\/p>\n
McCasland said over the offseason, it was important for Tech to put together a competitive non-conference schedule to prepare for Big 12 play. He said Northern Colorado provides that competitive edge his squad needs to experience before conference games.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest thing for us is having a schedule that puts us in a position to win, and we got Northern Colorado, who I think is unbelievable,” McCasland said. \u201cYou look at their NET, they\u2019re one of the best teams in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Northern Colorado ranks No. 2 in the country in three-point defense, allowing opponents to shoot 24.6 percent from beyond the arc, according to NCAA Statistics.<\/p>\n
Comparatively, according to Tech Athletics, Tech averages 37.1 percent shooting from the three-point line. Senior guard Donovan Atwell and freshman guard Christian Anderson lead Tech in three-pointers.<\/p>\n
In Saturday\u2019s matchup against Arkansas, Tech allowed the Razorbacks to shoot 53 percent from the three-point line on 10-for-19 shooting. According to Tech Athletics, the only school to shoot a higher percentage than Arkansas against Tech this season was Purdue University at 57 percent.<\/p>\n
McCasland said players who haven\u2019t been with the program an extensive amount of time are still taking time to figure out the message of Tech\u2019s program. He said when times in the game get tough, it\u2019s important to embrace the adversity in an effective way.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe guys looking out there like that haven’t been a part of us, wondering how we win these games,\u201d McCasland said. \u201cHow we win these games is you fight, you scrap, you go compete, you get deflections, you put two hands on the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tech and Northern Colorado\u2019s matchup will be streamed on ESPN+ with ticketing options and additional information found at the Tech Athletics website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following a late-game collapse against the University of Arkansas, No. 19 Texas Tech men\u2019s basketball will face the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":91022,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[168,170,169,34692,154],"class_list":{"0":"post-91021","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-lubbock","8":"tag-lubbock","9":"tag-lubbock-headlines","10":"tag-lubbock-news","11":"tag-mens_basketball","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91021","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=91021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}