The Texas Tech men’s and women’s basketball teams will both start the year with the Kansas Jayhawks.
Head coach Mark Adams and the men will host the defending national champion and current No. 3 Jayhawks on Tuesday at 8 p.m. as they try to extend their winning streak at the United Supermarkets Arena to 30 games. Kansas’s men’s team includes Kevin McCullar Jr., who was key piece of Texas Tech’s team last year that went to the Sweet 16.
The women, led by head coach Krista Gerlich, will go to Lawrence, Kansas, to play the No. 21 Jayhawks on Wednesday at 7 p.m. The women’s team for Kansas doesn’t have the same history as their male counterparts, but it’s a team that got to the NCAA Tournament last year, the first time since 2013.
Both Tech basketball teams did not exactly have a great New Year’s Eve. The men blew a 13-point lead against TCU and the women let the second and fourth quarters get away from them fast against Iowa State.
I’ll have a football and more general Tech new year’s column Thursday, but for now, let’s preview each basketball team, starting with the men. This is a long preview, but it’s also two previews in one, so scroll down if you want to just preview the women’s team.
Men’s basketball hosts Kansas Tuesday at 8 p.m.
Last season, the Red Raiders went to the Sweet 16, but the Jayhawks had one of the few teams that did better as they took the national title.
Ochai Agbaji and Christian Braun went to the NBA Draft, but the Jayhawks under head coach Bill Self have reloaded for another season.
It’s a team that hasn’t used a traditional big very often in 2022-23 unlike previous years, but as Adams noted, Kansas still has a lot of size and has an attacking offense that forces the defense to get back quickly.
“The way they play, they’re always attacking on offense, and you just got to get back,” Adams said. “They move that ball as quick as anybody in the country, and they’re great at getting those angles and finding ways to get easy baskets. That’s really a credit to coach Self.”
One of Kansas’ starters is senior Kevin McCullar Jr., someone who has only improved since transferring from Texas Tech to Kansas this season.
McCullar currently leads the Big 12 and is eighth in the nation in steals as he has continued to play stellar overall defense, just as he did at Texas Tech.
His points per game (11.5), rebounds per game (7.7), field goal percentage (45.9%), three-point percentage (34.1%), free throw percentage (76.7%), and steals per game (2.7) are currently at career-highs.
“I certainly have a lot of respect and appreciation for Kevin McCullar, and he’s a really good player and he’s gotten better,” Adams said. “He’s better this year than he was last year, and he’s going to continue to grow. He’s got great work habits. He’s a tough, physical player, and he was one of our best defensive players last year, and he’s doing that for KU. But, we’ve got our work cut out with a lot of other players.”
Those other players include junior Jalen Wilson, who leads the Big 12 in scoring (21) and is second in the Big 12 in rebounding (8.6). Kansas also has freshman guard Gradey Dick, who is scoring 14.8 points per game.
The Red Raiders may not be able to get a win considering how good Kansas is, but they’ll want a good performance after the loss to TCU. They had an 11-point lead at the half and led by as much as 13, but 15 second-half turnovers (23 total), nine missed free throws, and miscues on both offense and defense late in the game when TCU got ahead ended in a Tech loss.
As frustrating as it is to watch a team do so much wrong, the six-point loss shows that this team is more than capable of winning games against good teams.
Adams said his team has learned a lot about themselves through the TCU loss. They know they must be able to handle adversity and get off to a good second-half start.
“I think what’s encouraging is that we were able to really play well and dominate for 20 minutes and then just kind of held on the second half,” Adams said, “and then the last probably five or six minutes, we just didn’t execute and make the plays to win the game.”
He said sophomore center Daniel Batcho was about 50-60% after getting an illness and has lost about 15 pounds.
Against TCU, Batcho had two points and nine rebounds in 30 minutes and only took one shot. Adams said Batcho will play against Kansas, but he’s not sure how much.
Going forward, this team will really want Batcho at 100% and senior Fardaws Aimaq to eventually come back to really give this team an inside presence.
The Red Raiders continue to show their youth, but the program is not falling apart like many thought after the way-too-close win over Eastern Washington and the report from Stadium’s Jeff Goodman about Aimaq being expected to transfer, which Aimaq denied two days later.
This team has shown so much promise, especially when they push the tempo and get transition offense. Some more turnovers are allowed when you push the ball, but it’s hard to win a game with 23 turnovers, and TCU should probably look in the mirror and wonder how it took them as long as it did to take advantage of it.
As much as I hope I’m wrong, this team probably won’t be a team as good as last year’s. Both last year’s and this year’s team were made of transfers, but last year had a lot of experience with super-seniors left and right. This team is starting two super-seniors, but they’re also starting two players in their first real season of college basketball, and sometimes three if Batcho is out.
However, if this team can continue to use the pick-and-roll often, push the ball in transition, and the freshmen can continue to improve, led by a true point guard in Pop Isaacs and a shooter in Jaylon Tyson, this will still be a fun team to watch.
More links: Texas Tech stats, Texas Tech schedule, Kansas stats
Women’s basketball goes to KU Wednesday at 7 p.m.
The Lady Raiders, as they have been the last few years, are in a slightly different position than the Red Raiders.
The program is under Krista Gerlich for the third season, and she had to completely rebuild the program after Marlene Stollings was fired when the USA Today and Intercollegiate investigation into Tech women’s basketball found that many Tech players said there was a “culture of abuse.”
Gerlich, a member of the 1993 national champion Lady Raiders, has slowly made this team into her own, and it feels like this team is a representation of the type of basketball she wants, even if the team has some gaffes from some of its younger players.
Texas Tech has 12 wins, more than the 11 they had last year, and they have some solid wins over decent teams in Colorado and Middle Tennessee State. Even last year, they showed they can beat some of the best teams in the country, like when they went to Austin and dismantled Texas.
They did not do well in either game against Iowa State last year, however, and the trend continued with a huge loss to Iowa State on Saturday. Senior Ashley Joens, who is projected a first-round pick in the 2023 WNBA Draft, had 22 points for the Cyclones, and 6’6” center Stephanie Soares had 14 points and 16 rebounds, seven of them on the offensive glass.
It’s not a welcoming stat when you have to play another 6’6” center who averages more rebounds than Soares. Senior Taiyanna Jackson averages 12.2 rebounds per game and is on an even better tear with 40 rebounds in her last two games.
“I think she’s been the difference in their program over the past two years,” Gerlich said about Jackson. “It’s just that she kind of completes them.”
Gerlich is referencing how after finishing next-to-last or last in the Big 12 each of the first six years under Brandon Schneider, Kansas finished fifth in the Big 12 and got to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Gerlich said that stopping Jackson isn’t just about those who are assigned to guard her.
“It’s one thing to be able to hold her off the blocks; it’s another to go and get the board and get the basketball,” Gerlich said, “so our guards are going to have to help us in that. We’ll have to take better shots so that we can position ourselves right on transition defense to get to her, and then we’ll have to just make sure that we don’t lose her when the ball goes up for them.”
The offense going stagnant has been a recurring problem for Tech throughout the year, even with young scorers like Rhyle McKinney, Jasmine Shavers and Bailey Maupin making big impacts in non-conference play, and the Kansas defense will not give them much margin for error.
One person who has been consistent on the scoring end is senior Bre’Amber Scott. She’s finally getting to play multiple Big 12 games with Texas Tech after injuries derailed most of her first season in Lubbock last year and had 18 points on Saturday.
Scott has been the team’s leading scorer, especially as of late, with 12.8 points per game, and she’s also been important on the defensive end. One of her most notable plays was a block at the end of regulation against Colorado that forced overtime in a game Tech went on to win.
Gerlich said Scott’s consistency, effort, attitude and work ethic have really allowed her to take a big leap this season.
“I love that she is being a leader and that she’s wanting the responsibility of being a scorer for us,” Gerlich said, “and she’s also having to turn around and be a defensive stopper as well, and I think she’s doing all of those things really well.”
It will also be interesting to see how the Lady Raiders do on the road considering they haven’t left Lubbock since the Las Vegas Invitational Nov. 25 and 26, and they’ve only played three games outside of Lubbock all year. They have won all of them.
Gerlich said the team should respond really well, and the 3-0 record on the road likely comes from the focus that happens from a road trip, and the seniors have taught the younger players that a road game is a business trip.
Kansas will be a different animal, though. This could be a fun team as well, but patience is required as Gerlich has already shown improvement in year three, but she is still rebuilding a program that once had so much success, as she knows very well.
If they can get close to the NCAA Tournament, or even make a wild run and get in the big dance, it would be a huge leap for this program, and they’ve got the talent to do it.
More links: Texas Tech stats, Texas Tech schedule, Kansas stats
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