WHERE: United Supermarkets Arena | Lubbock, TX

WHEN: 8:00 PM, Tuesday | Feb. 1st

WATCH IT ON: ESPN 2

SERIES HISTORY: Texas Tech is 60-80 all-time against Texas on the hardwood. The Red Raiders have won seven of their last nine games against the Longhorns but lost their last matchup against Texas, 67-66, in the 2021 Big 12 Tournament.

Texas has a 16-5 record this season, and they’re 5-3 in Big 12 Conference play. The Longhorns are No. 23 in the AP Poll and No. 21 in the USA Today Coaches Poll. They have one win over a team in the AP Top 25 (Tennessee). UT was picked to finish second in the 2021 Big 12 Preseason Coaches Poll.

Texas went 19-8 last year and were 11-6 in Big 12 play. They would make the NCAA tournament as a No. 3 seed only to be knocked out by the No. 14 seed Abilene Christian Wildcats in the first round.

The Longhorns have been better as a team on the defensive end this season, and they excel at giving opposing offenses fits. They’ve held teams to 59 points or less 16 times this year, and opponents are shooting a combined 40 percent from the field and 30.6 percent from three-point range.

Texas is ranked No. 1 in scoring defense, and they’re 40th in field goal percentage defense. They’re 33rd in turnovers forced and 42nd in steals per game.

The Longhorns have the 248th ranked scoring offense in the country despite being 87th in field goal percentage.

UT is ranked 15th out of 358 schools in the KenPom college basketball ratings for adjusted efficiency margin. They’re 45th in offensive efficiency and 11th in defensive efficiency. The Longhorns have three wins over teams in the KenPom top 50 (Oklahoma, TCU, Tennessee).

Allen transferred to Texas after spending the last three seasons at Utah. He made 82 starts over his career and scored 1323 points with 534 rebounds and 261 assists for the Utes. Allen leads the Longhorns in scoring and rebounding with 11.8 points and 6.5 boards per game. He’s sixth in the Big 12 in field goal percentage and is shooting 53.1 percent from the field this season. Allen is second on the team with 2.3 assists per game, and he’s leading the Longhorns with 1.3 steals on the defensive end.

Carr transferred to Texas after spending his freshman year at Pittsburgh and the last two seasons at the University of Minnesota. He received All-Big 10 First Team honors for his efforts a year ago. Carr is the second leading scorer on the Longhorns, but his 10.6 points per game is down from last season when he averaged 19.4 points for the Golden Gophers. He leads Texas with 3.3 assists per game and is a solid on-ball defender, averaging 1 steal per game.

Ramey returned for his fourth season at Texas and was the Longhorns third leading scorer a season ago. He’s fourth in scoring this season with 9.8 points and is third on the team in minutes played with 28.2 per game. Ramey is the most efficient scorer amongst the Texas trio of guards and is shooting 44 percent from the field and 37.5 percent from behind the arc. He scored 18 points and led all scorers in the Longhorns, 52-51, victory over Tennessee on Saturday.

The highly anticipated return of Chris Beard is finally upon us with the Texas Longhorns heading to Lubbock. The hype surrounding this matchup just doesn’t get any higher. This could quite possibly be the biggest athletic event the Hub City has ever seen, rivaling the Texas Tech vs Texas football game back in 2008. On paper this a matchup between two of the top defenses in college basketball with the advantage going to the team that’s able to muster up the most efficient offensive production on Tuesday night.

The Longhorns have the top scoring defense in the nation. Their ability to hold teams to an average of 54.5 points per game is impressive, but Texas’ pace of play on the offensive end has a lot to do with that. The Longhorns are 348th out of 358 schools in offensive possessions per game with 64.8, and with that slower pace comes fewer possessions on the offensive end for the opposition. For that reason, the Red Raiders are going to have to be smart with the basketball and make every possession count on offense. The Longhorns are 0-5 this season when teams score more than 60 points against them. The key to beating Texas starts with being efficient on the offensive end and putting up points on the scoreboard.

While the Texas offense might be slow paced, they’re still efficient on that end of the court, and KenPom has the Longhorns ranked as a top 50 offense (45th) this year. That efficiency will be tested against the No. 3 ranked Texas Tech defense that’s allowing only 57 points on 38.1 percent shooting in 13 home games this season. The Texas offense runs through Timmy Allen and the trio of guards Marcus Carr, Courtney Ramey, and Andrew Jones. With the average height of the Longhorns top four scorers standing just over 6-foot-3, the Red Raiders will have the length advantage going into this matchup. The Texas trio of guards’ average 12.7 three points attempts per game. Texas Tech will need to be mindful of Allen in the middle of their defense to keep his midrange game in-check, while also being ready to close out on the perimeter shooters of the Longhorns.