WHERE: WVU Coliseum | Morgantown, WV

WHEN: 1:00 PM, Saturday | Feb. 5th

WATCH IT ON: ESPN

SERIES HISTORY: Texas Tech is 7-16 all-time against West Virginia. The Red Raiders are 1-8 against the Mountaineers in Morgantown.

West Virginia has a 13-8 record this season, and they’re 2-6 in Big 12 Conference play. The Mountaineers are unranked and have only one win over a team in the AP Top 25 (No. 15 UConn). WVU is currently 10th in the Big 12 standings but were picked to finish fifth in the 2021 Big 12 Preseason Coaches Poll.

In their previous matchup, the Mountaineers gave the Red Raiders a good battle. West Virginia led Texas Tech, 54-53, with six minutes to go. The Red Raiders would outscore the Mountaineers, 25-11, the rest of the way and made several key plays down the stretch to seal the, 78-65, victory.

The Red Raiders scored 78 points but shot only 40.7 percent from the field. Free throws were a big factor in game one, and Texas Tech was 25-of-36 from the charity stripe.

West Virginia is 0-3 since playing Texas Tech with losses against Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Baylor.

The Mountaineers have been better as a team on the defensive end this season, and they excel at creating turnovers against the opposition. They’re ranked 97th in scoring defense, and they’re 199th in field goal percentage defense. WVU is ranked 27th in turnovers forced. They’re 71st in steals per game and 34th in blocks per game.

West Virginia has the 247th ranked scoring offense in the country, and they’re 256th in field goal percentage

WVU is ranked 58th out of 358 schools in the KenPom college basketball ratings for adjusted efficiency margin. They’re 96th in offensive efficiency and 37th in defensive efficiency. The Mountaineers have only one win over a team in the KenPom top 50 (UConn).

Sherman is questionable to play against the Red Raiders on Saturday due to a concussion. He is the second leading scorer in the Big 12 and leads the team with 18.9 points. Sherman reached double digit scoring in 19 of 20 games this season, and he leads the team with 2.6 assists per game. He's ninth in the conference and second on the team with 1.6 steals per game. Sherman scored 29 points in West Virginia’s, 81-77, loss to Baylor on Monday night.

McNeil is second on the team in scoring with 13.4 points per game and shoots 43.3 percent from the field. He's 10th in the conference and leads the Mountaineers in three-point field goal percentage. McNeil is shooting 38.5 percent from beyond the arc and averaging 1.9 threes per game this season.

Bridges is third on the team in scoring with 8.7 points per game and second in rebounds, grabbing 5.2 boards per game this season. Bridges leads West Virginia in free throw percentage, shooting 82.9 percent from the line. He averages 0.8 steals and 0.9 blocks per game for the Mountaineer defense.

West Virginia is looking to right the ship at home after losing their sixth consecutive Big 12 Conference game against Baylor on Monday night. The Mountaineers haven’t lost six straight since the 2012-13 season, and they’ve now lost back-to-back home games for the first time since 2019.

Texas Tech can expect to face a highly motivated West Virginia basketball team on Saturday afternoon. The Mountaineers have to start stacking conference wins now to boost their tournament resume for March.

One key factor in this game for West Virginia will be the availability of Taz Sherman. Sherman is one of the best players in the conference, so his absence would be a big blow to the Mountaineers. Bob Huggins said the focus of the team since the loss to Baylor has been figuring out how to win without him Sherman. Based off that, it sounds like there’s good chance he won’t be available on Saturday.

West Virginia has averaged 66.5 points during their six losing streak and without Sherman, there’s a big question mark as to where the Mountaineers offensive production will come from. Sean McNeil is the obvious candidate, but West Virginia will need multiple guys to step up on the offensive end to put pressure on a Red Raider defense that’s ranked No. 2 on KenPom.

The Red Raiders are coming off their biggest, most emotional win of the season. You see it all the time in sports, but it seems like teams coming off big wins are often due for a letdown in their next game.

Texas Tech is a mature, veteran squad, and they’ve shown numerous times this season that they can put a game to bed and focus on the next matchup at hand. They’ll need to do it again, only this time with the added challenge of facing a hostile Mountaineer crowd that hasn’t watched their team lose three consecutive home games in nine years.