Feast Week Mission Briefing: Texas Tech in the Cancun Challenge
Posted by Chris Stone on November 22nd, 2016Feast Week is here. To get you ready for the Big 12’s representation in the various holiday tournaments over the next week, our Feast Week Mission Briefings continue today with Texas Tech in the Cancun Challenge.
Catching Up: Texas Tech currently sits at 3-0 and the Red Raiders have easily dispatched their first three opponents (all ranked 240th or worse nationally, according to KenPom). Head coach Chris Beard entered his first season in Lubbock with a plethora of talent with which to work and it has shown in his rotations. Nine different players are averaging double-figure minutes so far and only two, Justin Gray and Zach Smith, are pushing the 30-minute mark. Meanwhile, four different players are scoring 10 or more points per game as Texas Tech has averaged 84.3 points per contest through the first three games of the season. Although they are not battle-tested, the Red Raiders have the look like a team with enough depth, length and athleticism to compete for a spot in the top half of the Big 12 standings.
Justin Gray leads the way for Texas Tech (Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports)
Opening Round Preview: An opening round match-up with Auburn will be Texas Tech’s first real test of the season. The Tigers also enter the event at 3-0 but their three wins were over teams ranked among the KenPom top 200. A trio of freshmen — Danjel Purifoy, Mustapha Heron, and Jared Harper — are all scoring in double figures while posting an effective field goal percentage above 50 percent. This contest should represent a clash in styles as Bruce Pearl’s squad likes to push the pace (14.4 seconds per possession). The Red Raiders, on the other hand, are more methodical (17.0 seconds per possession).
Potential Later Round Match-ups: The big prize in the Cancun Challenge is a potential match-up with Purdue in the Riviera Championship game. The Boilermakers are far and away the best team in this tournament and should cruise past first round opponent Utah State. Such a meeting would pit Texas Tech’s undersized frontcourt against one of the best front lines in college basketball. Caleb Swanigan and Isaac Haas showed their potential in a narrow loss to defending National Champion Villanova earlier this month. What could be intriguing, though, is how often the Boilermakers would pair Vince Edwards with either Swanigan or Haas to match the speed of the Red Raiders’ power forwards. Texas Tech certainly wouldn’t be favored in this potential game, but a win would give fans a good idea of where the team stands relative to the rest of the Big 12.
Outlook: This is the toughest stretch of competition that Texas Tech will face during its non-conference slate and represents a great chance for the Red Raiders to construct a resume for a second straight NCAA Tournament appearance. The Big 12 round-robin will certainly help their overall strength of schedule, but with only one other match-up against a KenPom top 100 team ahead of league play, the Red Raiders need to take advantage of this opportunity. If this roster is as good as we think, Texas Tech should take care of Auburn in the opening round before battling a tough Purdue squad on day two.
Chris Stone is a contributor to the Big 12 microsite. You can find him on Twitter @cstonehoops.
