Texas Basketball: Texas Tech stands in the way of Big 12 Tourney success

In the first game of the Big 12 Tournament, also the quarterfinals of the festivities in Kansas City, MO, this week, No. 13 ranked Texas basketball has another tough test that lies on tap. And just about every team that made it through among the top six seeds in the Big 12 Tournament is one of the top 20 teams in the polls entering the postseason.

Head coach Shaka Smart and the Longhorns are set to take on the No. 20 ranked Texas Tech Red Raiders in their quarterfinals matchup in the Big 12 Tournament on night of March 11. This will be the third time that Texas and Texas Tech square off this season. But if the Longhorns can top the Red Raiders in this game, it will be their first in three attempts.

Texas fell short in their last two tries against the Red Raiders by a combined margin of 11 points. But one of those was just a two-point loss for the Longhorns. And according to the ESPN matchup predictor, Texas has roughly a 40 percent chance to knock off Texas Tech in this Big 12 Tournament meeting.

Coming into this game, Smart and the Longhorns will attempt to capitalize on the momentum they built by winning their last three games of the regular season. And their last game resulted in a comfortable dozen point win on the road in Fort Worth over the TCU Horned Frogs on March 7.

Texas basketball getting over the Texas Tech road block

Texas just couldn’t get over the hump in their first two tries this season against the Red Raiders. Texas Tech beat Texas by a combined margin of 20 points in their two meetings this season, which largely caused the losses for the men in burnt orange.

Closing out games was problematic for Smart’s teams in years past. But this season feels different largely because they’ve been able to close out some of these big games. Texas Tech just seems to be one of the exceptions on the season so far for the Longhorns.

When the starting backcourt trio of senior guard Matt Coleman, junior guard Courtney Ramey, and redshirt junior shooting guard/wing Andrew Jones play well, Texas usually wins. And that’s what needs to happen again in their first game of the Big 12 Tournament to get it done.

That trio all scored in double figures and led the way for the Longhorns in their regular season finale win over the Horned Frogs last weekend. Texas will need to offset the deep backcourt rotation of the Red Raiders in order to hang down the stretch in this one.

If the Longhorns can top the Red Raiders in this game, they will notch their 18th win of the season and advanced onto the semifinals in the Big 12 Tournament. If not, this could be the final game in any Big 12 Tournament for Coleman. Although, the likes of Coleman and Ramey could very well return for the Longhorns next season.

Texas comes into this game with a record of 17-7 (11-6 Big 12) following their March 7 win over TCU. Tip off time between Texas and 15-8 (7-7 Big 12) Texas Tech in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 Tournament is set for 8:30 p.m. CT on March 11 in Kansas City.