The Texas Tech Red Raiders head to Manhattan to take on the Kansas St. Wildcats.
THE INFORMATION
Game Details
TEAMS
Texas Tech Red Raiders (10-10, 2-5)
Kansas St. Wildcats (14-6, 4-3)
WHERE
Fred Bramlage Coliseum | Manhattan, Kansas
WHEN
7:00 pm Tuesday January 28th
CONSUME
Radio - TTSN | TV - Big 12 Network
THE CHARACTERS
Starters
Texas Tech
Kansas St.
Robert Turner (6-3/180)
PG
Will Spradling (6-2/185)
Toddrick Gotcher (6-4/195)
SG
Marcus Foster (6-2/200)
Dusty Hannahs (6-4/210)
SF
Shane Southwell (6-7/215)
Jaye Crockett (6-7/210)
PF
Wesley Iwundu (6-7/195)
Jordan Tolbert (6-7/225)
C
Thomas Gipson (6-7/265)
THE ANALYSIS
Key Matchup | Foster vs. Gotcher: I think Gotcher has the toughest matchup tonight, which is Marcus Foster, who is averaging 14 points a game and almost 4 boards with 2 assists. Kansas St. isn’t know for their offensive prowess, which we’ll get to shortly, but Foster is their best offensive player. Meanwhile, Gotcher has gone hot and cold over his past five games. Gotcher scored 3 points, and went 0-4 against Oklahoma, but scored 15 against West Virginia, scored only 8, going 1-5 from the floor, against TCU, scored 17 against Baylor and didn't score at all against Texas.
Take Aim: I had no idea that Kansas St. was so good defensively, ranking 15th in the nation in AdjD, but their offense is just holding this team back as they rank 120th in AdjO. So there’s just a lot to be desired and more than likely,Kansas St. is simply going to just grind out this game and it could get ugly.
Aside from Foster, Thomas Gipson is K-State’s workhorse, scoring 12 points and grabbing 6 boards a game with Shane Southwell help filling up the stat sheet, scoring 11.7 points a game, 4.9 rebounds and 3.2 assists. Southwell is K-State’s best passer by a long shot and the guy that just won’t leave, Will Spradling is still scoring.
As for Texas Tech, HC Tubby Smith said after the Oklahoma loss that the only two guys that played well was Alex Foster and Jamal Williams. So there’s a pretty good chance that my educated guess on the starting lineup is going to be completely wrong. Williams has been lightly used since the start of the season, while Foster was a former Minnesota commit that followed Smith to Texas Tech. Foster had a bit of a lull in playing time, but I believe that was due to some issue with his family (maybe a death in the family, but I’m really not sure) and he had to go back to Chicago to take care of it. In any event, Foster scored 8 off the bench and 8 rebounds in just 14 minutes.