Red Raider Preview: Iowa State

Saturday, January 20

Ames, Iowa

1:00 PM

Texas Tech Athletics

Iowa State

January 19, 2018 | Men's Basketball

Game Notes

The Red Raiders will look to bounce back from a midweek loss at Texas.

AMES, Iowa – The No. 8 Texas Tech men's basketball team returns to action and continues its week-long road swing at Iowa State on Saturday.

Tipoff is slated for 1 p.m. CT from Hilton Coliseum, and the game will be televised by ESPNU in addition to the ESPN app. Lowell Galindo and Lance Blanks will serve as the announcing team.

The Texas Tech Sports Network will carry the game live on its flagship stations Double T 97.3 FM, 100.7 FM The Score and 950 AM in Lubbock. Geoff Haxton and Chris Level will have the radio call. The radio broadcast also will be available on the Texas Tech Sports Network radio affiliates, online at www.TexasTech.com and the Tune-In Radio app. Fans can interact live with Saturday's broadcast by following @GunsUpRadio on Twitter.

The Red Raiders (15-3, 4-2 Big 12) sit in a three-way tie for second place with Oklahoma and West Virginia in the Big 12 standings. All three squads trail Big 12 frontrunner and 13-time defending champion Kansas by a one game.

Texas Tech has dropped single-digit decisions to the Cyclones (10-7, 1-5 Big 12) during three of the last four seasons in Ames. The Red Raiders last win in Ames was a 92-83 victory on Jan. 26, 2011 behind Mike Singletary's 33 points.

Iowa State has dropped games to Texas and Oklahoma State in overtime along with a five-point decision at Kansas. The Cyclones protected their home court with a 75-65 win over Baylor last Saturday and has collected 25 wins over Top 25 opponents, the fifth-most nationally, since the 2013-14 season.

"I have a lot of confidence in our team that we won't get too high or too low," Texas Tech head coach Chris Beard said. "This is an 18-round fight. I started today's practice telling the guys that we saw adversity at Texas. We got punched in the mouth, do we think this will be the last time? It's just the reality of this league that we are playing in. What we are really talking about is mental toughness, perseverance, consistency and putting yourselves in a position every night to have a chance. Even with the disappointments in Austin, we cut it to four points with seven minutes left in the game. We cut it to six again, and we gave ourselves a chance. We didn't play well enough to win. Give Texas credit, they played great. If we continue to put ourselves in these positions, continue to believe in each other, continue to play for each other, continue to execute the day-to-day process and continue to be a good team that practices well every day, then we are going to win our share. Yes, it is a grind. Every game is like this, and Saturday at 1:00 p.m. in Ames will be no different."

ABOUT TEXAS TECH
The Red Raiders have come away with three NCAA Top 10 rankings which include scoring defense (61.2 PPG – 5th), field goal percentage defense (38.3 – 8th) and scoring margin (+18.2 – 8th).

Keenan Evans has guided the offense to a team-best 17.1 points per game coupled with 3.3 assists, 3.1 rebounds and 1.3 steals per game. He has pieced together 12 straight games in double figures and 42 of his last 44 appearances. Evans will look to rebound from an 11-point performance which is tied for his second lowest scoring output of the season.

Texas Tech has worked its way to 671 bench points and possess a 202-91 edge in bench points during its opening six Big 12 games.

The Red Raiders bench rotation features Jarrett Culver (10.2 PPG), Brandone Francis (5.9 PPG), Tommy Hamilton IV (5.7 PPG) and Davide Moretti (4.9 PPG).

Culver turned in his most complete Big 12 effort of the season with 16 points and nine rebounds en route to nearly claiming his first career double-double. His 10.2 points per game are seventh among Big 12 freshmen.

Francis has improved his scoring to 10.4 points per game over his last five games fueled by a pair of double-digit games versus then No. 2 West Virginia and Texas. He is 18-of-32 from the field and canned nine three-pointers during the five-game run.

Hamilton IV heads into Saturday's action 93 points away from reaching 1,000 for his career, while Moretti has handed out 25 of his 32 assists over his last 14 games.

Zhaire Smith has been inserted into the starting lineup in Texas Tech's last three games for an injured Zach Smith. He has piled up double figures in 11 of his last 13 outings most recently 13 points and seven rebounds during the Texas game.

Niem Stevenson has added 7.4 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game. He has garnered double figures on eight occasions which included an 11-point effort against Baylor in the Big 12 opener.

Justin Gray and Norense Odiase round out Texas's Tech starting five with 5.4 points and 4.4 points per game, respectively. Gray has rattled off 1.3 steals per game which is tied for 8th in Big 12 games whereas Odiase has hauled down 5.5 rebounds per game which is tied for 17th on the Big 12 leaderboard in conference games.

ABOUT IOWA STATE
The Cyclones have a quartet of players averaging in double figures led by Lindell Wigginton (16.5 PPG) and Donovan Jackson (16.2 PPG). The duo has combined to bury 96 of the team's 136 three-pointers and taken to the next level with 38 of 45 treys in Big 12 action.

Wigginton is the reigning the Big 12 Newcomer of the Week and posted a 24.3 points per game in his last three outings. He has already amassed double figures on 12 occasions and eclipsed the 20-plus point plateau seven times which is one shy of the program's freshmen record in a season held by Marcus Fizer and Curtis Stinson.

Jackson has piled up double digit points in four of his last five appearances and has eight outings of 20 or more points. His season-high was a 30-point outburst at Oklahoma State on Jan. 6. Jackson has pieced together a pair of three-game streaks of 20 or more points twice on the season most recently 24 points versus Texas, 30 points at Oklahoma State and 20 points at Kansas from Jan. 1-9.

Nick Weiler-Babb is a stat sheet stuffer with 12.0 points, 7.6 assists and 7.4 rebounds per game. He is the only player in college basketball to average 12-7-7 and has worked his way to six double-doubles this season, four coming via points-assists. Weiler-Babb's six games with 10-plus assists are tied with Jeff Hornacek and only behind Monte Morris for a program single suit.

Cameron Lard has started ISU's last four games after coming off the bench in the first 11. He has chipped in 11.7 points, 7.1 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per game. Lard has reeled off double figures in eight of his last nine appearances and racked up 21 points coupled with 16 rebounds against Texas on Jan. 1.

On the interior, Solomon Young has tacked on 7.1 points and 5.7 rebounds per game. All three of his games in double figures have come in Big 12 outings sparked by a 16-point performance versus Kansas State on Dec. 29.

"The Big 12 is so good," Beard said. "Iowa State is a really good team, and this is an NCAA tournament team. They've lost two games in overtime so they are literally three possessions away from being second or third in our league right now. This is how good the league is, it's just a grind. Iowa State has arguably the best starting five in the Big 12. All five starters are guys that fill out the stat sheet and get it done every night. I've been really impressed with their point guard, he's like a walking triple double. He's averaging eight assists and rebounds the ball seven or eight rebounds a game. It's a young Iowa State team in terms of experience, but they're just getting better as the year goes on."

UP NEXT
Texas Tech makes a brief stop at home for a Tuesday matchup with Oklahoma State. Tip time is on-tap for 6 p.m. CT, and the game will be televised by ESPNews along with the ESPN app.

Visit www.TexasTech.com for the latest news and information on the men's basketball program. Fans also can follow the program on its social media outlets by liking TexasTechMBB on Facebook along with following @TexasTechMBB on Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat.