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No. 8 Texas Tech goes to Iowa State (Jan 20, 2018)
Texas Tech coach Chris Beard regularly describes Big 12 Conference play as an 18-round fight, referring to the league's 18-game, double-round-robin format.
It's difficult to predict at this point how many "rounds" a team needs to win to claim the Big 12 championships, but for Beard's Red Raiders, Saturday's matchup seems crucial to their ability to contend for the title.
No. 8 Texas Tech (15-3, 4-2 Big 12) travels to play Iowa State (10-7,1-5) in Ames, Iowa, on Saturday.
The Red Raiders have taken a couple of turns sitting atop the Big 12 so far through the first third of league action. But their 67-58 loss at Texas on Wednesday bumped the Red Raiders into a tie for second place.
Kansas, winner of 13-straight Big 12 regular-season championships, is once again alone in first place.
Following the loss to Texas, Beard bristled when a reporter characterized the Longhorns' win as "easy" in the postgame press conference. Beard countered that his team simply took and missed too many jump shots.
By Thursday evening, Beard was back to promoting his team's process as the key to victory.
"If we continue to put ourselves in these positions, and continue to believe in each other, play for each other, execute the day-to-day process, be a good team that practices well every day, then we're going to win our share," Beard said. "Yes, it is a grind. Every game is like that. Saturday at 1 o' clock will be no different."
On the same night that Texas Tech failed to keep up with the Longhorns, TCU walloped Iowa State, 96-73, in Fort Worth, Texas.
The Cyclones' lopsided loss to the Horned Frogs caused Iowa State coach Steve Prohm to question whether or not his team was living up to its usual character.
"We've got to get an identity," Prohm said in the postgame press conference. "When people watch our teams play, they know what they should look like: tough, competitive, resilient, in synch, in synergy. This was bad, man."
Perhaps Prohm should turn to Beard for some apparently much-needed encouragement. Beard said Iowa State has "arguably the best starting five in the Big 12."
Beard singled out Iowa State point guard Nick Weiler-Babb, who is averaging 12 points, 7.6 assists and 7.4 rebounds per game.
The Cyclones lost their first two home games in conference play against Kansas State and Texas, but bounced back and defended their court with a 75-65 victory over Baylor last weekend.
Texas Tech won its first Big 12 road game at Kansas on Jan. 2, but since then the Red Raiders have had to fight just to stay close in losses against Oklahoma and Texas.
Beard wanted to see his team take the ball to the basket more against Texas, though that's a difficult test for anyone against Longhorn 6-foot-11 rim-protector Mohamed Bamba.
Still, the Red Raiders got zero points and two rebounds from its rotation of power forwards Norense Odiase and Tommy Hamilton.
"You learn a lot of different things as a team from a loss," Odiase said. "We could've played better on both ends. So we've taken that."
