NCAA Basketball: 2019 Big 12/SEC Challenge preview

Arkansas Razorbacks at Texas Tech Red Raiders

The Arkansas Razorbacks and Texas Tech Raiders will face off after making appearances in the NCAA Tournament this past season. Both teams will have totally different looks, especially Arkansas who have eight players possibly signed to their 2018 recruiting class.

The youth movement will be strong with the Razorbacks who lost five seniors to graduation in 2017-18 including their top scorers in Daryl Macon and Jaylen Barford. It was Macon’s 22-point performance off the bench that lifted the Razorbacks to a 66-65 victory last season over the Oklahoma State Cowboys.

As far as Texas Tech is concerned, their best bet is to rely on Jarrett Culver heavily in 2018-19 after he had a strong freshman season. Culver is a 6-foot-5 forward who averaged 11.2 points and 4.8 rebounds on 38 percent shooting from 3-point range in 2017-18. Along with Zhaire Smith, he was a key piece in the Red Raiders unpredictable run to the Elite Eight.

The Red Raiders won on the road 70-63 over the South Carolina Gamecocks in last year’s Big 12/SEC Challenge. This year as the host squad, they should get all they can handle from a scrappy Arkansas Razorbacks club. As far as head-to-head matchups go, the teams have met a total of 77 times with Texas Tech winning 39 times and Arkansas 38 times.