Texas Tech Basketball: 2018-19 season preview for the Red Raiders

By Brian Rauf | Sep 24, 2018

BOSTON, MA - MARCH 25: Head coach Chris Beard of the Texas Tech Red Raiders reacts against the Villanova Wildcats during the first half in the 2018 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament East Regional at TD Garden on March 25, 2018 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images) /

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DURHAM, NC – FEBRUARY 24: Head coach Mike Krzyzewski of the Duke Blue Devils during their game at Cameron Indoor Stadium on February 24, 2018 in Durham, North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /

Non-conference schedule

Nov. 9 – Mississippi Valley State
Nov. 13 – Southeastern Louisiana
Nov. 19-20 – Hall of Fame Classic
Nov. 24 – Northern Colorado
Dec. 1 – vs. Memphis (in Miami, FL)
Dec. 5 – Arkansas Pine-Bluff
Dec. 12 – Northwestern State
Dec. 15 – Abilene Christian
Dec. 20 – vs. Duke (in New York, NY)
Dec. 28 – UTRGV
Jan. 26 – Arkansas

This is a non-conference schedule that doesn’t feature many tests and that will give this team full of new parts time to gel and work out the kinks against lesser competition. However, that’s not to say they’re pulling a Georgetown and playing an entire slate of cupcakes.

Their first real test will come prior to Thanksgiving in the Hall of Fame Classic. Texas Tech will face USC in the first game of the event and then either Nebraska or Missouri State. USC is expected to take a step back given the amount of talent they lost in the offseason but should serve as an early measuring stick game. Then, if the Red Raiders face Nebraska, we’ll get a real feeling as to how good Tech is as the Cornhuskers should be one of the better teams in the Big Ten.

There also figures to be plenty of fanfare for Texas Tech’s game against Memphis given the arrival of Penny Hardaway as the Tigers’ head coach, but that program appears to be a year away from really being able to compete at a high level.

The highlight of this home-heavy schedule is their Dec. 20 showdown against Duke at Madison Square Garden. Duke is consensus preseason top-five team and likely feature three future top-five picks in R.J. Barrett, Cameron Reddish, and Zion Williamson. It will be an opportunity to see how Texas Tech stacks up against the best of the best – and a chance to raise the national profile of the program even more if they can pull off the upset.

The Red Raiders will wrap up their non-conference schedule in January against Arkansas as part of the SEC/Big 12 Challenge. Razorbacks big man Daniel Gafford will be the best player on the court in that game but Arkansas doesn’t have much around him. Texas Tech figures to have a major advantage.

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