NCAA Basketball: Buy or sell Florida, Villanova, Texas Tech and Oregon?

Texas Tech Red Raiders (5-3) – Sell

This is a hard one to consider when you take into account the injury of Jahmi’us Ramsey. The leading scorer for Texas Tech (17.3 ppg and 5.8 rpg) has been absent for the past two losses and missed most of the third. Had he played, this team very well could’ve beaten DePaul and or Creighton. He’ll really be needed when they face No. 1 Louisville next but without Ramsey, they’ll likely be 5-4.

And that’s where the problem comes for the Red Raiders and their resume. Assuming they lose to the Cardinals, they’ll have four losses (none of them bad at the moment) but zero good wins even if they win the rest of their non-conference slate. That puts them in a tough position to have a great Big 12 performance in order to even make the NCAA Tournament. I’m a believer they can do that with a healthy Ramsey but it looks as if Texas Tech will be closer to the 8-9 range than the original thought of 3-4 area.

The biggest issue with this team is frontcourt production. Grad transfers TJ Holyfield and Chris Clarke have played admirably but don’t give the team the defensive talent they had in the last couple of years. Not having a true anchor down low will be an issue against UdokaAzubuike and other Big 12 frontcourt players. The scoring inconsistency of guards Davide Moretti and Kyler

Edwards is also something this team can’t afford when facing better opponents.
It’s a great sign that freshman forward Terrence Shannon had a season-high 24 against DePaul and is growing by the day. He and Ramsey may have to carry the Red Raiders to the Big Dance starting in the new year. But until Texas Tech solves their frontcourt depth issues, this team doesn’t look second-weekend caliber.