Big 12 Basketball power rankings: Kansas, Baylor clear above others
. Red Raiders . 8. team. 468. . 5-3
On one hand, the Red Raiders have been one of the most disappointing teams in the country. They’re 5-3 with no good wins and are currently riding a three-game losing streak…. before facing No. 1 Louisville Tuesday night. They’ve looked nothing like a preseason top-15 team and at the moment, don’t even look like an NCAA Tournament squad.
To be fair though, Texas Tech has been missing their best player in freshman Jahmi’us Ramsey in those defeats. He’s off to a great start (17.3 ppg and 5.8 rpg) but a nagging hamstring injury has kept him off the court. The supporting cast just hasn’t been good enough, although they did take both Creighton and DePaul into overtime. Guards Kyler Edwards and Davide Moretti have been effective, while forward Chris Clarke actually leads the team in both rebounding (8.4 rpg) and passing (6.0 apg).
The biggest problem for the team is the clear lack of frontcourt depth. Outside of grad transfer TJ Holyfield (10.1 ppg and 4.3 rpg), the Red Raiders have little size to work with defensively. It’s very different from the multiple true centers that anchored the top-10 Texas Tech defense the last two years.
With freshman Terrence Shannon Jr. improving and Ramsey coming back soon, Texas Tech will almost certainly end up better than 8th in the Big 12 the rest of the way. But at the moment, this isn’t a top-15 team nationally and without any real wins to speak of, this is an appropriate spot for the team.