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Texas Tech Basketball: 3 reasons Red Raiders will be better than Texas in 2020-21

By Andrew Tineo

AUSTIN, TEXAS - FEBRUARY 08: Matt Coleman III #2 of the Texas Longhorns drives around Kyler Edwards #0 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders at The Frank Erwin Center on February 08, 2020 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Chris Covatta/Getty Images)
AUSTIN, TEXAS - FEBRUARY 08: Matt Coleman III #2 of the Texas Longhorns drives around Kyler Edwards #0 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders at The Frank Erwin Center on February 08, 2020 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Chris Covatta/Getty Images) /
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Texas Tech Basketball Kyler Edwards (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images) /

Texas Tech’s offensive efficiency

Defensively, both teams are expected to play at an elite. That is a norm for Chris Beard as Tech and Virginia have been the best defensive rated teams over the past three years. Texas broke through last season as they relied heavily on defense as was ranked 24th to end the season.

Texas was lackluster for quite a bit on the offensive end last season. There wasn’t a go-to scoring option and when Matt Coleman was on the floor, he averaged just 12.7 PPG.

Texas ranked just 153rd in offensive efficiency and was reliant on guard play to do the majority of the damage. Clearly not working, the big gem from Texas was getting Top 25 HS recruit C Greg Brown to play the same role that Bamba and Allen did prior to him.

Coming into this season, Texas Tech is projected to have the 14th best offense while boasting the 5th best defense. Meanwhile, for the Longhorns, they are expected to have a much more respectable 32nd ranked Adjust offensive efficiency. Although that looks like a much better number, is it realistic to see the Longhorns have a near 130 ranking improvement in an area where they continually struggle in.

Without the adjusted offense, the Longhorns were abysmal. Overall, Texas was 326th in points per game last season. Shaka’s squad could barely squeak 64 points and was last in the Big 12 in that category by quite a bit.

There could be an argument made that Texas lost basically no one from last year’s team and is due to improve in quite a few areas. However, this goes back to Shaka Smart’s ability to develop his team to be better on the court than on paper. A team doesn’t always get drastically get better because

Next. Top 20 Big 12 players since 2000. dark

With Baylor-Kansas taking the majority of the matchup headlines, Texas Tech-Texas is still a game to keep an eye on. The Big 12 is ranked the best conference once again, with five teams filling in the top nine spots according to the KenPom rankings. The conference is a gauntlet and these two teams will be among the most interesting to see. For this season, however, Texas Tech will get the better of Texas.

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