Arizona Vs Texas Tech 🏀 Game Preview/Discussion Thread 3/14/25 630PM ESPN

[WILD]

Arizona Vs Texas Tech 🏀 Game Preview/Discussion Thread 3/14/25 630PM ESPN

Arizona vs. Texas Tech, the 3rd-seeded Wildcats square off against the #2-seeded Red Raiders in the semifinals of the Big 12 Tournament at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, MO. The Wildcats rebounded from a season-ending loss at Kansas with a victory over the Jayhawks in the nightcap of Thursday night's quarterfinals action. Texas Tech survived a back and forth battle with Baylor to reach the Big 12 Tournament semifinals. The opening tip is scheduled for 9:30 pm EST.

The Arizona Wildcats' regular season ended with a loss at Kansas but their Big 12 Tournament postseason continued on Thursday night with a win over those same Jayhawks. The Wildcats jumped out to a 45-37 lead at the half and never gave up the lead in a back and forth second half, taking an 88-77 decision to set up a rubber-match game with the Texas Tech Red Raiders in the Big 12 Tournament semifinals. The Wildcats shot over 50 percent from the floor in the win, including 44 percent from 3-point range. Despite the size and strength of the Jayhawks, the Wildcats dominated play inside, holding a +20 point advantage on the interior. Henry Veesaar and KJ Lewis led the way for Arizona with 19 points each off the bench. Caleb Love had a quiet night with just 11 points.

The Wildcats now get their third matchup of the season against the Texas Tech Red Raiders, hoping to advance to the Big 12 Tournament finals in their first year in the conference. The Wildcats split the first two games of the season with the Red Raiders, losing 70-54 on the road before taking the second game, 82-73 in Arizona. The Wildcats were dominated on the glass in the first meeting, finishing a -16 on the glass. In the second game, however, things returned to form as the Big 12's leading rebounding team finished with a +13 edge on the glass. Caleb Love led Arizona in scoring in the two games but scored just nine points in the loss. Interior play will decide the rubber match as well, so keep an eye on the rebounding numbers.

The Texas Tech Red Raiders outlasted the Baylor Bears on Thursday night, 76-74, to advance to the semifinals of the Big 12 Tournament. The Red Raiders got off to a great start and build up a 52-39 lead at the half. The lead grew as high as 15 points but Baylor wouldn't go away. Leading 76-72, the Red Raiders missed the front end of a one-and-one twice in the final ten seconds but survived a final missed shot attempt by the Bears to escape. JT Toppin led the way once again for the Red Raiders with 26 points and 10 rebounds on 10-of-19 shooting. Elijah Hawkins added a double-double of his own with 12 points and 11 assists. Texas Tech now gets set to take on the Arizona Wildcats for the third time this season with each team taking a home victory in the first two meetings.

With a win on Friday night, the Texas Tech Raiders will advance to their first Big 12 Conference Tournament title game since 2022. The Red Raiders have never won the tournament title in their storied history. They now have 25 wins on the season and are a shoe-in to earn an NCAA Title invite. If they should advance to the tournament finals, they are also a near-lock for one of the top eight seeds at the Big Dance. They'll need to find their shooting stroke again on Friday to advance against the Wildcats. The Red Raiders shot just 39 percent overall in the game and were saved by their perimeter shooting, hitting 15 3-point field goals at a 44 percent clip. They were also dominated in the paint, coughing up 44 points in the paint to Baylor, compared with 18 of their own. The paint will likely decide the outcome of this game against Arizona. The Red Raiders outrebounded the Wildcats by 16 in their home win against them but were outrebounded by 13 in the loss at Arizona. Toppin was the Red Raiders' best player in both games, averaging 20.5 points and pulling down 14.5 rebounds per contest. He'll need to match those numbers, particularly on the glass, to help the Red Raiders to another win.

Texas Tech is favored at 2.5 points and the Over/Under is 150.5 points

Let's talk about the Wildcats Vs Red Raiders

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[CactusCat]

Jon Sciambi, Fran Fraschilla and Kris Budden will be calling tonight's game.

[KansasCityCats]

Great media crew.  Hopefully the officiating crew is decent...

TTU looked solid last night against Baylor.  The Bears played one of their best games and the Raiders still led throughout a majority of the 40 minutes.  It'll be tough tonight.

[|ᴘ|ʀ|ʏ|ᴍ|ᴇ|]

We better see Townsend guarding Toppin exactly 0 times in this game. Tom needs to keep putting our guys in a position to succeed. That's his job.

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https://x.com/Zona_Briggs/status/1900681597948440935?t=fJnz2hgHAYzeMRqP2LHciA&s=19

[KansasCityCats]

Tech is without two starters tonight. They'll be playing six deep, unless they get into foul trouble and become desperate enough to play guys that don't typically see the court.

[KansasCityCats]

McMillan and Williams both sat. One was for precautionary measures and the other is serious.

Love came out on fire. KJ was the glue guy, Bradley and Veesaar were outstanding, Conrad brought some energy and Awaka/Bryant wore down Tech on defense.

Great game against a great team, although the outcome may have differed if TTU was at full strength.

One more win!

[WILD]

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