The West Virginia Mountaineers and the Texas Tech Red Raiders meet Saturday in college basketball action from United Supermarkets Arena. West Virginia is currently 13-4 on the year. The Mountaineers lost to Baylor in their last game. As for Texas Tech, they’re sitting at 14-4 and took out Iowa State in their most recent outing. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
West Virginia got off to a nice 11-1 start over their first dozen games; the only blemish was a loss to Marquette. Since then it’s been a spotty 2-3 run versus some tough teams. The Mountaineers have lost to Texas, Kansas and Baylor in that time.
In the Baylor matchup back on Tuesday, West Virginia was outscored 37-33 in the first half and 40-35 from there in a 77-68 loss. Malik Curry was the lead team scorer with 19 points and six boards. Taz Sherman added 18 points with three assists.
Over on the Texas Tech side, they hit an 8-2 run over their first 10 games with losses to Providence and Gonzaga. The Raiders have gone 6-2 since then. The wins have been over Eastern Washington, Alabama State, Kansas, Baylor, Oklahoma State and Iowa State.
In the Iowa State game, the Raiders posted a 26-23 edge by halftime. Texas Tech opened it up on a 46-37 run from there in a 72-60 win. Bryson Williams led the team on 16 points, and Kevin Obanor chipped in 15 points with eight rebounds.
The Raiders are 4-1 ATS in their last five at home and 5-1 ATS in their last six overall. The under is 8-3 in Texas Tech’s last 11 overall.
Meanwhile, the Mountaineers are 1-4 ATS in their last five overall and 1-5 ATS in their last six on Saturday. The over is 5-1 in West Virginia’s last six overall.
PICK: I’m going to try Texas Tech here. The Raiders had a solid all-around outing versus Iowa State in their last game, shooting 43.5 percent from the field and snagging 36 rebounds. During this 4-1 run, Texas Tech has hit 72 or more points three times and taken out some tough teams along the way.
As for West Virginia, they’ve struggled against three very good ranked teams in their last three losses and didn’t even make it 60 points in two of them. I think the Mountaineers will put up a decent total here, but I still like Texas Tech on the cover. Should be a very fun matchup to watch.