The Texas Tech Red Raiders and the West Virginia Mountaineers meet Sunday in college basketball action from WVU Coliseum in Morgantown. Here’s a West Virginia vs Texas Tech prediction. We will look at this from a betting perspective and determine the best West Virginia vs Texas Tech pick.
Texas Tech Red Raiders Betting Preview
The Red Raiders were able to bag a 7-3 record in their first 10 games during a pretty decent opening stretch. The defeats mixed in there were versus Illinois, Purdue and Arkansas. Texas Tech hit a 9-1 run over the next 10 games with wins over Northern Colorado, Duke, Winthrop, Oklahoma State, Colorado, Utah, BYU, Baylor and Houston, but they’ve since taken losses to Central Florida and Kansas.
On Monday in the matchup with the Jayhawks, the Red Raiders were trailing by three points at halftime 32-29. Texas Tech kept up the pace on a 32-32 second half but eventually fell in a tough one at home 64-61 in the end. Leading the team in the losing effort was LeJuan Watts with 19 points and 12 rebounds. Donovan Atwell added 12 points and seven boards in 40 minutes of work as well.
West Virginia Mountaineers Betting Preview
Over on the West Virginia side, they were able to get victories in their first five games of the season, but the next pair were both losses to Clemson and Xavier. The Mountaineers would go 5-3 with wins over Mercyhurst, Coppin State, Little Rock, Mississippi Valley State and Cincinnati in the next eight. After a 4-3 stretch in the next seven outings, the Mountaineers had a 14-8 record in the first 22 games.
In game 23 on Thursday the Mountaineers were in major trouble at halftime sporting a 30-20 deficit in the locker room. West Virginia woke up in the second half on a 39-24 run however, and eventually powered out the victory 59-54 on the road in the end. The Mountaineers were led by Honor Huff with 16 points, six assists and two rebounds over 38 minutes in the victory.
Why the West Virginia Mountaineers will win
- West Virginia has won each of its last 12 Sunday games at Hope Coliseum.
- Texas Tech has lost four of its last five February road games as an AP-ranked team against a non-AP-ranked team.
- West Virginia has won the first half in 17 of its last 19 games at Hope Coliseum.
Why the Texas Tech Red Raiders will win
- Texas Tech has won 16 of its last 17 games against non-AP-ranked opponents.
- West Virginia has lost six of its last seven games against AP-ranked opponents.
- West Virginia has lost the first half in each of its last seven games against AP-ranked opponents.
West Virginia vs Texas Tech Prediction
I’ll stick with Texas Tech. The Raiders need to get over a tough loss to Kansas on their home court this week, though. Texas Tech shot a rough 31.9 percent from the field in that one with a 26-14 deficit on points in the paint while only getting to the line five times (making three). The Raiders are still scoring well overall these days however, and they’re 5-2 in their last seven games with a pair of wins over ranked squads in that time.
As for WVU, they played a bad first half on the road against a middling Cincinnati team this past week, but to their credit the Mountaineers powered out the win in the end. West Virginia didn’t shoot well from the line on 52.4 percent (11-of-21) and had a 33-29 deficit on the boards with 12 turnovers along the way. The defense on the other side (36.4 percent) was good, though. WVU is 2-2 in their last four games with fewer than 60 points scored in each of those outings, so they’ll want to keep the score low in this one.