Texas Tech Red Raiders (19-9) vs. West Virginia Mountaineers (9-19)
March 2, 2024 6:00 pm EDT
The Line: West Virginia Mountaineers +3.5; Over/Under: -
(Get latest betting odds)
The Texas Tech Red Raiders and the West Virginia Mountaineers meet Saturday in college basketball action from WVU Coliseum. Texas Tech lost to Texas in their last game, falling to 19-9 overall. As for West Virginia, they’re coming off a loss to Kansas State and sit at 9-19 so far. Let’s get into our Texas Tech vs. West Virginia prediction. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
Texas Tech Red Raiders
The Red Raiders only lost three of their first 19 games versus Villanova, Butler and Houston. Texas Tech has since gone a rough 3-6, however. The Raiders’ losses in that stretch came versus TCU, Cincinnati, Baylor, Iowa State, UCF and Texas. The wins were over UCF, Kansas and TCU.
In their matchup versus Texas on Tuesday, the Red Raiders came out of the locker room with a 47-23 deficit. Texas Tech got better in the second half with a 46-34 run but still lost 81-69. Pop Isaacs was the leading team scorer on his 17 points, two rebounds and one steal in 36 minutes.
West Virginia Mountaineers
Over on the Mountaineers’ side, they limped to an 8-13 record over their first 21 outings this year. West Virginia would then lose to BYU, Texas, TCU and Baylor in succession before another win over UCF. Since then the Mountaineers have losses to Iowa State and Kansas State.
Matched up against Kansas State on Monday, the Mountaineers faced a 48-26 deficit by halftime. WVU fought back on a 53-31 run from there and forced overtime but still ended up losing 94-90 in a tough result. RaeQuan Battle was the leading team scorer with his 28 points and four rebounds.
ANDREW’S FREE TEXAS TECH VS WEST VIRGINIA PREDICTION
I’ll stick with Texas Tech. The Raiders really need a good bounce-back effort here, though. In their last matchup versus Texas, Texas Tech shot just 35.6 percent from the field and lost the rebounding battle 44-30 in a pretty limp effort at home. That makes a tepid 130 combined points over the last pair of games with 156 allowed on the other side.
As for West Virginia, they get credit for a valiant comeback effort versus Kansas State in their latest outing. The Mountaineers have been below 66 points in three of their last six games though, so they’ll need a solid offensive push in order to keep pace here. I wouldn’t be surprised to see WVU hang around for most of the game, but ultimately I like the Raiders on the cover.
