Texas Tech (17-10 overall, 6-6 Big 12) comes to town tonight in a game that is bordering on “must-win” for the Longhorns. Texas (19-7, 7-3) has an absolutely brutal finishing stretch, which makes tonight’s game with the Red Raiders their best chance to secure a 20th victory during the regular season. And, for the first time all season, the Horns will be playing in front of their first home sellout.

The last time the two teams met, Texas blew out Tech in the second half and pulled away for a 76-64 victory. Coach Bob Knight had Kevin Durant double teamed for most of the night, and the freshman phenom still managed to make the Raiders pay. In addition to Durant’s 37-point, 23-rebound output, the youngster also consistently found the open man while double-teamed for easy buckets in the first half.

Starters Jon Plefka and Charlie Burgess both played with injuries for Tech, and their production seemed to suffer for it. But Jarrius Jackson gave an outstanding game, despite playing the final eight minutes with four fouls. He scored 27 points and played every minute of the game.

While Durant’s game was huge, the Horns were fortunate that Tech couldn’t find much of a groove from behind the arc. The Red Raiders are a great three-point shooting team, but only managed 31% against the Horns in Lubbock. We all know that Texas has a major problem defending the perimeter, so if Tech comes out firing, the Horns could be in a big hole early.

The Longhorns also out-rebounded the Red Raiders 43-38 in their first meeting, and it’s going to be important to once again control the glass. Texas can’t afford to allow Texas Tech a lot of second chances, because they will quickly make teams pay with their great shooters and motion offense. Those expecting an easy repeat of the road victory need to be prepared for the very real possibility that the Red Raiders will score a lot more points tonight.

Two of the biggest coaching questions in tonight’s game regard how players will be defended. Last time, Knight put at least two men on Durant almost every time he touched the ball. How does he plan on neutralizing Durant in this contest when a double-team allowed 37 points the first time? If he decides to go with the double-team again, Texas has also shown that the other four players on the floor can also be viable scoring options. Last time the two teams played, D.J. Augustin scored fourteen points, and is coming into this one averaging 21 points in his last four games.

As for Coach Barnes, will he choose to once again challenge A.J. Abrams by giving him the man assignment of their best player? Against Oklahoma State, this scheme worked to frustrate star JamesOn Curry. In this one, the key player would be Jackson. And considering that he scored 27 last time, even a poor defensive showing by Abrams couldn’t be much worse. Regardless of where he puts Abrams, expect to see the 2-3 zone when Barnes is using Dexter Pittman in the middle, and also if Durant or Augustin find themselves in foul trouble.

In the preview for the first game, I outlined the other key players for Tech. In addition to Jackson, Martin Zeno is still a big threat for Coach Knight, while Burgess is hitting threes at a 46.6% clip. While other Raiders chip in a few points each night, these three guys are the ones that the Horns need to key on. And in a worrisome wrinkle, all three are the best Tech shooters from behind the arc.

Many of the keys to tonight’s game will be the same as last time, but here’s a quick rundown for your Fat Tuesday reading pleasure…

Defend the perimeter – Tech is going to hit threes. But in most of Texas’ frustrating losses this season, the culprit has been shoddy three-point defense. The Horns need to limit the Red Raiders to a reasonable amount of points from behind the arc, and when they force a miss they need to ….

Crash the defensive glass – In reality, the Horns would love to win the rebounding margin overall. But limiting second-chance points has been killer in some crunch-time situations, and Tech is a quality shooting team that will take advantage of multiple chances per possession.

Draw fouls – Durant and Augustin are great at getting to the line, but oftentimes seem to forget to do so until the second half. A.J. Abrams would benefit from getting to the line as well, but I’m not holding my breath for that development. Last time out, the Horns had Tech’s Jackson in foul trouble. They need to once again get fouls on the key players for the Red Raiders and knock down those tries from the charity stripe.

Baylor’s Golden Titty Palace (photo from World Stadiums)

Tip: 7 PM Saturday, FSN

It’s only been three weeks, but it’s once again time for the Baylor Bears and Texas Longhorns to tangle. This time, the stage is the Golden Titty Palace along the banks of the Brazos River in Waco. Last time out, Baylor (12-12 overall, 2-9 Big 12) made a great push for an upset behind an insane shooting percentage from star Aaron Bruce. In the end, the Longhorns (18-7, 8-3) prevailed with a late comeback and sealed an 84-79 victory.

The key difference this time? Aaron Bruce won’t even be playing. He sprained his ankle last week and will be missing his second-straight game when the teams meet tomorrow. Bruce accounts for 15% of their offense and plays the second-most minutes on the team with just a hair under 30 per game. In Austin, he led the Bears with 25 points, one of only two Baylor players in double digits. The slim chances the Bears had to pull off the upset at home may have gone down with the Aussie.

Without Bruce, the Baylor threat from outside is much, much weaker. Tweety Carter and Curtis Jarrells can both hit in the low 30-pecents, while Henry Dugat — Bruce’s replacement in Wednesday’s starting lineup — is also shooting the three-ball above 35%, although he takes a few less shots than the others.

If you don’t recall the other stars for Baylor — and I use that term loosely — you can take a quick gander at the first preview. This time around, Baylor will likely try to force it inside even more without Bruce, which makes big man Kevin Rogers an even bigger factor. In the game on Wednesday, Rogers blew up for 27 against Mizzou while Bruce was on the sidelines.

Mamadou Diene is still seeing very limited minutes, so his injury may still be causing problems. On Wednesday, he played only 13 minutes against the Tigers, leaving forwards Tim Bush and Patrick Fields to pick up the slack. Bush saw his playing time jump to nearly 30 minutes in the contest, and secured 11 boards with the extra time on the court.

While Coach Drew and the Bears appear to making a concerted effort to get the ball inside, they are still a good screening team that knows how to get their guards open around the perimeter. Carter is a hell of a freshman who can knock it down from long range, and he’s going to be a consistent scorer over his next three years in the green and gold. Austin-native Jerrells always manages to terrorize the Horns, and he’s coming in on a hot streak; in his last seven games, he’s averaging over 16 points.

At this point, the Longhorns just need to work on neutralizing their disadvantages inside. The Bears outrebounded Texas by three in Austin, which is an acceptable deficit for tomorrow’s game as well. But if it is too one-sided in this contest, it could lead to a lot of easy inside looks for Baylor and a lot of short possessions for the Horns.

In conclusion, the keys for Texas…

Shut down Rogers – Without Bruce, he is going to be the focal point of the offense. He’s definitely going to get his points — 20-plus would not be a surprise — but can Connor Atchley and Damion James keep him from taking over the game?

Limit the rebounds – Baylor is a bigger team, although Texas is playing more man-to-man since the last time the teams met. The Horns must keep the second-chance points to a minimum while securing their own offensive boards.

Draw fouls – What better way to neutralize the Baylor big men than to get them on the bench? Diene will likely see only 10-20 minutes, leaving the Bears with only Rogers, Bush, Fields, and Lomers. The drop in talent is huge after their top three frontcourt guys. Get them to the pine and this will be a cakewalk.

I just rushed back here to “Camp Erwin” after my Spanish class, having been mulling over something for most of the 50 minutes. In my Oklahoma State preview this morning, I completely overlooked the one big difference between tonight’s game and the one played on January 16th — a 6-foot, 10-inch, 290-pound difference.

When the Pokes and Horns tangled last month, the only significant bench minutes in the frontcourt came from Connor Atchley, who had to step up with Damion James in foul trouble. Atchley played 22 of the 55 minutes, while Matt Hill came in for a three-minute stint in which he only recorded a block.

Between that game and tonight’s contest, Coach Barnes has made a commitment to playing Dexter Pittman more. It’s just one small way to try to make up for our small lineup and lack of a post presence. And while Big Dex has yet to play more than nine minutes in a conference game, he is active down low in the short times he is on the floor.

Tonight I’m expecting to see a good seven to ten minutes from the big man, spread out over short appearances like those given to him against ISU on Saturday. Hopefully the small time frames will still allow Dexter a chance to make a difference offensively, as it would be huge for him to pick up some fouls in the paint on Boggan and Monds. If the small chunks make it tough for him to get into the flow, we may end up getting no discernable benefit besides keeping some fouls off of James and Kevin Durant.

So here’s to a solid night from Dex. Eight minutes, five points, and five boards sound good? Works for me, too.

Tip: 8 PM, ESPN

Texas and Oklahoma State have already played almost two full games against each other this year, thanks to that epic three-overtime thriller in Stillwater last month. Tonight, they meet again in Austin under the national spotlight of Big Monday. And with the game on ESPN, you can bet your right testicle that the network will be hyping the shit out of this one. “Remember last time?!!! And what about Kevin Durant????? Did we mention there’s free cheese?!?!?”

In the first contest, it was a back-and-forth battle not only between the Longhorns and Cowboys, but also Durant and OSU’s Mario Boggan. KD finished with a 37-and-12 night, while Boggan matched the 37 points….and pulled down 20 rebounds. It was also Boggan who hit the game-winning three, despite being only a 14% shooter behind the arc at the time.

JamesOn Curry was the other star for the Cowboys last time out, giving a woozy Sean Sutton a 28 point performance. This time around, Curry is sporting a Coolio hairstyle and an 18.4 scoring average.

Texas enjoyed much of its success in the first game thanks to their ability to get defensive stopper Marcus Dove into foul trouble. Dove played only 21 minutes, leaving less-talented men to handle Durant. That…. didn’t work out so well. If Texas wants to enjoy a victory this time around, they must again remove Dove from the equation.

Senior David Monds has seen a sharp upswing in his minutes with the injury to big man Obi Muonelo. Kenny Cooper had been initially tabbed to start in place of Muonelo, but Monds’ strong play and senior leadership has ensured that the Cowboys aren’t missing a beat. With both Monds and Boggan on its plate, the Longhorn frontcourt is going to have to work hard on the glass and in the paint.

The Cowboys outrebounded the Horns by a 51-46 margin in their 55 minutes of competition, and enjoyed a 46-38 advantage on points from the paint. In particular, Texas was atrocious on the offensive glass, giving up 20 offensive boards and 20 second-chance points. Texas can afford to be outrebounded by a slim margin again, but not if they are getting absolutely killed by OSU’s offensive rebounders.

When I previewed the first matchup, I noted transition basketball as a key for the Horns. Against the bigger, more physical Cowboys, I still feel this is important for Texas. And when you consider that Oklahoma State is playing just two days after a tough, double-overtime victory over Texas Tech, running them ragged is a great idea.

The subplots of this game are everywhere, starting with Coach Rick Barnes’ attempt to become the winningest coach in Texas history. In addition, the Horns are putting a 10-2 home record in Big Monday games on the line and are hoping to take the edge in the all-time series with the Pokes, which is currently knotted at 34 victories apiece. Oklahoma State, meanwhile, is looking for their first conference road win in nine tries, a streak dating back to February 4th of last year.

This looks to be another great game, yet 1,700 tickets still remained as of 2 P.M. yesterday. If you’re in the Austin area, there’s absolutely no reason you shouldn’t be at this one. Besides, didn’t you listen to ESPN’s hype machine? Last time it went to triple overtime! And there’s Kevin Durant! And, of course, that free cheese.

Tip: 12:30 PM, ESPN+

Tip-off is just eight hours away, and with it comes a chance for Texas to regroup and refocus on the road ahead. The next five games are winnable, although two are on the road. It’s key to hold serve at home and try to steal one — if not both — of the road games.

The opponents at hand are the fairly inexperienced Iowa State Cyclones (11-11 overall, 3-6 Big 12), which is good for a Texas team coming off of back-to-back losses. The Cyclones have played tough in a handful of games — taking Kansas to overtime serves as a good example — yet have also been absolutely abysmal in many others, such as a 20-point thrashing at home to Mizzou last weekend. They are losers of six of their last seven, with only a home victory over the Baylor Bears serving to break up the futility.

This matchup is a clash of styles, as it pits the league’s highest scoring offense against one of its most anemic. Texas (16-7, 6-3) is putting out over 83 points per game, while Iowa State only scores 61 in each contest. Texas has nearly 70 possessions per game, while Iowa State is just above 64 per forty minutes. While the difference of only six total possessions may seem slim, there are only 72 of the NCAA’s 336 Division I teams that play a slower pace than the Cyclones. In this game, more than ever, the Horns should look to push the pace, force turnovers, and get transition looks.

Guard Mike Taylor and freshman forward Wesley Johnson are eating up most of the minutes for new Iowa State coach Greg McDermott, whose personal streak of three straight NCAA appearances appears to be ending. Taylor and Johnson also lead the team in points per game, combining for 29 a game. The young Johnson is doing amazing things down low for the Cyclones with nine double-doubles on the year. He’s also averaging over 9.5 boards per game in conference play and is the second-best rebounder in the Big 12, behind only Kevin Durant.

For Texas, a major problem in recent games has been giving wide-open looks from behind the arc. Fortunately, that shouldn’t be much of a concern against Iowa State. Of the four Cyclones who have taken a significant number of threes, only Taylor is hitting more than 35% of his attempts. While our rough perimeter defense is certainly in need of repair, it appears that in this one the Horns might squeak by without actually having to improve.

In an interview on Friday morning, Coach Rick Barnes spoke about increasing playing time for Dexter Pittman and moving to a bigger lineup. This could also help that perimeter defense as it frees up Kevin Durant and his ridiculously long arms on the wings and corners. Damion James and Connor Atchley can also provide quality defense on the outside of the back line with their length. Opposing guards can still certainly still shoot over the shorter Abrams and Augustin, but this move should serve to improve defense. Hopefully Big Dex will be able to give the Horns at least a solid ten minutes in this one.

The Cyclones are third in the conference in rebounding, so Texas will have to work a bit harder at maintaining their average of 40 boards per game. When the stat being evaluated is rebounding margin, both squads slip a little bit down the list, although Texas still holds the edge.

If Barnes holds true to his bigger-lineup claims, the Longhorns should have immediately improve on the glass, but they will still have to keep 6-foot, 11-inch center Jiri Hubalek in check. He’s pulling down almost seven boards a game, and is particularly good on the offensive glass. For a Texas team that has given up some frustrating second and third chances, it’s going to be important to keep Hubalek’s back-breaking offensive boards to a minimum.

To be honest, there’s no reason that Texas shouldn’t run away with this game. but the Longhorns have not put anybody away with ease since the Oklahoma game in early January. If Texas takes care of business, this should be well in hand by midway through the second. If not, yet another lesser team could find themselves within striking distance in the waning minutes of a game at the Erwin Center.

There were still just over 2,000 reserved seats for sale as of noon on Friday. There’s no reason why this team shouldn’t have a turnstile of at least 14,000 every night, so bring the family, some friends, and even that shady guy who lives a few doors away. Bring your neighbor’s kids and your son’s tee-ball teammates. Hell, bring kids you don’t even know. They are offering $5 seats for fans 14-and-under, so pack as many as you can in the minivan and get to the Drum. For those of you elsewhere in the state, the game will be telecast on ESPN+, so check your local listings for the affiliate.

Post-game coming at you sometime Saturday night, with the defensive breakdown and a look ahead on Sunday, followed by Oklahoma State preview on Monday morning. It’s a busy, busy weekend here at Longhorn Road Trip.