LSU Basketball Sees Prime Opportunity To Notch Positive NCAA Tournament Win Against No. 10 Texas Tech

Wade says Tigers need to play best game of season to have chance against Red Raiders

Will Wade said it's no small secret that LSU has allowed some prime opportunities to improve their NCAA tournament seeding slip away. The Tigers have lost games to Saint Louis, Alabama and Kentucky, all teams that are pushing for high seeds in the tournament come March. 

The purple and gold have an opportunity to notch a huge win on their NCAA tournament belt when No. 10 Texas Tech visits Baton Rouge in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge. 

"It's a great opportunity, it's a high level team. We've squandered some opporunity, I don't think there's any secret about that," Wade said. "At some point you've gotta start taking advantage of them and it'd be a great time to start on Saturday. It's a tremendous team and just a really good opportunity for our guys."

The Red Raiders (11-5, 4-4) program under current head coach Chris Beard has undergone a level of success that not many reach on a consistent basis. In back-to-back NCAA tournaments, Beard led Texas Tech to the Elite Eight in 2018 and then the National Championship game in 2019, a close loss to Virginia.

Like LSU a season ago, Texas Tech would've been an NCAA tournament team and this season will be no different. Despite holding that top 10 ranking in the country, the Red Raiders do find themselves on a two game slide after losses to Baylor and West Virginia, also top 20 teams in the country. 

An all around team with an extremely potent offense, Texas Tech is led by one of the top guards in the country in Mac McClung. The Georgetown transfer is averaging 17.2 points per game on 44% shooting from the field and will be a guy the Tigers must watch all afternoon.

"He's a three-level scorer. He's elite in transition. Efficient mid-range player, gets to the rim," Wade said. "You have to guard him without fouling.  His efficiency lies with his ability to get to the free throw line and what a good free throw shooter he is. One of the best scorers in college basketball."

After a two game losing streak of their own, Wade and the Tigers bounced back with a critical road win against Texas A&M where they shut the Aggies down for the final 8:50 of the game without a field goal. A couple of areas Wade said the Tigers must continue to grow on the defensive end is in the rebounding department and communication.

"Some of it's communication, some of it's having better defensive discipline," Wade said. "They're a great offensive rebounding team so being able to hold them to one shot would really help our defense. Our first shot defense is not that bad we're just giving up multiple shots and the numbers equation starts working against you."

Tip-off is scheduled for 1 p.m. in the PMAC and will likely be a hot ticket for limited seating for the matchup. Wade knows this is an opportunity LSU won't want to waste and it needs to be the most complete performance of the season to pull out a win.

"They're [Texas Tech] relentless on both ends, relentless on offense and defense so it'll take our best game to date to give us an opportunity to win this game," Wade said. "Ton of respect to them and we're excited about the opportunity to play this year."