The 6-seeded Texas Tech basketball team will begin its stay in the 2024 NCAA Tournament by taking on 11-seed NC State on Thursday in Pittsburgh.
The Red Raiders enter this edition of March Madness with a 23-10 record while the Wolfpack are 22-14 after winning five games in five days to capture the ACC Tournament championship to secure its place in March Madness.
The winner of this matchup will take on either 3-seed Kentucky and 14-seed Oakland in the second round. Who will get to that game? A look at the matchup from both angles.
Texas Tech Red Raiders To Know
Health will be a key factor for the Red Raiders. Darrion Williams (11.4 points, 7.5 rebounds per game) sustained an ankle injury in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 Tournament against BYU and was held out of the semifinal loss against Houston as a precaution. McCasland said after the loss to Houston that Williams should be good to go for the NCAA Tournament.
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Meanwhile, starting center Warren Washington (9.9 points, 7.4 rebounds) has missed each of the last five games and played just 13 minutes since Feb. 12 with a foot injury. The status of Tech’s second-leading rebounder has been day-to-day the last few weeks.
Texas Tech’s starting backcourt of Pop Isaacs (15.9 points, 3.5 assists) and Joe Toussaint (12.1 points, 4.3 assists) handle the bulk of scoring and playmaking duties. They’re also the only players to have appeared in each of Tech’s 33 games.
The Red Raiders also feature sharpshooters in Chance McMillian (10.9 points) and Kerwin Walton (8.4), who shoot 39.6% and 47.0% from 3-point range, respectively.
NC State Wolfpack Players To Know
The Wolfpack have four players who average double-digit scoring numbers, led by guard DJ Horne. Horne was a teammate of Tech’s Warren Washington and Devan Cambridge last year at Arizona State. This season, he’s averaging 16.5 points per game while shooting 41.6% from 3-point range.
D.J. Burns Jr. is a 6-foot-9, 275-pound forward who does a little bit of everything. He averages 12.2 points, 4.0 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game and converts 51% of his total shot attempts.
Other double-digit scorers include Jayden Taylor and Casey Morsell. Taylor shoots 36.5% from 3 and averages 12.2 points while Morsell averages 11.6 points per game.
Key Component
Texas Tech enters the NCAA Tournament having won four of its last five games. The Red Raiders won the rebounding battle in each of those contests, something the team only achieved three times in their first 15 games of Big 12 play.
On the season, NC State has a rebounding margin of negative-1.1 per game. Only Mohammed Diarra, the Wolfpack’s 6-foot-10 forward, averages more than 4.2 rebounds per game individually — he averages 7.2 per game on his own.
