The grind of the regular season comes to a head when the Texas Tech basketball team visits Arizona on Valentine's Day in a key Big 12 Conference matchup for both teams.
The top-ranked Wildcats (23-1, 10-1) suffered their first loss of the season Monday at Kansas and would like to avoid a skid like the one the 16th-ranked Red Raiders (18-6, 8-3) just snapped out of.
This will be the only meeting between Team USA coaches and friends, with Grant McCasland trying to get the better of Tommy Lloyd. Arizona took two of the three meetings with Texas Tech last season and appears on its way to a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Texas Tech has its own March Madness aspirations, and knocking off the Wildcats on their home floor would do wonders to their profile.
Clash of styles when Texas Tech basketball visits Arizona
You can't find two teams that operate more different from one another than Texas Tech and Arizona. The Wildcats have a heavy post-presence and rarely take 3-pointers. Meanwhile, the Red Raiders live (and sometimes die) by the 3-point shot.
Arizona averages just 5.9 3-point makes and 16.4 3-point attempts per game, ranking 334th and 354th in the nation, respectively. Texas Tech is tied for sixth in the nation with 11.5 3-point makes and 22nd with 29.3 3-point attempts per game.
Something has to give, right?
For Texas Tech, the love of the 3-ball is a double-edged sword. Surrounding JT Toppin with shooters is obviously the best way to utilize his skillset. However, the Red Raiders can sometimes get too complacent on offense and settle for 3s rather than trying to get to the bucket. Texas Tech ranks 311th in free throw attempts, averaging just 17.3 per game. Arizona is 14th in the country in this category, getting to the stripe 26.2 times.
The Red Raiders have great 3-point shooters, but the volume can stand to be leveled out a little bit. On the season, 72% of the total shot attempts from the starting backcourt of Christian Anderson, Donovan Atwell and Jaylen Petty have been 3-pointers. Atwell's had 92% of his attempts from 3, Petty 70% and Anderson 59%.
Atwell is a gunner from 3 and Petty's on the small side, so banging in the paint probably isn't the best course of action. Anderson, however, has become more reliant on the 3-pointer as of late. Over his last seven games played, 71% of the Texas Tech point guard's shots have been from 3. That number was about 55% in the team's first 16 games of the season.
To be fair, it's hard to ask the eighth- and 13th-best 3-pointer shooters in the country (Atwell and Anderson, respectively) to cool it with the 3s, but it's something to monitor.
The Red Raiders can't stop and won't stop shooting 3s, but to get the best shot at the Wildcats (who are sure to be more motivated coming off their first loss of the season) they might be better off trying to challenge the paint more.
Texas Tech basketball stat dump
It's that time of year where we starting unloading the notebook on random stats that may be fun to track the rest of the regular season. Here we go.
Christian Anderson: Assist master
While Elijah Hawkins had the best passing season in Texas Tech history last season, he's already being topped by his former teammate. Last season, Hawkins had 16 games with 7 or more assists, seven games with 10 or more and set the Tech single-season record with 226 helpers.
With seven regular season games left, Christian Anderson currently has 15 games with 7 or more assists, seven games with 10 or more assists and is currently at 176. Through games on Feb. 11, Anderson ranks third in the county at 7.7 assists per game. Keeping that same pace, Anderson will not only break Hawkins' single-season assist record, he'll do it before postseason play begins.
Donovan Atwell & Christian Anderson: 3-point maestros
Assists aren't the only single-season record Anderson is chasing. He and Donovan Atwell are neck-and-neck for setting the new program mark for made 3-pointers in a season.
The record is currently 94, set by Cory Carr during the 1996-97 season. Atwell has 87 and Anderson 78. Both should shatter the record in no time (Atwell averages 3.78 made 3s per game, Anderson 3.54).
JT Toppin: Double-double manimal
JT Toppin recorded his 15th double-double of the season against Colorado, bringing his total to 34 in his two years at Texas Tech. That ties Toppin for the third-most among Red Raiders (he also had 12 in his freshman year at New Mexico, though those don't count toward this mark).
The record for most double-doubles as a Red Raider is 50, so Texas Tech would need to play another 16 games (which would include nine postseason games, so three in the Big 12 Tournament plus six in the NCAA Tournament, which would require getting to the national championship) and Toppin would need to get a double-double in each contest for him to match that record this season.
He could also return for his senior season and easily break the record. Just throwing that out there.
Toppin currently averages 21.5 points and 10.9 rebounds per game. He's on pace to be the first Red Raider since Tony Battie (also in 1996-97) to average double-digit rebounds per game and would be the first Red Raider since Will Flemons in 1992-93 to average at least 20 points and 10 rebounds per game.
Big 12 Conference standings update
Texas Tech has seven games left in the regular season, four on the road and three at home. Three of those road games are at Iowa State, BYU and Arizona.
Making up ground in the Big 12 Conference standings will be tough. Taking care of business at home against the likes of Kansas State, Cincinatti and TCU is as important as anything. But to get better seeding in the conference tournament, and boost their NCAA Tournament resume, the Red Raiders could stand to get at least two of these final road games (which includes next week's game at Arizona State).
After Iowa State's loss at TCU earlier this week, the Red Raiders and Cyclones are tied for the No. 4 spot in the conference standings. BYU, UCF and West Virginia are deadlocked behind them at 6-5 apiece. Arizona and Houston (who meet next week) are tied for first at 10-1 with Kansas lingering at 9-2.
There's no telling where this thing is going to wind up. For example, Arizona has a gauntlet of Texas Tech, BYU, Houston, Baylor, Kansas and Iowa State up next. And the Cyclones have meetings with Kansas (who they've already lost to) Houston, BYU, Texas Tech and Arizona on the docket.
Stealing one at Arizona will take a lot of pressure off of Texas Tech. It's a tall task, but it can go a long way.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech basketball vs Arizona to highlight contrasting styles