5 Things to Know about Texas Tech

HawgBeat's coverage of Arkansas's journey in the 2021 NCAA tournament is present by Wright's Barbecue. Already serving up the best meats in Arkansas, you can now also find Wright's meat rub and sauces at Walmart and Walmart.com.

The Razorbacks took down Colgate 85-68 to advance to the round of 32 on Friday morning. With No. 6 seed Texas Tech also victorious versus 11-seed Utah State, winning 65-53, the Hogs and Red Raiders are set to meet on Sunday.

Despite Arkansas's 3-seed, Texas Tech opened as the one-point favorite in Vegas and 538's prediction model gives the Hogs a 49% chance to advance.

Tipoff time is TBD but here's what you need to know about the Red Raiders ahead of round two...

Arkansas fans should be familiar with Texas Tech leading scorer Mac McClung. The former Georgetown Hoya had the Hogs in his top seven after withdrawing his name from the 2020 NBA Draft, but he opted to head to Chris Beard's squad in Lubbock.

After leading the Red Raiders with 16.1 points per game in the regular season and finishing fourth in scoring in the Big12, McClung was the unanimous choice for conference newcomer of the year.

The 6-foot-2, 185-pound guard from Virginia has been more efficient for Texas Tech than he was at Georgetown even, scoring 42% from the field and 33% from behind the arc.

McClung has 10 games of 20+ points this season and limiting the junior's touches will be key to pulling out a victory. In Texas Tech's last two losses to Baylor and Texas, McClung was held to seven points.

Texas Tech head coach Chris Beard has had even more experience in NCAA tournament games than Eric Musselman through their six years of coaching DI basketball.

Beard took UALR to the round of 32 after winning the Sun Belt in 2016, and his first matchup was a double overtime thriller versus Purdue. After winning by two, UALR fell to Iowa State by 17.

Beard had the Red Raiders in the Big Dance by his second season, making it all the way to the Elite 8. As a 3-seed, Texas Tech beat SFA, Florida, and Purdue before succumbing to eventual NCAA champ Villanova.

Ranked 9th in the final AP poll for 2018, Texas Tech entered the tournament as a 3-seed once again. They beat Northern Kentucky, Buffalo by 20, 2-seed Michigan by 19 and 1-seed Gonzaga by six to get to the Final Four. Michigan State brought the semifinal game within 1 one point with less than three to play but the Red Raiders closed out on a 9-0 run to head to the program's first national final.

Facing Virginia, Beard's guys fought to the end but the Cavaliers outscored the Red Raiders 17-9 in overtime. The head coach's success at Texas Tech had his name at the top of the most-wanted lists when the Razorbacks fired Mike Anderson.

Including Texas Tech's come-from-behind win over Utah State, Beard is now 10-3 in NCAA tournament games.

Texas Tech finished the year ranked No. 21 in the AP Top 25 poll. Compare that to popular analytics based rankings, the Red Raiders are 22 in Sagarin, 18 in KenPom, 16 in NET and nine in BPI.

Unlike Colgate, which had a high NET compared to their low analytical rankings, Texas Tech's numbers and strength of schedule add up.

While scoring 73 points per game, Texas Tech's strong suit is their defense. They limit opponents to 63.4 points per game, tied for 26th in the nation. The Red Raiders average 7.3 steals per game with a +5.1 turnover margin.

More Texas Tech Stats:

44.3 FG% • 34.6 3FG% • 71.1 FT% • 35.1 RPG • 13.1 APG. • 7.3 SPG • 4.1 BPG • 16.0 FT

Texas Tech owns a 39-40 advantage in the series history against Arkansas. Since 2000, the two squads have split four games 2-2 with Arkansas's last win coming in the 2016 SEC/Big12 Challenge in overtime. Dusty Hannahs dropped 25 points along with 17 from Moses Kingsley.

Texas Tech won their last game versus Arkansas on January 26, 2019, also in the SEC/Big12 Challenge. Sixteen points from Daniel Gafford, 11 from Jalen Harris and Mason Jones weren't enough to overcome the Red Raiders' 10 3-pointers.

Musselman faced Beard and Texas Tech in the 2017-18 season, falling 82-76 in overtime.

Besides Mac McClung's obvious impact on the scoreboard, the Red Raiders have three other double-digit scorers in Kyler Edwards, Kevin McCullar and Terrence Shannon. Marcus Santos-Silva adds another 8.5 points per game with a team-high 6.5 rebounds. Four more Tech players average between 5.8 and 4.7 points per game.

Chris Beard spread the minutes out wide during the regular season and he played nine in their first round win versus Utah State.

The Texas Tech Red Raiders have one Arkansas native on their roster–junior Avery Benson. Benson walked on at Texas Tech from Southwest Christian Academy in Springdale, Arkansas, and he's one of just three players (McCullar, Edwards) who were on the roster for the Red Raiders' 2019 championship run.

Benson doesn't play much but the 6-foot-4 guard did play five minutes and scored a three-pointer versus Baylor in this year's Big12 tournament.