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Red Raiders Take on Seton Hall in the NIT

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#5 seeded Texas Tech takes on #4 seeded Seton Hall tonight in the NIT Tournament. The National Invitational Tournament pits teams that didn’t get a berth in the NCAA Tournament against each other for, well, what amounts to a “B” trophy.

That’s okay. After the season that both Texas Tech and Seton Hall had, any type of trophy would be nice. The Red Raiders finished up their season with a 17 and 15 record and an 80 to 68 loss to Kansas in the Big 12 Conference Tournament. Texas Tech lost 8 of their last 10 games. They went 5 and 5 ATS.

Seton Hall finished their season at 19 and 12. Unlike Texas Tech, the Pirates did very well down the stretch straight-up, winning 7 out of 10. ATS was a different story for “the Hall” as they went 3 and 7 against the spread in their last 10 games. Let’s check out the NCAAB odds on this game.

Texas Tech Red Raiders +9 -110 O 160 ½ -110
Seton Hall Pirates -9 -110 U 160 ½ -110

Tip-off: 9:00 pm EST
TV: ESPN 2

There’s no doubt that the Texas Tech because they play out of the Big East Conference but the trends don’t point to any team having an advantage in this game.

  • The Texas Tech Red Raiders are 6 and 1 ATS in their last 7 non-conference games.
  • The Texas Tech Red Raiders are 0 and 6 ATS in their last 6 games as a road underdog of 7 to 12 ½ points.
  • The Seton Hall Pirates are 0 and 6 ATS in their last 6 home games.
  • The Seton Hall Pirates are 0 and 4 in their last 4 home games versus a team with a losing record.

The one positive trend above is in regards to Texas Tech who were receiving only 8 ½ points when the lines opened but is now receiving 9 points yet the consensus from sports gamblers is that Texas Tech is going to cover the spread in this game.

Will they? The answer is yes. Even though Seton Hall is the better team, the odds makers have grossly exaggerated how much better they are than Texas Tech.

The Red Raiders may not have any quality wins in their last 10 games but they have covered the spread 5 times in those last 10 games. Overall, the Red Raiders are 15 and 11 ATS.

They’ve covered spreads against Kansas, when losing by only 12 as 17 ½ point favorites, Colorado, winning 82 to 67 as a 1 point underdog, and Oklahoma losing 72 to 71 as 6 point underdogs in 3 out of their last 10 games.

Texas Tech isn’t a great or possibly even a good team, but they definitely shouldn’t be 9 point underdogs to the Seton Hall Pirates. Texas Tech averages 73 points a game.

Seton Hall allows 75.1. The Pirates do score around 80.5 on average per game, but can be goaded into a slow down game like when they lost to Notre Dame 68 to 58 in the Big East Tournament.

I imagine that Texas Tech will go ahead and try to employ a few slow down tactics in this game. Another thing in Tech’s favor is the fact that it was announced that Pat Knight, Bobby’s kid, would return as the Red Raiders’ coach next season. That has to have settled some fears in the minds of the Red Raiders’ players.

If the spread were around 4 ½ to maybe even 6 in this game, then I’d go with Seton Hall. But I just feel that 9 points are too many to give up to Texas Tech. I have to bet Texas Tech to cover the spread.

Winning Pick: Texas Tech +9 > > JOIN TO BET!