MORGANTOWN, W.Va – Last season, Texas Tech took the Big 12 Conference by storm under new head coach Mark Adams.
It finished the year a perfect 18-0 at home and with a 12-6 mark in league play. It advanced to the Big 12 Championship Final and ended the year with a narrow loss to Duke in the Sweet 16.
In year two under Adams, things look pretty different. The Red Raiders only returned five players, including just one starter from last season. After not losing back-to-games in 2021-22, TTU has lost seven straight games for the first time since 2012.
Tech entered Big 12 play with only two blemishes on their schedule. They now sit at 10-9 overall and winless in league action.
Despite that losing streak, Red Raider Nation has continued to show up at United Supermarkets Arena. All three of TTU’s conference home games have exceeded 14,000 fans. WVU assistant coach Josh Eilert is expecting another rowdy crowd on Wednesday.
Tip of the cap to Chris Beard. He really got that environment going,” Eilert said. “They really show up for those games and they are locked in.”
Through 11 games, Tech is averaging a crowd of 13,367 spectators. That ranks 18th nationally and second in the Big 12. Kansas leads the league in that category with 16,300 per game. WVU is fourth with an average of 11,312.
“I told the guys yesterday this is probably going to be the second-best environment we’ve played in so far. They are still packing that place regardless of what they’ve done record-wise and their struggles,” Eilert said. “They are really putting people in the seats. Their student section is as good as anybody in the country.”
Eilert says the “hardest environment” WVU has been in so far was at Xavier for the Big 12-Big East Battle in December. The Musketeers hand the Mountaineers their second loss of the season.
That’s also the second-largest crowd the Mountaineers have played in front of in a true road game this season with 10,460 in attendance. More than 10,800 showed up for the Backyard Brawl in Pittsburgh.
“We have to get in there, stay together, work together and figure out how we come out of there with a win,” Eilert said.
West Virginia (11-8, 1-6) and Texas Tech (10-9, 0-7) tip off in Lubbock at 7 p.m. on Wednesday. The game will be televised on ESPNU.