By Jeff Walker | A-J SPORTS EDITOR

Texas Tech has been difficult to evaluate through five games. The Red Raiders, playing a faster pace under first-year head coach Pat Knight, haven’t played a team yet from a conference that typically produces more than one NCAA Tournament team.

Tech will get its litmus test in the next two days.

The Red Raiders face No. 4 Pittsburgh today in the semifinals of the Legends Classic. The winner will face the winner of Washington State-Mississippi State.

For the first time this season, the Red Raiders will face a team with plenty of big bodies up front.

The Panthers’ starting front line includes 6-foot-6 Sam Young, 6-7 DeJuan Blair and 6-8 Tyrell Biggs. Pittsburgh also will bring in 6-10 Gary McGhee off the bench.

“We’re going to have to learn to block out and that’s something we’ll work on all day for the next couple days,” Knight said following Tuesday’s 73-64 win over Southeastern Louisiana. “If you watch their games, it’s really not (about) what they run. They just go in the paint and put it back in. We’re going to have to push it up ourselves and we’re going to have to shoot well, get some shots on the break and hit some threes.

“I’m looking forward to it. We’re playing the No. 4-ranked team in the country up in New Jersey in a major tournament. It will be good for these kids to see what we’re going to have to face later on in the year. There’s no way we’ll shy away. We’ll mix it up and go from there.”

Young, who was selected to the Preseason All-Big East Team, leads the Panthers with an average of 19.4 points per game. He’s coming off a career-best 33 points in Pittsburgh’s 74-60 win against Belmont. The Panthers played that game without Blair, their leading rebounder at 13.3 boards per contest. The sophomore missed his first game of the season with swelling in his right knee. He practiced on Wednesday, though, and is expected to play against the Red Raiders, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Pittsburgh, predicted to finish a close third in the deep Big East Conference, has played a slightly more difficult schedule than Tech with games against Mid-American Conference teams Miami (Ohio) and Akron. The other opponents have rivaled what the Red Raiders have faced – Farleigh Dickinson, Division II-Indiana (Pa.) and Belmont.

Tech, meanwhile, has averaged 101.4 points per game, with much of that attributed to the opposition and the Red Raiders’ new faster pace. Hitting 167 against Division II East Central (Okla.) has helped, but Tech is averaging 85 points per game in its other four contests against St. Francis (Pa.), Sam Houston State, Eastern Kentucky and Southeastern Louisiana. The 1994-95 squad holds the school record in average points per game at 88.8.

Following Tuesday’s 11-point win, Tech’s closest game thus far, senior guard Alan Voskuil said that because the Red Raiders weren’t involved in another blowout, the team could benefit from that against the Panthers.

“Of course the game against Pittsburgh isn’t going to be a blowout,” said Voskuil, who is tied with John Roberson for the team lead at 16 points per game. “We’ve got to go out there and play and show what we’ve got to do to win games. We’ve got to play all 40 minutes instead of just 20.”

Added Roberson: “It made us play defense, which in the past we hadn’t been doing too good. … We get that confidence about playing defense and we’re going to have to play that way against Pittsburgh.”

College basketball

• Who: Texas Tech vs. No. 4 Pittsburgh

• What: Legends Classic semifinals

• When: 6:30 p.m. today

• Records: Tech 5-0; Pitt 5-0

• TV: HDNet

• Radio: KKAM 1340 AM

To comment on this story:

jeff.walker@lubbockonline.com 766-8735

terry.greenberg@lubbockonline.com 766-8700