BY JEFF WALKER l AVALANCHE-JOURNAL

Trying to simulate the expected crowd noise for its first true road game, the Texas Tech men’s basketball team practiced on Thursday amid blaring music in the auxiliary gym at United Spirit Arena.

The Red Raiders have played twice on the road — at the Legends Classic in Newark, N.J. — but this will be their first chance of playing on an opponent’s home floor.

The road wasn’t kind for Tech last season as the Red Raiders finished 3-12 away from United Spirit Arena, 2-10 in true road games.

“We piped in crowd noise into the practice gym and played music. It was kind of interesting to start because it was a little different,” Tech head coach Pat Knight said. “Now, they had to realize they had to speak above the noise level that we had, so we’re trying different things that we haven’t done in the past because our road record was so bad last year. … That’s why teams play so well at home. They practice there every day, they’re used to the baskets and their comfortable.”

Lamar (6-3) won its first five games — three at home — before losing three of its last four. The Cardinals’ losses came in Kentucky — one at Rupp Arena and two in a tournament at the University of Louisville.

The Red Raiders (7-1) haven’t played in more than a week, a 72-69 win against Wichita State.

Tech was required to take three days off so the players could concentrate on final exams, but Knight said the team used the rest of the time to work on fundamentals.

“We really broke things down, started going back to things like one-on-one, two-on-two … all the way up to five-on-five working defensively and offensively,” Knight said. “I can’t see that doing anything but help us. … I enjoyed it, but I don’t think my players did. I think this break was really good for us from a fundamental standpoint.”

The news wasn’t all good for the Red Raiders during the break, though. Tech will be shorthanded today as junior Nick Okorie and Michael Prince are nursing ankle injuries.

Prince suffered his injury against Wichita State, while Okorie suffered a bad ankle sprain during practice. Prince made the trip to Beaumont, but Okorie stayed in Lubbock to continue rehabilitation. Tech trainer Jon Murray didn’t have an estimate for when Okorie might be able to return. Murray said Prince will be a gametime decision.

The injuries will force Tech to use more of its bench, and change how some players have been used thus far. Mike Singletary has been one of the first players off the bench, but he could get the start in place of Okorie. Singletary, a sophomore, is third on the team in scoring (11.9) and is averaging almost the same amount of points as Okorie (11.8). Singletary also hit the game-winning 3-pointer with four seconds remaining in Tech’s last game against Wichita State.

“I think that’s a confidence builder,” Knight said of the game-winning shot. “Once a kid gets one of those in — and I give kids credit to even take the shot because it takes guts — but we had five guys in there who wanted to take the shot. (Singletary) set a nice ball screen, made a nice play and they gave it to him and he knocked down the shot. From a confidence standpoint, it should really help him from here on out.”

Tech needed late heroics in last season’s New Year’s Day meeting with Lamar. John Roberson hit a pair of free throws with 22 seconds remaining to give the Red Raiders a 79-77 home victory.

To comment on this story:
jeff.walker@lubbockonline.com 766-8735
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uE074 College basketball
uE06E Who: Texas Tech at Lamar
uE06E When: 7 p.m. Saturday
uE06E Where: Montagne Center, Beaumont
uE06E Records: Tech 7-1; Lamar 6-3
uE06E Radio: KKAM 1340 AM
uE06E TV: None