Tickets cost $9 for reserved seats and $4 for Texas Tech students.

The game will not be televised.

Tickets are available by calling (806) 742-TECH or on the Web at texastech.com.

For the second time in the first round National Invitation Tournament game, Seton Hall forward Herb Pope had struck Cohadarevic below the belt, sending him to the floor. And for the second time in two weeks, officials ejected an opposing player for punching a Texas Tech athlete.

Good grief this story line is getting tired.

Linehan

College basketball is known for its physicality; athletes who don’t want regular incidental and frequent intentional contact know to stick with track or golf. But what is with the onslaught of intentional fouls? Is this type of thing on the rise?

It certainly looks that way, particularly given Tuesday night’s events. Not long after Pope’s attack on Cohadarevic, a similar fist-to-groin incident occurred in the Mississippi State-Jackson State NIT game.

Kansas forward Markieff Morris, left, is fouled by Texas Tech forward Darko Cohadarevic while driving to the basket during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game at the Big 12 Conference men's tournament, Thursday, March 11, 2010, in Kansas City, Mo. Kansas won 80-68. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Jackson State’s Phillip Williams assaulted Mississippi State’s Dee Bost on the court, with ESPN cameras clearly capturing the thrust as Williams threw a fist at Bost’s groin. Twice in one night athletes gave up on playing tough — but at least clean — defense, and instead resorted to violence.

The defense, of course, is that these players are provoked. That was many fans’ argument after Baylor’s Brittney Griner slugged Lady Raider Jordan Barncastle on March 3. In fairness, Barncastle committed a foul against Griner immediately preceding that punch. But I’ve seen similar offenses in other basketball games
played by both men and women, and never was the response so violent.

Similarly, Pope reportedly claimed that socking Cohadarevic was simply a response to the Tech player hitting him in the head earlier in the game. That move, like Pope’s first punch, apparently went unnoticed by the officiating staff.

There are two realities at work here. First is that post play has undoubtedly gotten more physical as the athletes themselves have had more physical presence to work with. The typical college center is no longer 6-foot-7 and 185 pounds; wait, I take that back, the typical men’s basketball center doesn’t meet those measurements. But just as Griner supporters love to herald her as changing the face of women’s basketball, she’s also changing the size, making post play more physical and intense.

That can also be seen on the men’s side, where two games really unfold on the court: a shoot-out between guards, who play little off-ball defense, and a wrestling match among post players jockeying for position under the basket.

But just as much as the athletes have gotten more physical, it seems the officials are letting them get away with more contact. “Letting them play” is basketball speak for not calling ticky-tack fouls, and while I appreciate the pace that version of officiating provides, it sets a precedent that athletes may take liberties with how ethically they defend opponents.

Griner and Barncastle had an extremely physical battle going throughout much of that game leading up to the punch, and no doubt officials could have done more to rein it in.

Cohadarevic said after the Seton Hall game that when he complained about Pope’s first punch, one official told him to stop whining.

Coaches will never stop recruiting big, strong, aggressive athletes because those same athletes are the reason they win games. Therefore it falls on officiating crews to set the tone not only in single games but across leagues that they will not tolerate figurative or literal below-the-belt shots.

Twice this month Texas Tech basketball has made national headlines not for winning games, but for taking blows. Good for the Raiders for not committing the crimes, but I’m done using boxing analogies to describe basketball games.

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For Tech’s trio of seniors, the WNIT represents an opportunity to make up for losing the last four games of the season that kept the Lady Raiders out of their first NCAA tournament since 2005.

Tech's Monique Smalls takes a shot against Baylor's Morghan Medlock Wednesday night at United Spirit Arena. Baylor beat Tech 69-60. (John A. Bowersmith/Lubbock Avalanche-Journal)

“We didn’t finish our conference strong,” senior Jordan Murphree said. “We had a chance to go to the NCAA and we didn’t, so we’re getting a second opportunity, and hopefully we’ll make the most of it.”

Tech coach Kristy Curry declined an invitation to the WNIT last season, citing the makeup of her team. With 10 freshmen and sophomores this year, Curry welcomed the opportunity to provide postseason experience for such a young squad.

Gaining that experience isn’t all the freshmen are playing for, though.

“I hope to get a championship,” freshman point guard Monique Smalls said. “I just want to win. I don’t care about anything that happened in the past. I just want to move forward.”

The Lady Raiders (17-14) will have the opportunity to do so on their home court, where they are 13-5 this season.

In the past, attendance figures have been a factor in determining where each round of the WNIT is held, so
Tech could host multiple games with a strong enough turnout.

Athletic director Gerald Myers urged fans to return to United Spirit Arena in support of a team that he said has “a bright future.”

“Our fans here, in women’s basketball particularly, in the past have been the best fans in college basketball for women,” Myers said. “The passion, the energy, the enthusiasm for women’s basketball that we’ve seen here in the past is second to none.”

The meeting will provide a friendly rivalry for Curry and Houston coach Joe Curl. Curry was an assistant coach on Curl’s staff during the 1993-94 season at Stephen F. Austin, and the two have remained close.

As all teams do around tournament time, Tech was tasked with learning as much as it could about an opponent with limited time to prepare.

Fortunately for the Lady Raiders, Curry is already familiar with Curl’s system at Houston.

“Ahead of time we made a list of suspects and gathered a lot of film,” Curry said. “We probably had eight different people that we felt like had an opportunity if we hosted or were on the road.

“I know a lot about Houston, and playing them down there our first year and again my second year, we’re very familiar with each other.”

Tech and Houston (17-14) were former foes in the now-defunct Southwest Conference and have met 47 times, with the Lady Raiders holding a 33-14 advantage. The last meeting came on Dec. 4, 2007, when the Cougars defeated the Lady Raiders 66-63 in Lubbock.

Houston, a member of Conference USA, twice this season defeated Tulane, which beat Tech 69-47 during a nonconference tournament earlier this season.

The Cougars are led by Conference USA player of the year Courtney Taylor, who averaged 15.3 points and 10 rebounds per game. Junior Brittney Scott chips in nearly 17 points per game, as well.

“This isn’t something that’s going to be easy,” Curry said of the WNIT. “It’s a great challenge for us, and someone’s got a chance to win a championship.”

Houston women at Texas Tech

• What: WNIT first round
• When: 7 p.m. today
• Where: United Spirit Arena
• Records: Houston 17-14, Tech 17-14
• Last meeting: Houston 66, Tech 63 on Dec. 4, 2007, in Lubbock
• Radio: KLZK 97.3 FM, KJTV 950 AM
• Online: twitter.com/AJ_David

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Media relations representative Randy Farley confirmed Wednesday afternoon that athletic director Gerald Myers has not yet recieved information regarding the day and time of the game, but expects to host at United Spirit Arena.

Myers anticipates the call to come later Wednesday evening or early Thursday.

Texas Tech was seeded fifth in the NIT after finishing its season 17-15. It traveled to New Jersey for the first round, defeating fourth-seeded Seton Hall 87-69 in Newark, N.J.

Tech will host Jacksonville, which as the No. 8 seed upset No. 1 seeded Arizona State on Tuesday with a buzzer-beating banked 3-point shot.

On Tuesday, it was Tech’s lack of two-out hitting and Texas State’s ability to do just that.

The Bobcats scored six runs with two outs in an inning, and that helped them run Tech’s losing streak to five straight with a 13-7 win at Dan Law Field.

The Red Raiders (8-10) now must go into their Big 12 Conference series opener Friday at Texas A&M having lost eight of their last nine and with no momentum to speak of. Another loss would tie last year’s season-high six-game losing streak, from which the Red Raiders struggled to recover.

Texas Tech's Scott LeJeune takes a swing at a Texas State pitch Tuesday at Dan Law Field. (John A. Bowersmith/Lubbock Avalanche-Journal)

Texas Tech's Justin Berry bobbles the ball Tuesday at Dan Law Field against Texas State. (John A. Bowersmith/Lubbock Avalanche-Journal)

Texas Tech's Joey Kenworthy fields a ground ball Tuesday against Texas State at Dan Law Field. (John A. Bowersmith/Lubbock Avalanche-Journal)

Texas Tech's Garrett Totten fields an infield ground ball against Texas State Tuesday at Dan Law Field. (John A. Bowersmith/Lubbock Avalanche-Journal)

After Tech tied the game at 4 on a two-run home run by catcher Kevin Whitehead, Texas State (9-6) put the game away by capitalizing on Tech pitching mistakes.

With two out and a runner at second base, Tech reliever Colt Farrar (0-1) issued a two-out walk to Shaun Garcia. Andrew Stumph followed with an RBI single to right field, and Jeff McVaney followed with a double off the wall in left to give the Bobcats a 7-4 lead.

One inning later, a one-out single and a two-out walk issued by Brennan Stewart led to RBI singles by Jason Martinson and Garcia, pushing the lead to 9-5. Then, in the seventh, a wild pitch on a strikeout with one out, a groundout and a balk allowed Bret Atwood, who had a three-run double in the second, to score Daniel Neumann with a bloop single to left for a 10-5 lead.

By comparison, Tech needed two wild pitches with runners at second and third with two outs to score the first two runs of the game. Then a groundout with a runner at third and one out in the fifth accounted for Tech’s other runs, outside of the Whitehead homer, for the first seven innings.

In the seventh, a Jamodrick McGruder double was wasted as Texas State reliever Covey Morrow needed just seven pitches to get three outs, the last coming with runners at second and third.

Tech cut it to 10-7 in the eighth on a one-out double by Michael Reed and RBI groundout by McGruder, but
Texas State added three in the top of the ninth on a walk, a single, an error by Jeremy Mayo in right field, two balks by reliever Jay Johnson and a fielder’s choice.

Mitchell Pitts (1-0) got the win in relief for the Bobcats, allowing a run on four hits and a walk in 21/3 innings.
Tech opens its Big 12 slate at 6:30 p.m. Friday at Texas A&M, which has won nine of its last 10 games.

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NEWARK, NJ — Not only did Texas Tech have a fighting chance, it delivered the knockout.

Junior guard John Roberson scored 22 points and senior forward Darko Cohadarevic added 12 points and grabbed nine rebounds in one of his best efforts of the season to lead fifth-seeded Texas Tech over fourth-seeded Seton Hall, 87-69, in the first round of the National Invitational Tournament on Tuesday night at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ.

Texas Tech, making its fourth appearance in the NIT (its first since the 2002-03 season when it reached the semifinals at Madison Square Garden), reached the .500 mark, 4-4, in its NIT history. This was the first-ever meeting between the two schools.

Tech (18-15), which won only its fourth road contest in 13 outings this season, will take on the eighth-seeded Jacksonville/top-seeded Arizona State winner in the second round. Date and time TBA.

Tech, which slid into the NIT losing eight of its last nine, with only a 101-90 first round win against Colorado in the Big 12 Tournament last week, and 10 of its last 13, came ready to play.

In the first 5:51 of the game, Tech maintained and stayed ahead of its game, something they have not been fond of on the road throughout the season, equalling Seton Hall, 10-10 with 14:34 left in the first half.

Then the body blow. Literally.

With 14:19 left in the first half, Cohadarevic, who had given Tech its first two leads within the first 5:49 of the game, was taken out of the game due to a right-handed, below-the-belt shot by Seton Hall sophomore forward Herb Pope, who was charged with a flagrant foul and was ejected from the game.

Sophomore forward Robert Lewandowski converted two technical free throws to give Tech a 12-10 lead. Roberson hit a 3-pointer on the ensuing possession and junior forward D’Walyn Roberts made a jumper for a 7-0 run to give Tech a 17-10 lead with 13:29 left in the first half.

Lewandowski, who replaced Cohadarevic, made the most of his playing time with four points, three rebounds, one assist and a blocked shot in eight minutes.

The Red Raiders extended their run to 13-0 on a slam by Lewandowski and baskets by senior guard Nick
Okorie and Roberts to take a 23-10 lead with 10:46 remaining, before a Jamel Jackson 3-pointer ended the streak.

Cohadarevic extended his “standing 10-count,” with a brief 4:05 rest, and came back into the game at the 10:14 mark with a 23-14 lead. Tech maintained throughout the half and took a 45-32 halftime lead.

Cohadarevic and junior guard Mike Singletary led the Raiders with 10 points apiece at half and Roberson added nine. Tech shot 54.5 percent from the floor in the first half and out-rebounded the Pirates, 24-18.

After a Jeff Robinson basket to open the second half for Seton Hall, Tech went on a 5-0 run and took a 50-34 lead with 18:56 left in the second half. Tech maintained a double-digit lead throughout the second half, extending to its biggest lead of the game, 23 points, with 3:57 remaining.

Cohadarevic shot 6-of-9 from the field with one assist and no personal fouls.

Singletary, the team’s leading scorer, had 13 points, Roberts added 12 and Lewandowski finished with 10 for Tech.

Robinson led Seton Hall (19-13) with 23 points on 10-of-19 shooting from the field, and 12 rebounds and senior guard Eugene Harvey, playing in his final game, added 12.

Tech got a big boost early in the first half, when Seton Hall’s Herb Pope was ejected. Pope was called for an intentional foul after punching Darko Cohadarevic in the groin.

Tech then went on a 13-0 run, building a lead Seton Hall could not overcome.

Point guard John Roberson led Tech with 22 points. Mike Singletary had 13, and Cohadarevic and D’walyn Roberts added 12 each.

Seton Hall got 23 points from forward Jeff Robinson.

Tech (18-15) will face the winner of Arizona State-Jacksonville in the NIT second round later this week.

Seton Hall's Herb Pope (15) battles for the ball with Rutgers' Hamady Ndiaye during a game this season. Seton Hall, coached by Bobby Gonzalez, below, will host Texas Tech tonight in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament. (AP)

“They have a good center who was at New Mexico State, Herb Pope, and it kind of revolves around him,” Knight said. “They full-court trap and look to push the ball up. It’s nothing we haven’t gone against this year.”

That’s fortunate for the Red Raiders (17-15), who hit the road as the No. 5 seed playing at No. 4 seed Seton Hall at 8 p.m. today in the opening round of the National Invitation Tournament. If they win, the Raiders could go on to a matchup with No. 1 seed Arizona State later this week. But the Red Raiders, who’ve struggled on the road this year, aren’t eager to look past their Big East opponent.

“We haven’t paid much attention to the rest of the bracket,” Knight said. “We just know for us to get to (the NIT Final Four in) New York, we’re going to have to play three road games and that’s going to be quite a thing for us.”

Seton Hall's Herb Pope (15) battles for the ball with Rutgers' Hamady Ndiaye during a game this season. Seton Hall, coached by Bobby Gonzalez, will host Texas Tech tonight in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament.

Tech is 3-9 on the road this year, with two of those wins coming during the nonconference portion of the schedule. Its only road win in the last three months was a 72-71 win at Oklahoma on Feb. 9.

Its only neutral site games were last week’s Big 12 tournament contests, where Tech went 1-1.

Seton Hall (19-12) also went 1-1 in its conference tournament. It finished 10th in the Big East.

The Pirates thought they might make the NCAA tournament, even gathering to watch the selection show late Sunday afternoon.

“We were basically hoping against hope,” Seton Hall coach Bobby Gonzalez said in a conference call Sunday. “I knew that we needed some crazy things to happen, but the thoughts were unrealistic. I knew we weren’t going to the NCAAs and I didn’t want to set the players up for disappointment.”

Knight might have unintentionally referenced the Pirates when talking about his team’s motivation today. It’s been nearly a month since Tech, which ended its regular season with seven consecutive losses, had any chance at the NCAA tournament.

But as soon as the NIT became their goal, Knight said his players became equally excited about proving themselves there.

“It means something to me and the program just to show we’re headed in the right direction, and these kids are ecstatic,” Knight said. “I know there are some teams that are disappointed they didn’t make the NCAA and they’ll play that way, but not our guys. Our guys are excited to have this opportunity.”

Pope, that critical post player Knight referenced, averages 11.8 points and 11.1 rebounds per game.

Seton Hall will be without junior forward Robert Mitchell, who was kicked off the team on Sunday for undisclosed reasons. Mitchell averaged 8.4 points and 3.8 rebounds per game, with 15 starts this season.

The Pirates’ leading scorer is guard Jeremy Hazell, who puts up 20.9 points per game.

Although Seton Hall is 13-4 at home this season, with two of its four losses coming against top 10-ranked teams, Tech senior Nick Okorie said he is used to feeding off that underdog status.

“I love road games,” Okorie said. “I don’t know how other guys on the team feel about them, but when other guys talk smack to me it gets me more hyped up than playing here.”

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To be a successful team, players have to be consistent – from pitch to pitch, inning to inning, at-bat to at-bat, game to game. The ones that do that the best are the ones sitting at the top of the standings at the end of the season.

The ones that don’t find themselves at the bottom, which is where the Texas Tech baseball team now finds itself after being swept for two straight weekends. A bad tournament in Houston compounded with a tough weekend at No. 7 TCU has taken a once-promising start and flushed the Red Raiders right into the cellar of the Big 12 Conference as league play starts this week.

Tech has now lost seven of its last eight games after opening the season at 7-2. Granted, five of those losses have come against ranked teams – four against TCU, one against Rice – and two others came to a Washington State team that was ranked before losing two of three last weekend at Texas A&M.

And speaking of the Aggies, that’s who Tech opens Big 12 play against on Friday, on the road, and they just jumped into the rankings at No. 28 by Collegiate Baseball. Following that, the Red Raiders host No. 6 Texas, so, in other words, the schedule doesn’t get any easier.

“We need to play a little better,” Tech coach Dan Spencer said Monday regarding the TCU weekend. “We were down in all three games early against a good team on the road, and that’s not a good recipe for winning. We had a lot of innings where we pitched well, we just gave up some big innings, and we’ve addressed that with the kids. It’s hard to recover from (big innings) against good people, and that’s all there is to it.”

It all goes back to consistency.

The inconsistency bug had bitten all three phases of the Red Raiders. Last week it was the pitching that took the brunt of the blame. And to the staff’s credit, the pitchers improved slightly, lowering their ERA from close to 7 to 6.51 coming out of the weekend. But it wasn’t because Tech’s opponents scored fewer runs.

Of the 25 runs scored by TCU this weekend, 12 were unearned, including the first five on Sunday thanks to a Jeremy Mayo passed ball on a strike three that could have helped Tech get out of the inning unscathed. Instead, another grounder followed by a couple of home runs led to five unearned runs in an 8-5 TCU win.

This time, it’s the offense’s and defense’s turn to slide.

A look at some of the numbers reveals the problem during the past eight games:

• 14 errors, compared to six errors in the first seven games. Those errors have led to 19 unearned runs, compared to just seven in the first seven games.

• 43 runs scored, compared to 85 in the first seven.

• 74 runs allowed, compared to 59 in the first seven.

• Six passed balls, four by Mayo, compared to none in the first seven.

• Six of seven successful stolen base attempts, compared to eight of 15 in the first seven games.

Plus, the pitching is still unsettled. Brett Bruening didn’t make it out of the second inning against TCU on Friday, and by being down late in both of the first two games, Tech was unable to truly take advantage of the bullpen combination of Jay Johnson and Chad Bettis. Bettis started Sunday’s game and struck out 10 batters in seven innings, being victimized by the five unearned runs but also giving up a pair of bombs.

Bruening is out as the Friday starter, and sophomore John Neely (0-0, 6.00 ERA) will get his first start of the season against the Aggies, followed by Bobby Doran on Saturday. Sunday’s starter has not been announced.

Spencer hopes to have starters keep Tech around long enough to use Johnson, Bettis and other top arms in relief late.

The problem with that is Tech was never in a position to use that strategy this weekend. TCU outscored Tech 14-2 in the first two innings of the three games combined, and the Red Raiders have been outscored by 19 runs in the first two innings of their 17 games so far, including a 33-13 difference in the second inning alone.

Teams have also put the Red Raiders away late, outscoring them 23-7 in the final two innings. Tech is 0-8 when trailing after six but is 8-1 when leading or tied after six.

Tech’s offensive numbers have slumped right along with the pitching and defensive miscues. The Red Raiders have seen their batting average drop 48 points, their slugging percentage fall 82 points and their on-base percentage slide 56 points during the past two weeks.

Tech is basically in the same situation it was last year coming out of its disastrous road trip to California where the Red Raiders dropped six straight and seven out of eight, then lost a midweek game to Dallas Baptist before starting conference play. Even though the Raiders finished seventh in conference play, they never recovered from that slump to be able to make a push for a regional.

During the preseason, Spencer praised his group, expecting them to be in the mix for a regional berth by the end of the season. But if something doesn’t give, and soon, 2010 will end up just like 2009, which now would be a disappointment instead of an accomplishment.

It’s all got to start with a good showing today against a Texas State team that has overcome a slow start to get on a nice roll.

“Momentum in baseball is about who is your next starter,” Spencer said. “It really is. It’s really about how you respond on any given night, especially in college baseball with the way things flow with young guys. We need to get to playing better.”

George Watson is a member of the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association and has been covering Texas Tech baseball for 13 seasons. He can be reached at george.watson@lubbockonline.com or at (806) 766-2166.

About the series: Two teams going in opposite directions meet for only the 12th time on the diamond today when Texas Tech hosts Texas State at Dan Law Field. The Red Raiders are reeling after a 7-1 start and have lost eight of their last nine games while Texas State, after a 3-4 start, has won five of its last seven … The Red Raiders are 2-1 in midweek games this season, having beaten Dallas Baptist and split with Gonzaga. The past two weekends, however, Tech has been swept, including this past weekend at No. 7 TCU … Texas State actually opened Southland Conference play two weeks ago by taking two of three from Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, then this past weekend swept a three-game non-conference set from Penn State … Of the 25 runs allowed by Tech pitchers against TCU, almost half (12) were unearned, which actually dropped Tech’s ERA from 6.82 to 6.51 … Tech first baseman Stephen Hagen will wear No. 9 today in honor of former Tech first baseman Mark Austry, who collapsed and died running a marathon in Dallas on Sunday.

Compiled by George Watson

Projected starting pitchers

TODAY

6:30 p.m.

Pitcher W-L ERA

Tech: Louis Head 1-1 10.22

Texas St.: Matt Steiner 0-0 0.00