Western Kentucky at Tennessee Tech

Thirty offensive rebounds and a 61-33 edge on the glass carried Tennessee Tech past Blue Mountain 117-70 on Wednesday, the first win for head coach Tobin Anderson. Seven players scored in double figures and the team had 27 assists. Two days earlier, Tech lost 106-88 at Mississippi State, where it forced 15 turnovers with 10 steals and shot 58.8% after halftime. Western Kentucky is 2-0 with an 83-58 win over Morehead State and an 82-48 win over Kentucky Wesleyan. The Hilltoppers turned it over six times in the first and nine times in the second, and they forced 13 and 20 from those two opponents. Western Kentucky coach Hank Plona has already pointed to Tech's full-court pressure as the challenge. Tech's roster is almost entirely new, with 13 of its 15 players in their first season in Cookeville. Its early results are a 28-rebound margin and a defense that produced 10 steals against an SEC opponent. A team that creates extra possessions on both ends is hard to blow out, and Western Kentucky has not yet faced one. I'm taking Tennessee Tech on the spread this afternoon against a Hilltoppers team playing its first road game of the season.