Texas Christian University hosts its once and future conference mate Texas Tech tonight. The two schools, slated to be in the Big 12 together next season, are already familiar with each other — they played in the old Southwestern Conference together and have since been regular non-conference opponents. TCU (6-2) is coming off a three-win steak and Texas Tech (4-3) edged by Texas A&M- Corpus Christi. Can Robert Lewandowski and Ty Nurse topple the Horned Frogs at home?

Texas Tech has had a lackluster season under Billy Gillispie so far. Before a much-needed 61-54 victory over honorary Big 12 member Texas A&M-CC, the Raiders lost three games in the Old Spice Classic to Indiana State, DePaul, and Wake Forest. The entire team seems in a funk. But none more so than senior forward Robert Lewandowski.

Lewandowski, the only senior on the team, has the potential to be a force for the Raiders. At 6'10'' and 256 pounds, he should be doing serious damage against the relatively easy teams that Texas Tech has faced so far. Instead, his points and rebounds are down from last season. If Texas Tech wants to be competitive in the Big 12 (and against future Big 12-ers), they will need much more from their senior leader.

Lewandowski isn't the only Red Raider who could benefit from a little consistency. Junior guard Ty Nurse has been averaging 12.3 points per game, but his production is all over the place, running the gamut from zero to 29 points per game. He will need to be on for Texas Tech to live up to their reputation as a strong shooting team.

It's not all bad news for the Raiders, though. Freshman forward Jordan Tolbert has admirably stepped up to the plate with 11 points and 6.3 rebounds per game. Sophomore forward Jaye Crockett has also made an impact. Against Texas A&M-CC, he netted 12 points and nine rebounds.

TCU won their last contest against Evansville in overtime. Close games have been a calling card for the Horned Frogs this season — six of their wins have been by five points or less. The positive spin? TCU knows how to close a game. More of a glass-half-empty spin? TCU can't put a game away early. The Horned Frogs are led by a pair of senior guards: Hank Thorns, who averages 12.8 points and 4.8 assists per game, and J.R. Cadot, who averages 11.8 points and 7.9 rebounds per game. TCU is also forcing an average of 20.8 turnovers per game, something the Raiders should be careful of.

When the two programs met in Lubbock last year, TCU was triumphant. If the Raiders want revenge, Lewandowski and Nurse will need to turn in consistent performances.

The game is at 6:00 CST and will be broadcast on the CBS Sports Network.

In the past year the Big 12 has lost four universities due to conference realignment, while picking up pledges of another two schools. And while I follow all the realignment stuff pretty closely, I can't seem to remember when the conference accepted the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders into the fold. But they must have, right? Why else would the Islanders face their third Big 12 foe of the season tonight when they play the Texas Tech Red Raiders in Lubbock?

The Islanders had the distinct pleasure of kicking off the Le'Bryan Nash era at Oklahoma State, in a 32-point blowout loss followed by a 13-point loss at the hands of Texas A&M. And now the 1-3 Islanders are facing a Tech team in the midst of a three game losing streak, so the Red Raiders are ripe for the pickin'.

For Tech to win -- not just tonight, but from here on out -- they need to get more consistent play from leading scorer Ty Nurse. One night Nurse can pour in 29 points, like he did on 9-13 shooting against Troy, or he can go scoreless, without taking a shot, like he did in Tech's most recent loss to Wake Forest.

They also need to see Robert Lewandowski, the lone senior on the team, pull his weight. Through what most people would consider the easiest part of tech schedule, the 6-10 forward is averaging 5.8 points per game, down from 8.5 last season, while grabbing 4.3 boards, off from his 4.8 last year. In fact, if you take away the 17 Lewandowski scored against a big North Texas team, he has contributed 6, 2, 2, 0 and 8 to the Red Raider cause. If he's having difficulty scoring against these porous defenses, he might have a long senior season ahead of him in the paint against Thomas Robinson, Perry Jones III, Ricardo Ratliffe and fellow Big 12 big men.

So while the Islanders have one more game against a future Big 12 conference-mate (December 17 at West Virginia), their run of Big 12 members should result in an 0-3 record. That is as long as Nurse and Lewandowski can play to their potential.

How will the Texas Tech Red Raiders fare this season? What will their overall and Big 12 records be? Will they make a postseason tournament?

We'll answer all those questions, plus guess which teams they'll upset and which will upset them after The Jump.

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We won't have our Texas Tech Red Raiders predictions until tomorrow, but if you read Monday's Five Questions For... Texas Tech you might gather that we're selling Tech this season. Therefore they are lucky their schedule features some very winnable games, even for a Tech team that finished second to last in conference and lost a majority of their scoring.

Tech plays a bevy of in-state schools, marking North Texas, Stephen F. Austin, Texas A&M Corpus Christi (at TAM-CC?) and TCU off their list before play the three other in-state conference schools. Needless to say, the Red Raiders travel budget is probably the least in the country.

See the entire 2011-12 Texas Tech Red raiders schedule after The Jump and come back tomorrow for our predictions on the outcome.

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Billy Gillispie loves to rebuild programs... and luckily for the Texas Tech Red Raiders, he's good at it.

In 2002 BCG took over a UTEP team and struggled through a 6-24 season before bringing in a headlining recruiting class and winning the WAC while going 24-8 the following season. BCG parlayed that success and wound up turning around a Texas A&M Aggies squad that went 7-21 the year before Gillispie arrived to a remarkable 21-10 season. This marked the first time in NCAA history that a coach led two different programs to the biggest win-loss turnaround in back-to-back seasons.

Gillispie also coached the Kentucky Wildcats for two disastrous seasons, before being fired, out of basketball for two years then hired on at Tech.

The Tech hire, though, makes perfect sense. Gillispie is a Texan, who has coached at UTEP and A&M and served as an assistant at Baylor. He was also an assistant under Bill Self at Tulsa, so the recruiting maverick knows the region like the back of his hand and has connections throughout Big 12 county.

Because of some highly publicized personal issues, Gillispie may have lost a little luster, but Tech is looking to rebuild a program that is in a downward spiral. The perfect fit? A guy who is adept at rebuilding programs.

It is still unclear whether Tech can grab recruits looking at other Texas or Big 12 schools who opt to play in Lubbock, but that's what we all said about Baylor a few seasons ago. And while BCG may have invented the model, he will be following what Scott Drew is doing in Waco by trying to bring top notch talent to a part of Texas not known for its hoops.

Can Gillispie make it work? Possibly.

Does he have the track record to get Tech fans excited? Certainly.

It's no secret that the Texas Tech Red Raiders weren't good last season. They ended the season at 13-19, 5-11 in conference play. Add to that the fact that they lost 86.3% of their scoring off that team and what you have is a team desperately looking for some senior leadership.

Enter Robert Lewandowski.

Lewandowski comes in as the team's leading returning scorer and rebounder.  Despite that his averages were a pedestrian 8.5 ppg and 4.8 rpg - good for fifth and third on last year's Red Raiders team respectively - Lewandowski has the size to become a legitimate scoring option in a Big 12 packed with men in the middle.

And seeing that he is the lone senior listed on the Tech roster, the 12 underclassmen - including nine freshman - suiting up for the Red Raiders need that guy to help them with the difficult transition from high school to Big 12 basketball.

Lewandowski isn't a flashy player, more so he is a grind-it-out type of guy who shot 55.4% from the field last season while averaging 23.5 minutes per game.

Even with the additions of two Junior College transfers, 6-10 Kader Tapsoba and 6-11 Dejan Kravic [Ed Note: Kravic is actually a transfer sitting out this year], Lewandowski should be the focal point of the Red Raider offense.

Whether Lewandowski is strong enough to carry the team on his back this season is something that will become evident as the games roll. But one thing is for sure, when the Red Raiders need to look for leadership in the locker room, Lewandowski is the one they'll all turn to.

Welcome to Five Questions for... Texas Tech Red Raiders.

Here you'll see five of the most pressing questions for the Red Raiders and our response to them.  Feel free to contribute your answers in the comments section.

1. Out with the old, in with the new, Pat Knight is out and Billy Gillispie is in. Thoughts?

2. Texas Tech lost their top four scorers off last year's team. Considering they went 5-11 in conference, is that such a bad thing?

3. Robert Lewandowski is Tech's leading returning scorer (8.5 ppg last season) and rebounder (4.8). Without any Rivals Top-150 recruits coming in, convince me that Tech will win some conference games.

4. Tech hasn't been known to have a lot of interior presence. This season, though, Lewandowski is one of three big men listed at 6-10. Will they be able to pound the ball inside and score over some teams?

5. Is it possible for the Red Raiders to sign big time recruits, considering their in-state competition in Texas, Texas A&M and recently Baylor?

See our answers after The Jump.

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 The Texas Tech Red Raiders were not a good basketball team last season under Pat Knight. Because of their poor record Knight was shown the door and Billy Gillispie was hired.

Even with Gillispie in charge Texas Tech may still not be good next year but at least things will look different when you look out on the court.

In recent weeks Gillispie received commitments from Juco teammates Jaron Nash and Kader Tapsoba out of Tyler J.C.  Nash is listed at 6'7" 175 pounds while Tapsoba is listed at 6"10".

With these two players now on board the Red Raiders have a total of seven players committed for the 2011-2012 season.

According to Rivals the five players who have signed their letter of intents consist of four 3 star recruits: SG Toddrick Gotcher, SF Terran Petteway, PF Jordan Tolbert and PG Kevin Wagner along with 2 star recruit PF Hershey Robinson.

This is a continuing situation to watch as usually when a new coach comes on board at any university there is house cleaning of sorts that takes place within the program.