Lubbock, Texas ? Call it The Lost Weekend for Texas Tech.

Saturday, the Red Raiders bowed at home to Texas, 76-71. Two days later, the Raiders were humbled by Kansas University, 65-56, in United Spirit Arena.

After 37 years of coaching, Tech coach Bob Knight didn’t need to consult a basketball manual to tell him why.

“We played two really good teams,” Knight said following Monday’s loss to the Jayhawks, “and they’re just better than we are.”

Thus the Red Raiders’ hopes of an NCAA Tournament bid likely went down the toilet. Tech is 15-10 overall and 5-9 in the Big 12 Conference.

Queried whether he thought the Raiders still might have a shot at an NCAA bid, Knight responded: “I’m not on the tournament committee. Why don’t you call and ask them?”

Regardless of how they fare in next week’s conference tournament, the Raiders will probably have to accept an NIT berth, and, asked if he would go that route, Knight replied: “Sure, we’ll play in the NIT.”

Junior forward Andre Emmett, the league’s leading scorer, paced the Raiders with 16 points, about six under his average, and he’s hoping against hope Tech will hear from the NCAA and not the NIT.

“The NCAA is where we really want to be,” Emmett said, “but we didn’t get the job done. It happens every time. We make mistakes, and the other team capitalizes.”

Actually, the Raiders didn’t make all that many mistakes. They had only 11 turnovers, same as Kansas, and they had six more assists than the Jayhawks. They just didn’t hit their shots. But at least they were consistently inaccurate. They were 11-for-26 from the field in each half. That’s 42.3 percent.

“The last two games we’ve played really even in turnovers, assists and shots taken,” Knight said. “For us to play with those teams, we’ve got to be better, and we’re not good enough to do that.”

Tech played comeback the entire second half after falling behind 39-28 at halftime. The Raiders closed within seven (54-47) with eight minutes remaining, then Kirk Hinrich nailed a three-pointer to make the lead 10.

“Hinrich made a big basket with that three,” Knight said. “That was the kind of shot that sticks a pin in your balloon.”

Three minutes later, Tech sliced the margin to six (59-53) when Emmett scored, but back-to-back baskets by Aaron Miles boosted the KU advantage to 10 again.

And now the Red Raiders are staring at an NIT bid unless they get hot in the league tournament.

“We won five of our last six last year,” Knight said, “and that was a good wind-up. But we’re not as good a team as we were last year.”