12. Texas Tech (14-4)
Midway through December, Texas Tech lost a tough winnable game to Arkansas but it wasn’t just about that one night. The Red Raiders had again failed to win the big one, dropping another notable contest. Since then, it’s been a very different story for a team that upset Duke and almost won at Houston just last week. Grant McCasland certainly has the Red Raiders playing some inspired ball and that didn’t slow down this week.
Wednesday was a great continuation of that as Texas Tech won 88-74 against Utah. JT Toppin had another stellar showing with 31 points and 13 rebounds while Christian Anderson was electric with 26 points and 12 assists. Texas Tech then used a really strong finish on Saturday to pull out an 84-71 victory over BYU, giving them another ranked win. Toppin had 27 points and 12 rebounds, Anderson scored 22 points, and LeJuan Watts had a vital 20 points and 8 rebounds.
There’s been a great resurgence from this team in Big 12 play. We knew Texas Tech’s offense has been outstanding and the Big 3 we mentioned above are all putting on a show for this program in recent weeks. With this showing against the Cougars, it’s pretty clear that Texas Tech can be a major player both in this league and on the national stage. We’ll see them tested for real again, first with a road game against Baylor before a highly anticipated rematch with Houston in Lubbock.