Through Oct. 31, Sports Illustrated will count down its preseason college basketball Top 25 with overviews of each team. Here are the full rankings so far.
Texas Tech experienced all sides of March Madness in the span of fewer than 72 hours a year ago. Its rally from 13 points down with under five minutes to play against Arkansas in the Sweet 16 was epic, only to see a nine-point lead with under three minutes to play evaporate against Florida with a spot in the Final Four on the line.
The bitter ending doesn’t change the fact that 2025 was a huge step back to serious national contention for Texas Tech in Grant McCasland’s second year. McCasland is among the sport’s sharpest roster builders and is further boosted by one of the most aggressive donor bases in the country. Tech lost a couple of key pieces to the portal, but retained the two players it desperately wanted to keep in JT Toppin and Christian Anderson before retooling nicely around them. Toppin, the defending Big 12 Player of the Year, is an absolute double-double machine and one of the most productive players in the sport. He’s a safe bet for All-American honors and gives this Tech team a very high floor. Anderson is a dynamic combo guard who’ll play the point this year after spending most of his time off the ball as a freshman. He starred in the FIBA U19 World Cup this summer with Germany and seems poised for a big leap.
Projected Starting Lineup
PG: Christian Anderson
SG: Tyeree Bryan
SF: LeJuan Watts
PF: JT Toppin
C: Luke Bamgboye
Key reserves: G Jaylen Petty, G Donovan Atwell, F Josiah Moseley
Key Additions
Darrion Williams has a chance to be one of the best players in the country as a senior after transferring to NC State, but Washington State transfer LeJuan Watts is as close a replacement as you could find in the portal. Like Williams, Watts is a bowling ball of a forward who likes to dribble into post-ups and punish mismatches. He’s also a capable passer who’ll likely take on some playmaking duties at times.
Texas Tech’s defense was good but not great in 2024–25, in part due to lacking rim protection. Luke Bamgboye is here to change that. The VCU transfer posted the second-highest block rate in the country as a freshman and can be an absolute game-changer at that end of the floor with his length, leaping ability and timing.
Around high-usage stars like Toppin, Anderson and Watts, you need shooting. Tyeree Bryan and Donovan Atwell bring that in droves. Bryan made 66 threes at nearly 43% last season; Atwell hit 96 at a 40% clip.
And don’t sleep on freshman Jaylen Petty, the Washington Gatorade Player of the Year who’s a pure bucket-getter. A Red Raiders source tells Sports Illustrated Petty could have a “Christian Anderson–type” freshman year.
Causes for Concern
The clearest hole on this roster is one more proven ballhandler. Tech went down the road with a number of options on this front, namely Australian guard Ben Henshall, but couldn’t get one over the finish line before eventually adding Petty late in the summer. Anderson’s still more of a score-first player and can be mistake-prone, and teams will likely throw aggressive coverages at him to force the ball out of his hands. While it’s easy to project a breakout campaign for Anderson, Tech’s chances of winning the Big 12 and being serious national title contenders rely on an absolutely massive year from their rising sophomore.
The Bottom Line
This is as aggressive a ranking as you’ll find for a Tech team that is outside the top 20 of analytics-based preseason ranks like T-Rank and EvanMiya. That said, this looks like a roster that fits perfectly together. I’m bullish on the transfer portal additions and their fit with two stars in Toppin and Anderson. The Big 12 is loaded, but the Red Raiders should be a factor at the top.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Sports Illustrated’s Men’s College Basketball Preseason Top 25: No. 7 Texas Tech.