For the second day in a row, Texas Tech basketball fans have a reason to rejoice. After freshman guard Christian Anderson announced on Tuesday that he would return for the 2025-26 season, today, reigning Big 12 Player of the Year JT Toppin has done the same.
In an Instagram post, Toppin declared, "I'm Back" giving Texas Tech fans a jolt of excitement. It is easy to understand why.
This season, his first as a Red Raider, the Dallas, Texas native put up stellar numbers. He averaged 18.2 points, 9.4 rebounds, and 1.5 blocks per game.
That came after he posted 12.4 points, 9.1 rebounds, and 1.9 blocks per game as a true freshman at New Mexico, where he earned the Mountain West Conference Freshman of the Year Award. Of course, he was the second MWC Freshman of the Year in a row to transfer to Texas Tech after Darrion Williams left Nevada for Lubbock following the 2022-23 season.
With Toppin and Anderson in the fold for next season, that leaves one more big domino to fall as it pertains to potential returners. As we've recently discussed, Williams has entered the portal and declared for the NBA Draft, putting his future in Lubbock in doubt.
What's more, we likely won't know what he will do next season until mid-May at the earliest (that's when the NBA Draft Combine is held) and possibly even mid-June (which is when underclassmen in the NBA Draft must either pull their names out of the draft or fully commit to staying in it.)
However, to be able to build a roster around Anderson (a 2025 Big 12 All-Freshman team honoree) and Toppin (a second-team All-American this past season) is a luxury. It gives McCasland two stars that not only have shown they can perform at a high level in the Big 12 but who also know the culture and the systems that their coaching staff wants to instill.
Now, Anderson and Toppin must take steps both as players and as leaders this offseason, especially if Williams does not return. Becoming more vocal and setting the tone for the Red Raiders doesn't seem as if it would come naturally to either Anderson or Toppin, though.
Both are rather soft-spoken and go about their business on the floor with an even keel. However, they are now being paid handsomely (we must assume) to be the foundational pieces of the program, and they must become the standards by which their teammates measure themselves.
With Toppin's announcement, Texas Tech should enter next season as a ranked team, especially if the program makes some shrewd moves to enhance the roster via the portal as it has done the past two offseasons. Tech now has two of its three key returners committed for next season and that is a wonderful development as McCasland and Co. set about to build a team that can win it all next season after coming painfully close to doing so in 2024-25.