Texas Tech Red Raiders news: Track wins National Championship, basketball readies for K.C., more

Here is your look at the Texas Tech and NCAA news from over the weekend.

Texas Tech track wins indoor national title

For just the second time ever, a Texas Tech men's athletic program has won a National Championship. Saturday in Boston, Massachusetts, the Red Raider indoor track and field team took home its first indoor National Championship by edging out Arkansas.

This is the second national title for head coach Wes Kittley who also captured the 2019 outdoor National Championship. And what a remarkable job he has done since taking over.

When he arrived in 2000, the Red Raider track program was as irrelevant and inconsequential as any program on campus. There was no significant funding for facilities, no recruiting base, no interest from the fans, and no momentum at all.

Since then, all Kittley has done is build the best athletic program on campus. It is akin to taking a program that was as downtrodden as Kansas football was from 2010-2020 and turning it into a national championship program.

Saturday, Tech won the title by scoring 50.5 points to Arkansas's 41. However, the title was in doubt until the last event, the 4x400 finale. In that event, Tech finished fourth while Arkansas finished eighth to clinch the National Championship for the Red Raiders. Congratulations to Coach Kittley and his team on an incredible indoor season and a National Championship.

Texas Tech basketball earns No. 4 seed in Big 12 Tournament

After knocking off Baylor 78-68 on Saturday, the Texas Tech basketball team has earned the No. 4 seed in this week's Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City. That's quite the accomplishment for a program that was picked to finish eighth in the preseason poll.

Tech and Baylor actually tied for third place in the league with identical 11-7 conference records. They also split the two head-to-head meetings between the two schools this season with each winning on its home court. Still, Baylor got the nod as the No. 3 seed in the tournament. The Big 12 has yet to reveal how the tiebreaker was decided.

Grant McCasland's team next plays on Thursday at 11:30 am. The opponent will either be BYU, Oklahoma State, or Central Florida. The game will either be on ESPN or ESPN2.

Lady Raiders season likely over

The Texas Tech Lady Raiders likely saw their season come to an end on Friday afternoon in Kansas City. In a 71-60 loss to No. 17 Baylor in the second round of the Big 12 Tournament, Tech fought hard but just didn't have the firepower to pull off the upset.

Jasmine Shavers put up 20 points and Tech outscored Baylor 22-12 in the third quarter to make things interesting heading into the final frame. However, Baylor would win the 4th quarter 19-10 to hold off the upset-minded Lady Raiders. Now, it appears that Tech will head into the offseason with no postseason play likely given that the Lady Raiders are just 17-16 overall on the season. However, we won't know for certain until Sunday night when the women's N.I.T. field is announced.

Texas Tech softball takes series against BYU

The Texas Tech softball team had a nice weekend series in Provo, Utah. Taking two of three games from the BYU Cougars, the Red Raiders opened Big 12 play in a positive fashion.

Tech won the opener on Thursday 10-5 before taking the second game 15-0 on Friday. Saturday saw the Cougars squeak out a 10-8 win to salvage one game of the series. The Red Raiders now return to action on Tuesday, March 12, when they host New Mexico.