With the Big 12 basketball regular season now concluded, it is time for postseason honors and three Texas Tech basketball players have been recognized. In votes conducted by the league's head coaches, sophomore guard Pop Isaacs, sophomore forward Darrion Williams, and senior guard Joe Toussaint were all honored.
Isaacs, the team's leading scorer at 16.0 points per game, was named to the All-Big 12 third team. He capped off his season with an efficient 20-point showing in Saturday's win over Baylor, the 24th time this year he scored in double figures and the eighth time he had 20 points or more in a game.
It was quite the roller coaster year for Isaacs. The season began with his father battling cancer. Then, Isaacs was sued for sexual assault in November. As a result, he was lustily jeered at just about every away game in Big 12 play. One has to wonder how such a young player could have the mental toughness and maturity to handle such rough circumstances throughout the season but Isaacs handled the off-court adversity as well as anyone could have expected him to.
Along the way, he had one of the best sophomore seasons in program history. For instance, his scoring average as a second-year collegiate was just 2.5 points behind Jarrett Culver in 2018-19 (his sophomore campaign) and it was almost double with Keenan Evans put up as a sophomore in 2015-16. In fact, he averaged more points as a sophomore than all-time program greats Martin Zeno, Jarrius Jackson, Davide Moretti, Tony Battie, and Will Flemmons.
Joining Isaacs on the All-Big 12 third team is Darrion Williams. He finished the year playing his best basketball with 10 straight games of 10 points or more.
The transfer from Nevada also had a solid sophomore campaign putting up 11.6 points and 7.6 rebounds per game. He had nine double-doubles including 16 points and 11 rebounds against Baylor on Saturday.
Also on the Big 12 third team was Jalen Bridges and Ja'Kobe Walter from Baylor and J'Wan Roberts from Houston. The first team consisted of Jama Shead of Houston (also the Big 12 Player of the Year), Tamin Lipsey of Iowa State, Dylan Disu of Texas, and Hunter Dickinson and Kevin McCullar Jr. of Kansas. On the second team were RayJ Dennis of Baylor, LJ Cryer of Houston, Keshon Gilbert of Iowa State, Emanuel Miller of TCU, and Max Abmas of Texas.
Meanwhile, among those receiving honorable-mention recognition was Texas Tech senior guard Joe Toussaint. The transfer from West Virginia started every game for the Red Raiders and averaged 12.3 points and 4.4 assists per game. He also led Tech with 1.4 steals per game.
The Red Raiders are now set for the Big 12 Tournament which they will begin on Thursday. As the No. 4 seed, they receive a double-bye and will play either BYU, Oklahoma State, or UCF. For Grant McCasland's team to make a run in Kansas City and throughout the NCAA Tournament, these three all-conference honorees will have to continue to play at a high level as they did all season.