For most of the 2024-25 season, the analytics-driven college basketball computer rankings have had Texas Tech as one of the top teams in the nation. However, it has taken the human voters a long time to do the same.
Thankfully, people around the country are starting to take notice of what the Red Raiders are doing. After finally jumping into the Associated Press poll last week at No. 22 (one week after being ranked in the Coaches Poll for the first time), this week, the Texas Tech basketball team made a massive jump in the rankings.
In the A.P. poll, Tech jumped up nine places, the biggest rise in the country, to sit at No. 13. Meanwhile, Tech vaulted seven spots in the Coaches Poll to No. 12.
That is more in line with what the computer models have the Red Raiders ranked. The KenPom.com rankings have Tech at No. 9 and the NCAA NET rankings put Tech at No. 8.
Surging 📈#TTW | @FirstBank_Trust pic.twitter.com/9PXqnr8hia
— Texas Tech Basketball (@TexasTechMBB) February 3, 2025
Of course, the massive jump this week was all due to Saturday's monumental 82-81 win over No. 6 Houston. But what's odd is that the loss didn't hurt the Cougars one bit.
In fact, Houston actually moved up to No. 5 in this week's A.P. poll. That's also where the Cougars are placed in the Coaches poll, the same spot they occupied in that ranking last week.
Other Big 12 teams in the top 25 are Iowa State (which fell five spots to No. 8 in both polls), Kansas (which dropped from 11 in both polls last week to No. 16 in the A.P. and No. 17 in the Coaches), and Arizona (which went from unranked to No. 20 in both polls).
Auburn sits at No. 1 in each poll. After that, Duke, Alabama, Tennessee, and Houston round out the top five in order in both polls.
As for the Red Raiders, this is the highest the program has been ranked since ending the 2021-22 season at No. 12. That year, the program made it to the Sweet 16 in the first year under former head coach Mark Adams. Hopefully, an even deeper run is in store for this year's team.