After taking care of business against the Cincinnati Bearcats, the Texas Tech Red Raiders are now 2-0 without JT Toppin. That’s not bad when you think about the fact that Toppin was Texas Tech’s leading scorer and then also the Red Raiders’ leading rebounder.
But Toppin’s injury can’t be something that totally derails this season for the Red Raiders. There’s too much up ahead for Texas Tech and there’s too much potential and talent on this team for the Red Raiders to not find a way forward.
And so far, early results (though a small sample size) are promising. Texas Tech just secured a 12-point win over Cincinnati to advance on to 21-7 overall and 11-4 in the Big 12 (the Red Raiders are now in a four-way tie for the No. 2 spot in the conference).
Beating Cincinnati is a good thing to celebrate, but it won’t be enough to define this season. So I’ve got some questions that we need to see addressed (and hopefully sooner rather than later).
Is what Christian Anderson is doing even remotely sustainable for Texas Tech?
My goodness, what a remarkable performance for the Texas Tech star. Christian Anderson had no problems stepping up and taking complete and total control of this matchup with the Bearcats. He played 40 minutes and had 31 points, 11 rebounds, and seven assists.
But, uh, he’s averaging 38.9 minutes per game. And that’s a lot of playing time. Is that a sustainable thing for the Red Raiders when they’ve got matchups with Iowa State, TCU, BYU and then the Big 12 tournament coming up? What about in the NCAA tournament?
Will Texas Tech’s bench show up in March?
The Red Raiders really haven’t been able to turn to their bench for much of this season. And I don’t totally understand what’s going on there, but McCasland has definitely leaned into using a small rotation to keep his best players on the court and keeping the wins coming.
But I’ve clearly got some questions about whether or not that’s sustainable for Texas Tech to make any sort of run this postseason.
And I still have questions about this. I’ve been asking this question for a couple months now. Tech really relies heavily upon its starters and the rotation is functionally just seven players deep.
Can Texas Tech's bench find a way to provide more than just nine points on a somewhat regular basis? We’ll see.
What happens on Saturday when Texas Tech faces Iowa State? Is that game actually indicative of anything?
The Iowa State Cyclones are one of the most impressive teams in the country. They’re 24-4 overall, a top five team in the AP Poll, and one of the best teams in the Big 12. Interestingly enough, Iowa State is currently tied for the No. 2 spot in the Big 12 with Texas Tech (and a couple other teams).
A win over Iowa State would not only be massive from a seeding perspective, but it would show that Texas Tech is still legit, even without its best player.
But what would a hypothetical loss show? Anything new? Texas Tech has had issues against top tier opponents on the road in the past and a close loss probably wouldn’t do anything to change anyone’s minds about what the Red Raiders are capable of. We’ll see.
It’s probably fair to say that however things play out in Ames, we’ll likely learn more about Texas Tech in that game than what we’ve seen from matchups with Kansas State and Cincinnati.