Texas Tech loses leading scorer JT Toppin as Red Raiders shocked by Arizona State

Coming off of a huge win over the No. 1 team in the country, the Texas Tech Red Raiders should not have lost against the Arizona State Sun Devils on Tuesday night. Just flat out, the Red Raiders have immense potential and they lost against a team that is struggling to compete in the Big 12. 

But that’s unfortunately not the biggest story of the night for the Red Raiders men’s basketball program. The loss in and of itself isn’t the end of the world for the Red Raiders. The result isn’t the biggest issue for Grant McCasland and Texas Tech here.

The big issue from last night’s loss? 

Texas Tech lost one of the most talented players in the country as JT Toppin suffered a leg injury against the Sun Devils. In the moment, Toppin was driving into the lane and was looking to shoot, but awkwardly stepped and came down in a very concerning way. 

I’m not a doctor and I’m not going to pretend to be a medical professional. All I know is that the injury looked very painful.

JT Toppin suffered a frightening injury as the Texas Tech Red Raiders fell on the road against the Arizona State Sun Devils

This season, Toppin has been borderline unstoppable on a number of occasions. So far this year, Toppin has averaged 21.8 points per game, 10.8 rebounds per game, and 1.7 blocks per game. He’s been an absolute force for the Red Raiders.

Again, we’re talking about someone who should be the national player of the year. And it’s not yet clear as to how long the Red Raiders will be without Toppin.

This is a potentially devastating injury for not only the Red Raiders’ chances of winning the Big 12 this year. This is something that will drastically impact anything that resembles national title ambitions for Texas Tech.

If the Red Raiders are going to hope to win a championship of any sort this season, it’s going to get exponentially more difficult if Toppin is out for an extended period of time.