Texas Tech basketball fans are thrilled that their team is still dancing after the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament. One of four Big 12 teams to reach the Sweet 16, the No. 3-seeded Red Raiders now head to San Francisco, California where they will look to win two more games to reach the program's second Final Four.
In the first two rounds, Texas Tech finally was the beneficiary of some of the rare madness there was in this tournament. That's because Grant McCasland's squad was able to get to the third round without having to play a single-digit seed. For most of its history, Tech has not been blessed by the basketball gods to get to play lower-seeded teams after the first round.
For instance, in 2019's run to the National Championship Game, Tech had to play the highest possible seed it could have faced in every round but the National Semifinals, and in that round, Tech faced a No. 2 seed, Michigan State. That won't be the case this year.
Of course, in the first round, Tech earned the right to face No. 14 seed UNCW. While the Seahawks gave the Red Raiders all they could handle in the 82-72 Texas Tech win, it was still a nice perk to get to play one of the lowest-seeded teams in the West Region.
Then, Tech got to face No. 11 seed Drake in the second round after the Bulldogs pulled off one of the few notable upsets of round one by taking down No. 6 seed Missouri out of the mighty SEC. That was a fortunate development not just because Drake was the lower seed and because Drake is a mid-major program but also because playing Missouri in Wichita, Kansas would have been essentially a road game for the Red Raiders given Missouri's proximity to Wichita.
It would have been a bit of a shame for the Red Raiders to earn a No. 3 seed and then eventually play in front of a hostile crowd while taking on a lower seed in the second round. While situations like that are difficult for the selection committee to avoid, Tech would have likely felt slighted had they been required to take on Missouri in Wichita.
The same scenario is going to play out for the No. 1 seed in the Midwest Region, Houston, in the second weekend of the tournament. Houston, which had one of the best seasons of any team in the country, has been "rewarded" for that by being sent to the Midwest Region to play No. 4 seed Purdue in Indianapolis. That's a huge disadvantage given that Purdue's campus is just over an hour away from Indianapolis.
Then, if Houston survives that test, the Cougars will face either No. 3 seed Kentucky or No. 2 seed Tennessee. Lexington, Kentucky is under three hours from Indianapolis while Knoxville, Tennessee is just five hours away. Thus, given how well both of those fan bases travel, Houston will be the road team for any game it plays this weekend.
The Red Raiders have avoided that fate by being sent to San Francisco, California for the weekend. The other teams in San Francisco will actually have to travel farther than Tech to get to the Chase Center. Arkansas, Florida, and Maryland will all be making cross-country trips to California where no team in the Mountain or Pacific time zones will be playing in the West Regional.
That's great news for Texas Tech because it means that these will be neutral-site games in the truest sense. What isn't great news for Texas Tech fans is the game time for Thursday's contest with No. 10 seed Arkansas.
When do Texas Tech and Arkansas play in the Sweet 16?
Late Sunday, CBS Sports and TNT Sports released the television schedule for all Sweet 16 games. Unfortunately, for the Red Raiders, it is going to be another late night on a weekday.
We already knew Tech would play on Thursday because the days for each regional semifinal and regional final had been set for months. What's more, we likely could have guessed that Tech would play late on Thursday given that the games will be played on the West Coast.
Still, it is painful for Red Raider fans to see that Tech will once again be the last game of the night with a tip time of 9:09 p.m. Central. This marks the second Thursday in a row that the Red Raiders will have the latest game of the day in the NCAA Tournament after the first-round game with UNCW tipped of at around 9:30 p.m. Central last week.
CBS Sports and TNT Sports Announce Tip Times and Commentator Teams for Regional Semifinals on Thursday, March 27, and Friday, March 28 pic.twitter.com/7Um6VyXxYk
— March Madness Men’s Basketball TV (@MM_MBB_TV) March 24, 2025
Thursday will be a big day for Big 12 fans as BYU will face Alabama in the East Region at 6:09 p.m. Central. Meanwhile, at 8:39 p.m. Central, Arizona and Duke will meet in the East Region in Newark, New Jersey.
The game that tips off ahead of the Red Raiders in San Francisco will feature No. 1 seed Florida and No. 4 seed Maryland. That contest will begin at 6:39 p.m. Central.
The good news for Tech fans is that the television broadcast crew assigned to the West Region games is excellent. Veteran play-by-play man Kevin Harlan, one of the most colorful broadcasters in sports, will be joined by former NBA head coach Stan VanGundy and Dan Bonner. Working the sidelines will be Lauren Shehadi. The game will be broadcast on TBS and TRUTV.