Red Raiders return to national rankings

LUBBOCK, Texas – Texas Tech will enter the postseason at No. 25 in the Associated Press Top 25 and No. 23 in the USA TODAY Coaches Poll which were both released on Monday. The Red Raiders (22-9, 11-7 Big 12) are on a three-game winning streak, including knocking off Baylor last Saturday to finish tied for third in the Big 12 standings.

Tech had been unranked the past two weeks after it dropped out of the national rankings following being at No. 23 following splitting games with a win over TCU and a loss at UCF. The Red Raiders were unranked in the preseason and did not enter the rankings until the first time on January 15. The team rose as high as No. 15 this season and finished the regular season with a 5-4 record against AP Top 25 opponents this season following its 78-68 win over Baylor.

Tech is the fourth seed in this week’s Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship and will play for the first time at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City. The Red Raiders were picked eighth in the Big 12 Preseason Poll along with being unranked nationally before putting together the 17th season with 20 or more wins in program history in head coach Grant McCasland’s first season leading the program.
No. 1 Houston (28-3) won the Big 12 regular-season title and remains atop the national rankings, followed by UConn (28-3), Purdue (28-3), North Carolina (25-6) and Tennessee (24-7) to round out the top-5. The Big 12 is also represented in the national rankings by No. 7 Iowa State (247), No. 14 Baylor (22-9), No. 16 Kansas (22-9), and No. 20 BYU (22-9).

The No. 15 national ranking earlier this season was the highest since the program was No. 12 in the AP Top 25 at the end of the 2022 season. Tech’s highest AP ranking in program history came at No. 6 in February of 2018 (16th Week Poll). The 2018-19 team was No. 8 in the final week of the regular season and No. 7 throughout the postseason that led to the 2019 National Championship Final.