{"id":124246,"date":"2026-03-16T07:30:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T10:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tech.einnews.com\/article\/899765738"},"modified":"2026-03-16T07:30:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T10:30:18","slug":"no-5-tech-heading-to-tampa-for-ncaa-tournament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/2026\/03\/16\/no-5-tech-heading-to-tampa-for-ncaa-tournament\/","title":{"rendered":"No. 5 Tech heading to Tampa for NCAA Tournament"},"content":{"rendered":"
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No. 5 Texas Tech is heading back to the NCAA Tournament where it will play No. 12 Akron on Friday in a Midwest Region First Round game at Benchmark International Arena in Tampa, Florida. The Tech-Akron winner will advance to the Second Round to play either No. 4 Alabama or No. 13 Hofstra on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an expectation here that we are playing in the NCAA Tournament,\u201d Texas Tech coach Grant McCasland said. \u201cNot only to play in it, but to win and make a run. These 5-12 games are always dangerous, any way you look at it. I think Akron is a really strong team. We can\u2019t worry about anything besides getting better over these next few days as a group. That\u2019s been my challenge for us all season. You have to keep getting better to give yourself the best chance to win. This NCAA Tournament is always great and the moment you think you understand the path is the moment you do this the wrong way. We\u2019re all in on preparing for Akron and figuring out a way to win that first one.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Midwest Region is topped by No. 1 seed Michigan along with No. 2 Iowa State, No. 3 Virginia, No. 4 Alabama, No. 5 Tech, No. 6 Tennessee, No. 7 Kentucky, No. 8 Georgia, No. 9 Saint Louis, No. 10 Santa Clara, No. 12 Akron, No. 14 Wright State, No. 15 Tennessee State. The Midwest Region also includes two First Four matchups with UMBC and Howard playing each other and Miami and SMU matching up. This will be the first meeting all-time between Tech and Akron. The Zips come into the NCAA Tournament with a 29-5 overall record and were 17-1 in Mid-American Conference play. Akron won the MAC Tournament, running off wins over Buffalo, Kent State and Toledo to earn the automatic bid. The Zips are on a 10-game winning streak following their 79-76 win over Toledo on Saturday in the conference title game.<\/p>\n

The Red Raiders (22-10) are making their third straight NCAA Tournament and 22nd appearance in program history, including advancing to the program\u2019s third Elite Eight last season. As a program, Tech has made the tournament in 2016, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2024, 2025 and 2026 over the past 10 years with 14-7 record during that span. Grant McCasland has led the program to the tournament in each of his first three seasons, including last season when the team ran off wins over UNC Wilmington, Drake and Arkansas before falling to Florida (2025 National Champion) in the Elite Eight. <\/b>Last season, Tech matched a program record with a No. 3 seed in the 2025 NCAA Tournament has experienced recent success by advancing to the Elite Eight (2018), NCAA Final (2019), Sweet 16 (2022) and Elite Eight (2025).<\/p>\n

Nationally ranked throughout the season for the first time in program history, Tech was ranked No. 10 in the AP Top 25 Preseason Poll for its highest preseason ranking in program history and is currently ranked No. 16. The Red Raiders are now 4-3 against top 10 opponents following a loss to No. 7 Iowa State in the Big 12 Tournament quarterfinals in Kansas City and own a 3-1 record against top 5 opponents throughout the season. Tech has a neutral court win over then-No. 3\/now-No. 1 Duke at Madison Square Garden, a home win over then-No. 6 Houston and road victories over then-No. 1 Arizona and then-No. 4 Iowa State. The team started the season 0-2 against top 10 teams with a loss against then-No. 1 Purdue in the Bahamas and taking a loss at then-No. 7 Houston in the first matchup against the Cougars before running off the most top 10 wins in program history. Along with being in the AP Top 25, the Red Raiders enter the NCAA Tournament at No. 19 in the NCAA NET and No. 20 in the Kenpom ratings.<\/p>\n

Christian Anderson and JT Toppin were both selected to the All-Big 12 First Team while Donovan Atwell earned All-Big 12 Honorable Mention and Big 12 All-Newcomer Team honors. Toppin and Anderson are the only teammates in the nation to both be on the Wooden Award Ballot and were both selected as The Sporting News All-America. Additional All-America selections will come from the Associated Press, NABC and USBWA next week. The Red Raiders have played the last six games without Toppin who suffered a season-ending injury on February 17 at Arizona State. At the time of his injury, Toppin was leading the nation with 234 made field goals and was in the top 10 nationally in scoring (21.8), rebounding (10.8) and double-doubles (16). Anderson leads the Big 12 and is fourth nationally with 7.6 assists per game and is averaging 18.9 points per game. A sophomore point guard, Anderson has recorded eight double-doubles this season and has already established a new program single-season record with 236 assists this season while also making 105 3-pointers \u2013 breaking the previous school single-season record. Atwell now owns that 3-point record and goes into the NCAA Tournament having made 124 3-pointers and by shooting 45.4% from beyond the arc. Atwell is second on the team with 13.5 points per game while LeJuan Watts is adding 11.5 points and 6.0 rebounds per game and freshman Jaylen Petty is providing 9.5 points and 3.9 rebounds per game. Atwell and Anderson have combined for 229 made 3-pointers this season \u2013 the most for a pair of teammates in the nation.<\/p>\n

McCasland will be coaching in his 104th game as Tech\u2019s head coach and enters the 2026 NCAA Tournament with a 284-119 record in his NCAA career, including his Texas Tech records of 73-30 overall (103 games \u2013 70.9 win%), 38-18 in Big 12 games, 44-7 at home, 23-0 in non-conference home games, 17-13 in true road and 12-10 in neutral-court games. As an NCAA head coach, McCasland has now led four teams to the NCAA Tournament and has a 4-3 record, including winning three games last season to reach the Elite Eight and taking North Texas to the second round after a 78-69 overtime win over Purdue to open the 2021 NCAA Tournament. He also has NCAA Tournament experience as an assistant coach at Baylor where he was a part of five tournament appearances, including reaching the 2012 Elite Eight and 2014 Sweet 16.<\/p>\n

Lethal from deep as a team, the Red Raiders have made 369 3-pointers this season which is the second most in program history and only two behind last year\u2019s team that set a new record with 371. Texas Tech leads the Big 12 and is fifth nationally by making 11.5 3-pointers per game and ranks sixth nationally by shooting 39.3% on its 3-point attempts. The Red Raiders finished the regular season with a road game at BYU where they were 16-for-35 (45.7%) on 3-pointers (made 12 by halftime) and have now shot 40% or higher from beyond the arc in 17 games this season with a high of 63.0% against Baylor (17-of-27). In their Big 12 Tournament loss to Iowa State, the Red Raiders were 9-for-29 (31.0%) on 3-pointers. Tech ranks fifth in the conference with a 1.47 assist-to-turnover ratio and with an average of 15.8 assists per game. The team averages 80.4 points per game and has limited opponents to 72.6 points leading into the national tournament. The Red Raiders have now made 10 or more in 25-of-32 games this season, including setting a new program record with 17 in games against Baylor, Oklahoma State and Lindenwood. The Red Raiders established new program records on 3-pointers in the past three seasons under McCasland by making 371 last season (37 games) and 289 the year before (34 games). As a team, Tech is 369-for-938 (39.3%) on 3-pointers through 32 games played.<\/p>\n

POSTSEASON AWARDS<\/b>
TOPPIN:<\/b> All-Big 12 First Team; The Sporting News All-American (2nd Team); Field of 68 All-American (1st Team); Associated Press All-Big 12 First Team; Wooden Award Ballot
ANDERSON:<\/b> All-Big 12 First Team; Big 12 Most Improved Player; The Sporting News All-American (3rd Team); Field of 68 All-American (3rd Team); Associated Press All-Big 12 First Team; Wooden Award Ballot
ATWELL: <\/b>All-Big 12 Honorable Mention; All-Big 12 Newcomer Team<\/p>\n

\u2013TECH\u2013<\/b><\/p>\n

Release provided by  Andrew Stern  Texas Tech Athletics<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/strong> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

… Arena in Tampa, Florida. The Tech<\/span>-Akron winner will advance … in the NCAA Tournament,\u00e2\u0080\u009d Texas Tech<\/span> coach Grant McCasland said. \u00e2\u0080\u009c … Elite Eight.\u00c2\u00a0Last season, Tech<\/span> matched a program record with … 5 opponents throughout the season. Tech<\/span> has a neutral court win …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-124246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124246\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}