After back-to-back losses to UCF and Kansas - the latest a 64-61 heartbreaker - Texas Tech’s Big 12 title hopes have taken a serious hit. But in the grand scheme of college basketball? That might not be the end of the world.
Sure, hanging another conference championship banner would be a nice feather in the cap for Grant McCasland’s squad. But let’s be honest: in this sport, it’s March that matters.
Conference titles are great, but they don’t etch your name into the national conversation the way a Final Four run does. Nobody remembers who finished first in the Big 12 five years ago - but they remember who danced deep into April.
So while the sting of this loss is real, the Red Raiders still have everything to play for. The focus now shifts from chasing a conference crown to building toward something bigger - finding rhythm, getting healthy, and peaking when it counts most. That’s what separates good teams from great ones in college basketball.
And speaking of rhythm, it was noticeably absent on the offensive end tonight - and so was Christian Anderson. The sophomore guard was a surprise scratch, with McCasland revealing postgame that he didn’t learn of Anderson’s unavailability until about 15 minutes before tip. Anderson was suited up for the second half, but never saw the floor after being ruled out by head trainer Mike Neal.
In today’s college basketball landscape, where player availability can be a moving target, this kind of last-minute uncertainty isn’t uncommon. But there’s no question that Tech missed Anderson’s presence - not just his scoring, but his ability to organize the offense and get guys in the right spots.
Without him, the Red Raiders struggled to find any kind of offensive flow. They managed just 61 points - their second-lowest output of the season - and much of the night was spent settling for contested threes and isolation plays that didn’t go anywhere.
Freshman Jaylen Petty showed flashes, and LeJuan Watts turned in a gutsy performance, but the offensive execution just wasn’t there. The ball stuck, the movement stalled, and the Red Raiders couldn’t find consistent answers against Kansas’ defense.
That said, this wasn’t a repeat of the UCF loss. The effort level was night and day.
Defensively, Texas Tech brought it, and that gave them a real chance to win. They even did a solid job containing Krampus Peterson - no small feat.
Yes, Peterson finished with 19 points and hit two massive threes in crunch time, but he shot just 5-of-14 from the field, had only one assist, and turned it over twice. Donovan Atwell deserves a ton of credit for his work on Peterson, especially in the first half, and Tech’s defensive game plan forced the Kansas star into tough looks all night.
Still, in the final minutes, Peterson made the plays that mattered. The first of his two late threes looked like a prayer - and somehow it dropped.
The second? That one hurt.
Texas Tech gave him too clean a look, and when a scorer like Peterson sees one go in, you can’t afford to give him another easy one. That defensive lapse may have been the difference.
But if there’s one bright spot to take away from this game, it’s LeJuan Watts. After a rough night at UCF and a cold start against Kansas, it would’ve been easy for him to fade.
Instead, he responded with one of his best all-around performances of the season. Watts was relentless on the glass - seven offensive boards - and showed real poise as a playmaker, especially passing out of double teams in the paint.
With Anderson sidelined, Tech needed someone to step up and steady the ship. Watts answered the call.
So yes, this one stings. But the season is far from lost.
Texas Tech still has time to regroup, get healthy, and build toward March. And if they can channel the defensive intensity from tonight and find some consistency on offense - especially once Anderson returns - this is still a team capable of making noise when it matters most.