Red Raiders rise to No. 20 in AP Top 25

The Red Raiders (15-3, 4-1 Big 12) split a pair of conference games against ranked opponents last week, earning an 85-78 home win over BYU after falling at Houston and have now matched the best start to a season for the program through 18 games since also being 15-3 overall and 4-1 in Big 12 play in the 2018-19 season. Tech has won 10 of its last 11 and returns to action this weekend against No. 11 Oklahoma with a 1 p.m. game at the Lloyd Noble Center in Norman, Oklahoma.

Along with the polls, Texas Tech is currently at No. 35 in the NCAA NET Rankings, No. 31 in Kenpom, No. 20 by The Athletic, and No. 23 in the NCAA Power 36.

UConn (17-2) remains at No. 1 and is followed by No. 2 Purdue (17-2), No. 3 North Carolina (15-3), No. 4 Houston (16-2, 3-2 Big 12), and No. 5 Tennessee (14-4) in the top-5 of the AP Top 25. The Big 12 is also represented by No. 7 Kansas (15-3, 3-2), No. 11 OU (15-3, 3-2), No. 15 Baylor (14-4, 3-2), No. 21 BYU (14-4, 2-3), and No. 23 Iowa State (14-4, 3-2). The No. 20 Red Raiders are currently 2-1 against Top-25 teams this season, knocking off Texas and BYU when they were both at No. 20 in the poll and falling at UH when it was No. 5.

Pop Isaacs leads Tech with 16.9 points per game after going off for a career-high 32 points against BYU last Saturday in a performance where he also had four assists, three steals, five rebounds, and a career-best six 3-pointers. A sophomore from Las Vegas, Isaacs is now averaging 19.8 points and 3.0 assists through five Big 12 games and enters this week having scored in double figures in a career-best nine straight games. He is currently fifth in the Big 12 in scoring after going 6-for-9 on 3-pointers against BYU. Warren Washington scored a season-high 19 points in the win over BYU and had nine rebounds in both games last week against UH and BYU. He leads Tech with 7.8 rebounds and 1.7 blocks per game, while Joe Toussaint leads the team with 3.9 assists per game and is also scoring 13.3 point per game. Washington is currently second in the Big 12 with 31 total blocks and 1.72 blocks per game along with being fifth with his 7.8 rebounds per game. Darrion Williams leads Tech with four double-doubles this season and is eighth in the Big 12 with 6.8 rebounds per game.

Along with individual stats, Texas Tech leads the Big 12 and is 15th nationally with a 77.4 shooting percentage at the free-throw line after going 17-for-18 against BYU, second with only 10.5 turnovers per game, and is fourth in the conference with 8.7 3-pointers per game after going 10-for-20 from beyond the arc in the win.

The Red Raiders entered the national polls last week for the first time this season at No. 25 in both the AP and Coaches Poll. The program was at No. 25 to begin last season following advancing to the 2022 NCAA Sweet 16 and rose as high as No. 21 before falling out and not returning after three polls. Tech’s highest AP ranking in program history came at No. 6 in February of 2018 (16th Week Poll) and 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.