Texas Tech basketball star JT Toppin will miss the rest of the season after sustaining a torn ACL in his right knee during a loss to Arizona State. The injury occurred late in the No. 13 Red Raiders' 72-67 defeat on Tuesday. Toppin, the reigning Big 12 Player of the Year, had been leading the team in scoring and rebounding.
Texas Tech announced on Wednesday that junior forward JT Toppin has a torn ACL in his right knee, confirmed by an MRI after the team's return to Lubbock. The injury happened with 6:03 remaining in Tuesday's game against Arizona State, as the Red Raiders trailed 61-56. Toppin drove to the basket, made upper-body contact with a defender, and fell to the floor with his legs buckling underneath him. He grabbed his right leg in pain and was assisted to the locker room by head trainer Mike Neal and coach Grant McCasland, unable to bear full weight on it.
In the game, Toppin recorded 20 points on 8-of-18 shooting, 8 rebounds, and 4 blocks before exiting. He did not return, and Texas Tech lost 72-67 to the Sun Devils, who entered with a 4-8 Big 12 record. This marks the Red Raiders' seventh loss of the season and second against an unranked opponent, dropping them to fifth in the conference, two games behind No. 2 Houston.
Toppin had been a cornerstone for Texas Tech's Final Four hopes, averaging 21.8 points, 10.8 rebounds, and 1.7 blocks per game—the only player nationally averaging at least 20 points and 10 rebounds. A consensus second-team All-American last season, he earned his fourth Big 12 Player of the Week honor earlier in the week and was a third-time U.S. Basketball Writers Association Oscar Robertson National Player of the Week. He was in contention for national player of the year awards like the Wooden Award.
Post-game, McCasland noted the immediate impact: "It definitely knocked us on our heels a little bit. But, man, we've got a competitive group and found a way to get to a one-possession game and gave ourselves a chance to win late." He added that Toppin was disappointed and that initial assessment pointed to a lower leg issue, pending further evaluation.
This is the second season-ending knee injury for a Big 12 star in the past week, following BYU's Richie Saunders with a torn ACL on Saturday. Texas Tech's frontcourt now relies more on players like LeJuan Watts, the only other forward averaging at least 15 minutes per game.
