If Patrick Mahomes wasn’t so busy these days, Texas Tech probably could have used him for a guest lecture in physics last weekend.
Already with possibly the Big 12’s toughest, most disciplined team — a team that handed Arizona its only conference loss, one the Wildcats will have a chance to avenge Saturday at McKale Center — the Red Raiders were whistled for doing something, well, quite a bit less than that during a game at Houston last Saturday.
Basically, standout forward JT Toppin was ejected for kicking a guy in the groin. And, after getting ejected himself for arguing the call, Texas Tech coach Grant McCasland suggested afterward that it might be worth consulting with the famously unpredictable Kansas City Chiefs quarterback, who is known for ambidextrous tendencies and an ability to throw while airborne.
Early in the Feb. 1 game at Houston, Toppin was shifting the ball into his left shooting hand while airborne, when his right leg arched up and split the difference between the legs of Houston’s Joseph Tugler, who crouched over in obvious pain afterward.
McCasland used the laws of motion to argue that Toppin’s move was unintentional.
“I don’t know,” McCasland said. “Maybe we should call Patrick Mahomes and ask him, because if you’re in a throwing motion and you have to switch hands, and you’re a lefty, you’re going to have to throw your body in a way, to torque it … your body’s going to turn in such a way that your right foot is going to go forward.
“I don’t know what else to say. If your judgment is that this is something that we told him that we’re going to try to do in a double team, it’s honestly, I just …”
Texas Tech forward JT Toppin (15) is escorted off the court by an assistant coach after being ejected for a flagrant foul during the first half against Houston in Houston on Feb. 1, 2025.
The Big 12 heard the case. Saying officials made an “egregious” ruling, Texas Tech AD Kirby Hocutt said in a statement that he spoke to Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark immediately afterward and that Yormark “assured me that the situation would be addressed and there would be accountability.”
Oh, and this also happened: Texas Tech won the game in overtime, with Toppin and McCasland both watching in the locker room.
“It was probably one of the greatest hugs I’ve ever had in my life,” McCasland said.
Texas Tech continued rolling three days later, bowling over Baylor 73-59 despite shooting just 39.7%, moving them to 18-4 overall and 9-2 in the Big 12, just a game behind both Arizona and Houston.
Picked to finish seventh in the Big 12’s official preseason poll, as voted on by the league’s head coaches, the No. 13-ranked Red Raiders are now alone in third with a chance to move into second if they can beat the No. 20 Wildcats again.
UA coach Tommy Lloyd, who is scheduled to work again with McCasland on the USA Basketball’s top junior team this summer, expressed zero surprise where either team was at.
“I don’t pay any mind to your guys’ expectations to start out the year,” Lloyd said Friday. “I know this: That guy’s won a lot of games, and he’s won everywhere he’s been. So I’m gonna bet on that before I bet on your guys’ guessing. I’m gonna bet on his résumé, and I feel like we’ve been successful, as well.”
Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd calls for a sub after one of his Wildcats picked up a foul in the second half against Colorado in Tucson on Jan. 25, 2025.
Picked to finish fifth, Arizona might even be a better team now than the one that went into Lubbock’s United Supermarkets Arena and got clobbered on the glass in Texas Tech’s 70-54 win.
The Wildcats have since won three more road games, at Oklahoma State, at ASU and at BYU, while beating Colorado and then-third-ranked Iowa State at McKale Center.
The Wildcats also popped back into the Associated Press Top 25 poll and into that first-place tie with Houston.
But Lloyd downplayed the notion that things have changed that much.
“We just played in a tough environment, and it was a game where maybe neither team felt like they played great,” Lloyd said. “I don‘t necessarily feel like we’re a drastically different team.
“I mean, hopefully we’re a better team. It’s been a few weeks, and we’ve had a lot of experiences and a lot of opportunities to practice our habits. So hopefully we’ve gotten a little bit better since then.”
