21. Kentucky Wildcats

22. Texas Longhorns

23. Marquette Golden Eagles

24. Kansas State Wildcats

25. Miami Hurricanes

26. Ohio State Buckeyes

27. Xavier Musketeers

28. BYU Cougars

29. Maryland Terps

30. St. John’s Red Storm

31. UCLA Bruins

32. Oregon Ducks

33. Wake Forest Demon Deacons

34. Florida Gators

35. Ole Miss

36. USC Trojans

37. Grand Canyon Lopes

38. Providence Friars

39. Mississippi State Bulldogs

40. Rutgers Scarlet Knights

41. Memphis Tigers

42. McNeese Cowboys

43. Michigan State Spartans

44. Michigan Wolverines

45. VCU Rams

46. Dayton Flyers

47. St Mary’s Gaels

48. Washington Huskies

49. UCF Knights

50. Louisville Cardinals

51. Boise State Broncos

52. Clemson Tigers

53. New Mexico Lobos

54. Arizona State Sun Devils

55. Utah State Aggies

56. Colorado State Rams

57. Seton Hall Pirates

58. SMU Mustangs

59. South Carolina Gamecocks

60. Nevada Wolfpack

61. TCU Horned Frogs

62. Villanova Wildcats

63. Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

64. Saint Louis Billikens

65. Syracuse Orange

66. Nebraska Cornhuskers

67. Pittsburgh Panthers

68. Iowa Hawkeyes

69. NC State Wolfpack

70. Butler Bulldogs

71. Princeton Tigers

72. Virginia Cavaliers

73. Saint Joseph’s Hawks

74. Oklahoma Sooners

75. West Virginia Mountaineers

76. Georgia Bulldogs

77. UAB Blazers

78: Wisconsin Badgers

79. San Diego State Aztecs

80. Missouri Tigers

81. Northwestern Wildcats

82. Loyola Chicago Ramblers

Here’s where each of our analysts have the Red Raiders ranked:

Steven	Maxwell	Kam	Cody
17	28	40	14

If there was any team I wanted to see run a “small ball” lineup out there, it would be Grant McCasland’s squad. This team’s starting backcourt is likely to be Minnesota transfer, Elijah Hawkins as well as Chance McMillan. The frontcourt will consist of Darrion Williams, New Mexico transfer, JT Toppin, and former Pitt big man, Frederiko Frederiko. Off the bench is former Drake Bulldog, Kevin Overton. Overton, who played his freshman year at Drake, would be apart of the aforementioned small ball lineup. In fact, a lineup consisting of McMillan, Hawkins, Overton, Williams, and Toppin could be this team’s version of a closing “death lineup”. Toppin averaged over 9 rebounds per game last season for New Mexico and is big enough to play center in these lineups. Both Toppin and Darrion Williams are legitimate NBA prospects. Williams is a legit 3 and D wing, as he shot nearly 46% from three last year on 96 attempts. Both Toppin and Williams will likely be the leading scorers on this year’s team. Toppin was also Co-Rookie of the Year in the Mountain West last year while Overton earned All-Freshman First Team honors in the MVC.

Additionally, aside from Overton there are a couple premiere bench pieces worth noting on this roster. Kerwin Walton shot a whopping 47.8% from 3 point range himself last season while Devan Cambridge scored in double figures for this team a year ago. This top eight allows the Red Raiders to be a real factor in the Big 12. Needless to say, the Big 12 is a gauntlet. In fact, despite being 15th in KenPom’s metric for the preseason for the 2024-25 season, this ranks the Red Raiders 6th in the conference. And Cincinnati (17th) and BYU (21st) are right behind them. These 8 teams, along with Kansas State, make the Big 12 the strongest conference in the sport, and Texas Tech is still one of the upper echelon teams of this conference. The AP voters should be revoked of their voting abilities for not having Texas Tech in the preseason Top 25.

Last year, the Red Raiders went 23-11 (11-7) in McCasland’s inaugural season as head coach. But last year was sort of an outlier for McCasland as his team was substantially better offensively than defensively. McCasland former the reputation of a defensive mastermind during his time with North Texas, and this year’s KenPom reflects that. The Red Raiders are projected to have the 7th best defense in the nation this upcoming season. However, last year’s 65th ranked defense (according to KenPom) was the lowest ranked McCasland defense since 2020. Additionally, Coach McCasland also plays at a very slow tempo, Last season, the Red Raiders were 232nd in the nation. But during his final four years at North Texas, his team’s tempos were 363nd, 358th, 350th, and 350th. Their tempo is always towards the bottom of the country and they rely heavily on this tempo paired with their defensive identity to win slow, low scoring matchups. It works. McCasland went 135-80 during a six year stint at North Texas.

This team will play exactly how Coach McCasland desires. They’ll play slow, shoot the three well, defend and rebound. While they may go 11-7 or 10-8 in their conference again, that’s just the nature of the beast of the Big 12 unfortunately. But that conference record won’t prevent them from being one of the most dangerous teams in the country next season.