Texas Tech Downs 80-68 Cincinnati as New Roles Take Shape
Texas Tech continued its post-JT Toppin adjustment with another step forward Tuesday night, pulling away from Cincinnati 80-68 inside United Supermarkets Arena to move to 21-7 (11-4 Big 12). The Red Raiders are now 2-0 since the announcement that Toppin is out for the season with an ACL injury, showing flashes of a new identity built on pace, movement and team rebounding.
“We’re always learning… and just played, I felt like, with a consistent effort to figure out a way to improve,” head coach Grant McCasland said postgame.
With a massive road test at No. 4 Iowa State looming Saturday, Tech’s evolution remains ongoing, but the early returns are encouraging. There is one major area McCasland knows the team is still a major work in progress in as March approaches.
Moseley’s Block Flips the Early Script
For the first eight minutes, Cincinnati couldn’t miss. The Bearcats opened 9-for-9 from the field and looked poised to control the night.
Then Josiah Moseley happened.
Inserted early, the long, springy forward delivered a momentum-swinging block that immediately changed the tone. The block marked the Bearcats first missed sho tof the game and from that moment forward, Texas Tech’s the Bearcats began to cool.
McCasland wasn’t surprised.
“Josiah has maybe the best instincts of all the guys guarding the perimeter and around the basket. His athleticism and his pop off the ground… he’s got a lot of talent,” McCasland said.
The head coach emphasized Moseley is still catching up after missing more than half the season with injury and has practiced less than almost anyone in the rotation.
“We haven’t been able to practice him… he’s the one that’s practiced the least… and he’s just turning up,” McCasland said.
That growth even showed in the huddles when the sophomore showed a new side to his head coach.
“He came into one of the timeouts talking — it was the first time I’d heard him talk to the team,” McCasland said. “I was like, now we’re talking. Let’s go.”
Offensive Shift Post Toppin
One of the clearest shifts in Texas Tech’s post-Toppin identity is tempo and ball movement — something even Cincinnati head coach Wes Miller noted.
“They are moving it around more, more popping it around. Less iso play,” said Miller.
McCasland confirmed it’s intentional.
“We’re playing faster… putting pressure on the rim quicker and that is what this team needs to do,” he said.
Without the All-American hub in the middle, Tech is leaning into spacing, angles and multi-action offense.
“I think we’re just going to have to do it from a lot of different angles rather than just those two guys in the middle of the floor,” McCasland said.
They do still have another All-American candidate leading the offense in Christian Anderson who more than looked the part on Tuesday night with 31 points, 11 rebounds and 7 assists.
McCasland especially liked Anderson’s downhill aggression.
“What he’s learning is create the advantage and put pressure on the forward… he’s just putting those guys on their heels,” McCasland said. “And I do think the early possessions in transition help that too because it’s freeing them up and we’re playing a little faster.”
The LeJuan Watts Growth: “There’s Freedom in Discipline”
Watts had a different look about him in this, finishing at the rim even through contact in ways he hasn’t in many games earlier in the season.
Once more of a complementary piece, with Toppin out Watts is now central to the offense and McCasland has responded by tightening expectations.
“I’ve really squeezed him, I’ve challenged him to be more simple and solid and tight and physical,” McCasland said.
The coach described Watts as naturally creative — even “artistic” — of which he likes to play that way too, but Grant believes his ceiling rises when leaves all that for off the court and leans into his physicality on it.
“When he uses his body and he doesn’t try to get cute, I think he’s one of the best players in our league,” McCasland said.
He also said while Watts loves to play with that artistic freedom, he is learning that you can have freedom within toughness and physicality too. You can play with constraints instead of loose and free and still be free in a different way.
“There’s freedom in discipline,” McCasland said. “Now you’re going to show me how disciplined you can be, which isn’t that fun. But he’s embracing it… and there’s just a real trust at this point that we trust him as long as he keeps playing the way that our team needs him to.”
Watts responded with 13 points on 4-of-7 shooting to go along with five rebounds, mostly playing up against a seven footer all game.
Defense Is Still the Biggest Work in Progress
If there is one area still under construction for Texas Tech, it’s the defensive side of the ball both on the boards with the loss of the team’s leading rebounder in Toppin….but also how they guard screening actions on the outside as well.
McCasland was honest about the challenge..
“If you ask me two things that I’m really concerned about… I don’t have a lot of concerns offensively. I feel like our team’s great. But what JT was for us was his competitiveness and his fight defensively. It was different.”
Specifically McCasland spoke about Toppin’s ability to hard hedge ball screens and that he felt that showed early tonight in how Cincinnatti was getting open looks.
“JT was so nuanced in his ability to hard head people but not give up angles,” explained McCasland. “And these guys haven’t figured it out. I mean we’re way too extended at times and then sometimes we were late, and then we’re wide on it. So defensively, we’ve got a lot to grow from and it showed, especially to start the game and over the course of it.“
The rebounding though is something McCasland challenged his guards to step up on and they delivered on Tuesday certainly. Anderson had a career high 11 rebounds while his backcourt mate Jaylen Petty had seven. Eighteen of the team’s 40 total rebounds came from the two smallest players on the court.
McCasland was also quick to laud senior Donovan Atwell whoe delivered some massive offensive rebounds that led to big threes.
“In these big games with physical bodies, JT would go in there and get the offensive rebound,” said McCasland. “Today it was Donovan Atwell doing it. It was awesome. It was great to see those kind of possessions happen.”
Join the conversation with other Red Raiders on the Inside The Double T forum.
Subscribe today to get the most in-depth Texas Tech sports and recruiting coverage.
Follow us on X: @RedRaiderSports
Like and follow us on Instagram @rrs_rivals & like us on Facebook.
