Game Info
Good Guys: Texas Tech Red Raiders (23-7, 14-5)
Bad Guys: Arizona State Sun Devils (13-17, 4-15)
When to Watch: Saturday, March 8th @ 7:00 pm
Where to Watch: Desert Financial Arena | Tempe, Arizona
How to Watch: ESPNU
How to Listen: 97.3 FM | Affiliates | Varsity Network
The Line: Texas Tech -10.5
Advanced Stats
| TEXAS TECH | STAT | ARIZONA STATE |
|---|---|---|
Lineups
| THE STARTERS | Pts / Reb | |
|---|---|---|
| POINT GUARD | Elijah Hawkins (5-11/160) | 9.4 / 6.4* |
| SHOOTING GUARD | Chance McMillian (6-3/190) | 14.9 / 4.1 |
| SMALL FORWARD | Kerwin Walton (6-5/210) | 5.1 / 1.0 |
| POWER FORWARD | Darrion Williams (6-6/225) | 14.7 / 5.1 |
| CENTER | JT Toppin (6-9/225) | 17.8 / 9.2 |
| THE BENCH | Pts / Reb | |
| SIXTH MAN | Christian Anderson (6-2/165) | 10.3 / 2.4* |
| SEVENTH MAN | Kevin Overton (6-5/200) | 7.9 / 3.6 |
| EIGHTH MAN | Federiko Federiko (6-11/215) | 5.3 / 4.8 |
| NINTH MAN | Eemeli Yalaho (6-8/240) | 3.3 / 2.4 |
| TENTH MAN | Leon Horner (6-4/215) | 0.3 / 0.6 |
| ELEVENTH MAN | Jack Francis (6-3/185) | 0.3 / 0.3 |
| TWELFTH MAN | Corbin Green (6-5/230) | 0.0 / 0.5 |
| THIRTEENTH MAN | Jazz Henderson (5-11/175) | – / – |
| THE STARTERS | Pts / Reb | |
| POINT GUARD | Alston Mason (6-2/175) | 13.4 / 4.0* |
| SHOOTING GUARD | Adam Miller (6-3/190) | 9.8 / 2.3 |
| SMALL FORWARD | Joson Sanon (6-5/200) | 11.7 / 3.3 |
| POWER FORWARD | Basheer Jihad (6-9/239) | 12.1 / 5.5 |
| CENTER | Shawn Phillps, Jr. (7-0/245) | 5.3 / 4.8 |
| THE BENCH | Pts / Reb | |
| SIXTH MAN | Amier Ali (6-8/195) | 5.5 / 2.8 |
| SEVENTH MAN | Trevor Best (6-2/180) | 3.9 / 0.6 |
| EIGHTH MAN | Bobby Hurley (6-1/160) | 0.6 / 0.3 |
| NINTH MAN | – (-/-) | – / – |
| TENTH MAN | – (-/-) | – / – |
* Assists.
Starting 5
1. Stats. I swear, Arizona State is better than their record. I don’t know why they are as bad as their record indicates, but they can be good. Offensively, they are a terrible offensive rebounding team, 310th, but they are 56th in 3-point shooting, but just 221st in 2-point shooting. They tend to turn the ball over a decent amount, 220th, and get a ton of shots blocked, 319th. Defensively, they block a lot of shots on their own and are just okay in the big metrics: 231st in opponent offensive rebounding; 243rd in forcing turnovers; and 140th in free throw rate.
2. Scouting. Jayden Quaintance didn’t play the last game and neither did BJ Freeman, who are two of their best players. Mason is a good shooter and so is Miller. They will likely key the Sun Devil offense for this game and Sanon can be spectacular as a true freshman. Phillips is mainly a rebounder and can block shots as well.
3. How They Match Up. T-Rank says that Texas Tech only wins by 6.3 so I’m not sure about the spread unless the above-mentioned injuries are the biggest issue for Arizona State. Texas Tech is fully healthy and plays well on the road, but this team has sort of achieved what it needs to do for the NCAA Selection Committee I think so I don’t know that the urgency will be there.
4. lagniappe | something given as a bonus or extra gift.
Touched down in Tempe. pic.twitter.com/CMqaskzkMQ
— Texas Tech Basketball (@TexasTechMBB) March 8, 2025
The Texas Roots are being planted in The Piney Woods.
Please welcome the 13th Head Coach of Lumberjack Basketball, @MattBraeuer!
📰 : https://t.co/0oJEVLkegE#AxeEm pic.twitter.com/EQYXJuqu5n
— SFA Men’s Basketball (@SFA_MBB) March 7, 2025
The Athletic’s CJ Moore: Texas Tech’s secret to a top-10 offense? Its head coach brought in another head coach to run it
“This isn’t possible to do in one season if I didn’t know him,” McCasland said after a 78-73 win over Kansas at Allen Fieldhouse that kept the Red Raiders in line for a double-bye in the Big 12 tournament. “There’s nobody I trust more over my past 20-plus years than him. We started our journey together. It’s not possible if you don’t have this depth of relationship. But his impact, it can’t be understated how important it is.”
McCasland allows Linder to take the controls of the offense, and while McCasland has veto power, in huddles it’s often Linder with the clipboard.
“We’ve always tried to help each other out,” Linder said. “Now my job as an assistant coach is to make him look as good as I possibly can and hopefully put our team in the best situation to try to score baskets.”
This particular roster was tailor-made for Linder to do so. Linder made a name for himself as an offensive wizard as head coach at Northern Colorado, where his offense improved from 309th on KenPom in his first season to 45th in his fourth, with back-to-back second place finishes in the Big Sky Conference. From there, he went to Wyoming, inherited a team that had ranked 322nd in adjusted offense the previous year and climbed to 68th in his first season.
Linder has always given his best shooters a flashing green light and exploited mismatches, and he is not afraid to take gameplans to the extreme. Three seasons ago, Wyoming finished with a higher percentage of post-ups than any team Synergy had ever tracked, Linder’s way of maximizing the value of two players who thrived in dribble-down post-ups. This year’s Texas Tech team has two players who excel in similar scenarios — JT Toppin and Darrion Williams — but it also has one of the best combinations of pick-and-roll guards and shooters in the country. So Linder has evened out the usage, favoring the ball screen and spreading the floor to take advantage of the shooting. The Red Raiders have made double-digit 3s in 17 games, and they launched a school-record 43 3-pointers (making 15) in Saturday’s win at Kansas.
5. Official Site. The official site has their preview right here:
A rematch from a double-overtime thriller is on tap with No. 9 Texas Tech traveling to play Arizona State at 7 p.m. (CST) on Saturday at Desert Financial Arena in Tempe, Arizona. The Red Raiders, who are 7-2 on the road, won 111-106 in double-overtime over ASU in the first matchup on February 12 in Lubbock with JT Toppin going off for 41 points and 15 rebounds against the Sun Devils while Darrion Williams added 27 points in the highest scoring game ever for the program in Big 12 play. The 43rd game in the all-time series between Tech and ASU will be broadcast on ESPNU while the Texas Tech Sports Network radio call can be heard locally on Double T 97.3, and on the Varsity app.
The Red Raiders (23-7, 14-5 Big 12) have already recorded the most Big 12 road wins in program history and now have an opportunity to set the most Big 12 total wins in a season. Tech is currently second in the Big 12 standings and would secure the No. 2 seed in next week’s Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship with a win. The team has already secured a top-three seed which means a double-bye and advancement to the quarterfinals which begin on Thursday, March 13 at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City. ASU comes into the final game of the regular season at 13-17 overall and 4-15 in Big 12 play.
“We know what they’re capable of and they have our full attention,” Texas Tech coach Grant McCasland said. “Coach Hurley is doing a tremendous job keeping their team together with some crazy injuries. They are not backing down. I don’t care what their record is or what they’ve gone through. Their team is playing as good as any team offensively from what I’ve watched. We’re going in with our full attention and playing as hard as we can. That’s the important part. Our heart and effort will be what it needs to be to put ourselves in a position to win. We have a tremendous amount of respect for Arizona State for the way they’re competing.”