Texas Tech University Athletics
Texas Tech Athletics
Kentucky
October 21, 2026 | Men's Basketball
LUBBOCK, Texas โ No. 19 Texas Tech is set to take on No. 23 Kentucky in an exhibition game at 6 p.m. CT on Friday at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Kentucky. The two nationally ranked programs will square off in the preseason matchup that allows for a competitive matchup ahead of the regular season and gives Red Raider fans their first opportunity to watch the 2026-27 team in action. SEC Network+ will broadcast the exhibition.
Sustained success has permeated the Tech program with head coach Grant McCasland leading the Red Raiders to the NCAA Tournament in each of his first three seasons in Lubbock, including reaching the 2025 Elite Eight and Second Round last season. McCasland will enter his fourth season at Tech with a 74-31 overall record as the Red Raider head coach and 285 victories as an NCAA head coach. The Red Raiders come into this season at No. 19 in the Associated Press Preseason Top 25, No. 16 in the USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll and were picked fifth in the Big 12 Preseason Poll. Kenpom.com has the Red Raiders at No. 12 entering the season. Tech is set to open the regular season with a five-game homestand, beginning with the season opener at 6 p.m. on Monday, November 2 against Jackson State and a highly-anticipated matchup against No. 3 Illinois on Tuesday, November 10 at United Supermarkets Arena.
Texas Tech and Kentucky have played five regular season matchups against each other with the Wildcats owning a 5-0 record in the all-time series. The most recent matchup came with Kentucky traveling to Lubbock and taking a 76-74 overtime win on January 25, 2020 โ snapping a 54-game non-conference home winning streak by the Red Raiders. Tech has played two games against Kentucky in Lexington, the first in 1963 and then again in 1986.
Tech's 2026-27 roster is made up of five returners and nine newcomers โ headlined by two-time Consensus All-America selection JT Toppin, sharpshooter Donovan Atwell who returns after setting a new program record with 130 made 3-pointers last season and five additions through the transfer portal. Toppin, who suffered a season-ending injury last February, is progressing in his rehab and will be unavailable to begin this season. Tech's roster was bolstered during the summer with the addition of Darrion Williams returning to the program along with transfer portal signings of Cruz Davis (Hofstra), Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn (UNLV), Damarion Dennis (Wyoming) and Jamichael Stillwell (UCF). Davis and Gibbs-Lawhorn both averaged over 20 points per game scoring last season โ giving Tech three players on its roster who averaged over 20 with Toppin producing 21.8 points and 10.8 rebounds per game last season before his injury. Gibbs-Lawhorn provided 20.7 ppg. at UNLV last season while Davis averaged 20.1 ppg. at Hofstra. Gibbs-Lawhorn began his career with two seasons at Illinois before moving to Las Vegas where his one season there was highlighted by a 42-point performance against Nevada when he made eight 3-pointers. Davis earned Coastal Athletic Association Player of the Year and led Hofstra to the NCAA Tournament. Davis made 82 3-pointers and had 164 assists last season with a career-high 36-point performance at Pittsburgh.
Williams, who previously played two seasons at Tech including during the run to the 2025 Elite Eight, played last season at NC State before returning to the Red Raider program. He enters his fifth season of college basketball having already produced 1,601 points, 825 rebounds and 387 assists in his career after averaging leading NC State with 14.0 points per game last season. Atwell, who earned All-Big 12 Honorable Mention selection last season, also set a new Big 12 record with 81 made 3-pointers in conference play. He was the only Red Raider to start all 34 games throughout the season and averaged 13.5 points per game and shot 45.8% from beyond the arc.
Josiah Moseley returns for his second season at Tech after playing his freshman season at Villanova. A Texas native from Round Rock, Moseley missed the first 19 games of last season before returning to make an impact as a reserve throughout the rest of the season, including scoring a career-high 16 points in the NCAA Tournament First Round win over Akron. Moseley averaged 5.5 points and 3.6 rebounds per game in 14 games played last season. Dennis is also a junior from Texas who transferred to Tech after playing out of state previously. Last season, Dennis averaged 11.2 points per game at Wyoming as a sophomore after scoring 6.7 points per game at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi as a freshman. Dennis scored a career-high 21 points in a pair of games last season against South Dakota and Colorado State. Marial Akuentok is a also a returner, having played 15 games as a redshirt freshman while LaTrell Hoover redshirted last season.
Tech's newcomers also includes freshmen DaKari Spear, Amari Barrett and Trey Hall โ each of whom won championships with their respective teams last season. Bassala Bagayoko is set for his first season at Tech after playing professionally with Bilbao Basket in Spain while Stillwell is a fifth-year player who previously played two seasons of junior college basketball, one at Milwaukee and last season at UCF where he averaged 11.6 points and 8.2 rebounds per game. Stillwell will not play at Kentucky. He has produced 25 double-doubles through two seasons of NCAA play.
Kentucky is coming off a season where it went 22-14 overall and with a 10-8 record in SEC play. The Wildcats advanced to the NCAA Tournament Second Round, earning an 89-84 win over Santa Clara before having their season end with an 82-63 loss to Iowa State in St. Louis, Missouri. Kentucky will enter the regular season with a No. 23 by its name in both national polls โ extending a national record with 998 appearances in the AP Top 25 all-time. Led by head coach Mark Pope, the Wildcats return five players (Braydon Hawthorne, Malachi Moreno, Trent Noah, Reece Potter, Kam Williams) and brought in six transfers (Milan Momcilovic, Zoom Diallo, Jerone Morton, Alex Wilkins, Franck Kepnang, James Madison). The UK newcomers also includes Zyon Hawthorne, Ousmane N'Diaye and Mason Williams. Kentucky posted a 69-49 exhibition win over Little Rock last Friday and will also host UCF next Wednesday in an exhibition before opening its season against Manhattan on Tuesday, November 3 at Rupp Arena.
The Red Raiders will be playing in their first exhibition game open to the public since McCasland's first season when the team played Texas A&M on October 29, 2023 at The Super Pit in Denton. The Red Raiders earned an 89-84 win over the Aggies in the exhibition.
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