November 09, 2026 | Men's Basketball
LUBBOCK, Texas โ Texas Tech rose three spots to No. 16 in the Associated Press Top 25 College Basketball Poll after starting the season with two wins and now is set to play No. 3 Illinois at 7 p.m. on Tuesday at United Supermarkets Arena. The Red Raiders (2-0) have now appeared in a program record 31 straight releases of the AP Top 25.
Illinois, which advanced to the 2026 Final Four, will be the highest ranked non-conference opponent to ever play against the Red Raiders in Lubbock and the seventh non-conference top 10 team to make the trip. The previous highest ranked non-conference opponent was a No. 4-ranked SMU team on February 9, 1957 โ with the Red Raiders earning a 68-67 win. The most recent top 10 opponent to take on Tech on its home court was No. 9 Arizona in 2012. The most recent ranked non-conference opponent was No. 15 Kentucky on January 25, 2020 with the Wildcats earning a 76-74 overtime win to snap a 54-game non-conference home winning streak by Tech.
Florida (2-0) remains the nation's top-ranked team and is followed by No. 2 Duke, No. 3 Illinois, No. 4 UConn and No. 5 Michigan State in the poll. The Big 12 is also represented by No. 8 Houston, No. 12 Arizona, No. 15 Kansas and No. 23 BYU in this week's rankings.
The Red Raiders are 2-0 on the season after opening with a 76-42 win over Jackson State last Monday before taking a 76-58 win over Bethune-Cookman on Thursday. Cruz Davis is leading the Red Raiders by averaging 15.0 points, 4.5 assists and 4.5 steals through two games while Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn is coming off a 25-point scoring performance against Bethune. Damarion Dennis led Tech with 22 points in the opener against Jackson State, while Josiah Moseley is averaging 12.5 points per game and leads the Red Raiders with 8.5 rebounds per game after matching a career high with nine rebounds against BCU. One of the most experienced and prolific teams in the country, Illinois comes into the matchup averaging 116 points per game after a 120-45 win over FDU in its opener and then a 112-70 win over Penn last Thursday. Andrej Stojakovic leads the Fighting Illini with 22.5 points per game while Quentin Coleman, Stefan Vaaks and Zavier Zens are all scoring over 15 per game. Through two games, Illinois has six players scoring in double figures and have dominated its opponents in rebounding with a 127-54 rebounding margin.
Texas Tech has 12 ranked victories under head coach Grant McCasland, including six top 10 wins. Tech is on a 48-game non-conference home winning streak entering its third game of the season, including going 25-0 in non-conference home games under McCasland. The streak is the third longest in the nation behind only Auburn (69) and Baylor (53). The last loss at home in a non-conference game for the Red Raiders came in the 2019-20 season with a 76-74 overtime loss to No. 15-ranked Kentucky on January 25, 2020 in a Big 12/SEC Challenge matchup. The loss to Kentucky snapped a 54-game non-conference home winning streak to break up the program record.
Texas Tech is coming off its third straight trip to the NCAA Tournament under McCasland and a season where it set a program record with three wins over teams ranked in the top five of the AP Top 25 and four wins over top 10 opponents. The highlight game with a 78-75 overtime win at No. 1 Arizona and also included wins over No. 3 Duke, No. 6 Houston and at No. 4 Iowa State. The Red Raiders were a ranked team throughout the season, rising as high as No. 10 and remaining in the national rankings throughout a season for the first time in program history. Tech came into this season at No. 19 in the AP Top 25 Preseason Poll and at No. 16 in the USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll with the season's first update to be made on Monday. With Tech reaching the NCAA Tournament three straight seasons, it is now one appearance away from matching the most in a row in program history. The Red Raiders, who have played in 22 NCAA Tournaments, ran off a streak of four straight appearances with trips in 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022 - the lone gap being when the 2020 NCAA Tournament was canceled due to Covid.
