Latest on JT Toppin's Knee Injury Return Timeline as Texas Tech Approaches 2026 March Madness

Texas Tech confirmed Wednesday that forward JT Toppin suffered a torn ACL in his right knee during his team's 72-67 road loss at Arizona State on Tuesday and will miss the remainder of the season.

This is a crushing loss for the No. 13 Red Raiders. Toppin, a consensus second-team All-American and Big 12 Player of the Year in 2025, averaged 21.8 points, 10.8 rebounds, 1.7 steals and 1.4 blocks in 34.8 minutes per game.

He also just dropped 31 points and 13 boards in a 78-75 upset win in overtime at No. 1 Arizona on Saturday.

Toppin led Texas Tech in points, rebounds and blocks. He and Duke forward Cameron Boozer are the only players in Division I to be averaging a double-double with at least 20.0 points per game.

The junior, who is in his second season at Texas Tech after transferring from New Mexico, suffered the injury with 6:03 remaining in the second half.

Toppin had just gotten a block and was running down the court going for a layup. Sadly, Toppin went down to the court after he planted his right leg to go up for the shot.

The hope, obviously, is that Toppin is able to return to 100 percent health ASAP. He's a talented and dominant player on the collegiate level with the potential to make an impact in the pros as well. Jonathan Wasserman of Bleacher Report had the 6'9", 230-pound Toppin as a second-round pick in his latest NBA mock draft.

In the interim, Texas Tech will unfortunately have to find a way without their leader. The 19-7 Red Raiders looked like they could potentially make a deep tournament run with Toppin, especially after a great win against Arizona.

Without Toppin, that effort could be very difficult, but this team still has much talent around him, including guards Christian Anderson (19.0 PPG, 7.6 APG) and Donovan Atwell (12.5 PPG) and forward LeJuan Watts (11.9 PPG, 6.1 RPG).

Forward Luke Bamgboye (3.9 PPG, 3.2 RPG in 14.2 MPG), who closed the Arizona State matchup, figures to see more playing time in Toppin's absence.

Texas Tech (19-7, 9-4 in Big 12) has five more conference games before the Big 12 tournament. That stretch begins Saturday vs. Kansas State.