TAMPA, Fla. — Even with a 20-point win over Akron to begin March Madness, most people still want to ask about JT Toppin.
There's good reason for curious minds who haven't followed the Texas Tech basketball team all season to wonder what the Red Raiders look like without their All-American forward. Those covering the 2026 men's NCAA Tournament in Benchmark International Arena spent the postgame press conference not asking Jaylen Petty how he put up a career-high 24 points in Texas Tech's 91-71 win over Akron.
They didn't even ask Christian Anderson about being the leading guard on a tournament team after playing off the ball primarily as a freshmen.
Josiah Moseley, Anderson, and Petty took the dais after the victory over the Zips and were first asked about the team stepping up in Toppin's absence. Then Petty was asked one specific question about the game, and that was it.
Grant McCasland was met with a similar fate when he took his seat in front of the assembled media. How has the team changed without Toppin? Did they make any adjustments to how they played?
They're the same questions McCasland has been asked for a month now, copy-and-paste jobs from ones he answered during the pre-tournament press conference on Thursday. Badgering the point again after his team, one picked by many to be upset because of Toppin's absence, earned an emphatic win misses the point.
This isn't the JT Toppin show anymore, and it hasn't been for a while. Texas Tech has had to move on. While Toppin is still very much part of the team — he was on FaceTime with several Red Raider teammates in the locker room after the Akron game — it's unfair to the players still on the floor to make it about the guy who isn't there.
Texas Tech had five players score 14 or more points against Akron, the first time the program has achieved that in its NCAA Tournament history. Petty was a major catalyst, as was Christian Anderson, who orchestrated the offense with 18 points, 5 assists, 4 rebounds, and 4 steals.
Likewise, Moseley stepped up in a major way, producing a career-high 16 points on 7-of-8 shooting with 4 rebounds and 4 timely blocks.
Tyeree Bryan didn't register a point, but he came up big when LeJuan Watts (14 points, 6 rebounds) fouled out with about 10 minutes left in the game. Bryan has never needed to be someone who provides 15 points per game. They just need him to be reliable enough to stay on the floor, and he did that when Texas Tech needed him most.
There's not a soul who knows him that doesn't love Toppin. Everybody around the program empathizes with him and wants the best for him. It's crummy that he can't be on the floor with his teammates at the most important time of the year.
"It's tough because we all care for JT," Petty said. "I love him. He's my brother. It's tough."
That, though, is the reality for the Red Raiders, and it has been for a while. Putting too much focus on who isn't there creates a void for the players still on the floor, trying to make March Madness magic.
This also isn't like Alabama's Aden Holloway, who got arrested and isn't with the Crimson Tide in Tampa as a result. Toppin's absence has been known. Texas Tech has now played seven games without its star forward. There's plenty of tape, words typed on the Internet about what the Red Raiders are now.
It's similar to those covering the Red Raiders in person for the first time, seeing Grant McCasland yell (gasp) at players for not doing what he wants. He's done it all year, has done it wherever he's been a coach. It doesn't mean he hates them. McCasland just wants to win, and so do his players.
Putting the microscope on one aspect distracts from the bigger picture, and it doesn't help anybody to keep fixating on it. And honestly, it's getting redundant. Toppin isn't here — on the floor or in Tampa, currently, after undergoing surgery earlier this week. What more can possibly be said about it?
Let this be my public plea to stop making Toppin the angle you're shooting for as long as Texas Tech is still alive in the tournament. Enough already. There are still plenty of active players trying to fill the void, so let them without bringing him up every five minutes.
Thanks for attending my TED Talk.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Focus on JT Toppin a disservice to Texas Tech basketball's March Madness experience