Texas Tech meets Arkansas in Sweet 16 battle Thursday night
LUBBOCK, Texas (NEWS RELEASE) - No. 3 Texas Tech and No. 10 Arkansas are set for a NCAA Tournament West Region Sweet 16 matchup at 9:09 p.m. (CDT) on Thursday at the Chase Center in San Francisco, California.
The game is the 81st meeting between the two programs and will be broadcast on TBS or truTV while the Texas Tech Sports Network radio call can be heard locally on Double T 97.3 and with national radio coverage through Westwood One.
The West Region semifinals begin with No. 1 Florida and No. 4 Maryland playing at 6:39 p.m. (CDT) on Thursday with the regional final set for Saturday and the winner advancing to the Final Four in San Antonio.
Tech (27-8) will matchup against the Razorbacks (22-13) who reached the Sweet 16 with a 75-66 win over No. 2 St. John’s on Saturday afternoon after knocking off No. 7 Kansas in the First Round on Thursday in Providence, Rhode Island.
The Red Raiders are competing in the program’s 21st NCAA Tournament and are now 21-21 all-time going into their seventh trip to the Sweet 16. Tech , which is now 6-1 in the month of March as it heads to California, has now advanced to the Sweet 16 in four of the last seven national tournaments, including reaching the 2018 Elite Eight and 2019 NCAA Final Four.
The Red Raiders most recently appeared in the 2022 Sweet 16 where they fell to Duke at the Chase Center in San Francisco. The program played in the regional semifinals in 1976, 1996, 2005, 2018, 2019, 2022 and now again in 2025.
Tech and Arkansas have met once in the NCAA Tournament with the Razorbacks earning a 68-66 win in the 2021 NCAA Tournament Second Round at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
The all-time series is tied 40-40 between the former Southwest Conference rivals who played for the first time in 1942.
Grant McCasland has led the Red Raiders to the NCAA Tournament in each of his first two seasons and is in the national tournament for the third time in his career as a head coach. His 50-19 record at Tech is the best start for a head coach in program history.
The team has nine players who had NCAA Tournament experience before this season: Kerwin Walton (2021, 2022 – *North Carolina; 2024 – Texas Tech); Chance McMillian (2021, 2023 – *Grand Canyon; 2024 – Texas Tech); Darrion Williams (2023 – *Nevada; 2024 – Texas Tech), Jack Francis (2024 - Texas Tech), Eemeli Yalaho (2024 – Texas Tech), JT Toppin (2024 – *New Mexico), Kevin Overton (2024 – *Drake), Elijah Hawkins (2023 - *Howard), Federiko Federiko (2023 - *Pitt).
The team is comprised of five returners and eight newcomers: Walton is in his third season at Texas Tech and McMillian, Williams, Francis and Yalaho are in their second. Tech went into the transfer portal for the additions of Overton (Drake), Hawkins (Minnesota), Toppin (New Mexico), Federiko (Pitt) and Corbin Green (Air Force) while Christian Anderson, Jazz Henderson and Leon Horner are in their freshman season.
Toppin leads Tech with 18.1 points, 9.3 rebounds, 1.4 blocks and 17 double-doubles in an all-America season, Williams is at 14.7 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 3.7 assists and McMillian is scoring 14.2 points per game during a season where he’s shooting 52.5/43.4/88.2.
Anderson gives the Red Raiders four players averaging in double-figure scoring this season at 10.5 points per game with 17 double-figure scoring performances in his freshman season.
Hawkins is now fifth nationally with a 3.40 assist-to-turnover ratio with 214 assists and only 63 turnovers this season along with scoring 9.4 points per game going into the Sweet 16.
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