Texas Tech star JT Toppin exits Arizona State game with concerning leg injury

Texas Tech basketball is coming off of the biggest win of its season on Saturday against Arizona, but now adversity has struck for the Red Raiders. In the midst of an upset scare in Tempe against Arizona State, superstar big man JT Toppin went down with an apparent right leg injury and limped off the court.

JT Toppin heads to the locker room following an apparent right leg injury. pic.twitter.com/1JDSGcYK5J

— ESPN (@espn) February 18, 2026

Toppin was worked on while down on the court for a few minutes before trainers assisted him to the locker room. Toppin is the leading scorer on the team at 21.9 points per game, good for third in the Big 12. He also leads the conference with 11 rebounds per game and is a candidate to win the conference’s Player of the Year award for the second consecutive season.

Texas Tech was unable to survive the loss of their star player in a hostile environment against Arizona State, as the Sun Devils finished off the 72-67 upset. Toppin had 20 points and eight rebounds in 32 minutes before leaving the game with the injury.

While it’s unclear the severity of the injury at this moment, Toppin is one of the most valuable players to his team in the entire country, and it changes the calculus as a whole for this Texas Tech team if he is out for any extended period of time.

The All-American is the primary reason why this Red Raiders squad has amassed arguably the best collection of big wins in the nation this season, beating Duke and Houston before taking down Arizona in Tucson on Saturday.

This loss dropped Texas Tech to 19-7 on the season and 9-4 in Big 12 play, putting Grant McCasland’s squad further away from the top spot in the Big 12. Next up for the Red Raiders is a home tilt against Kansas State before they take on Cincinnati at home on Feb. 24. A road test looms against No. 6 Iowa State, and McCasland will be hoping to have Toppin back on the floor by then.

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