Where does Texas Tech land in the latest Men's NCAA Tournament projection?
LUBBOCK, Texas - Snow if falling in West Texas, but in no time, we will spring toward the end of the Big 12 season in men's college basketball and begin previewing how the NCAA Tournament looks.
But with how the Texas Tech Red Raiders have performed lately, there's no need to wait.
Grant McCasland's team recently rose one spot to No. 11 in the AP poll after beating ranked foes BYU and Houston earlier, with a road in at Baylor sandwiched in between.
ESPN's Bracketology have seen the Red Raiders rise, too.
In the most recent March Madness bracket update from analyst Joe Lunardi, Texas Tech is projected to earn a No. 3 seed. That is the highest seed predicted for Tech this season after sitting as a No. 4 projection for the past month.
Lunardi has the Red Raiders falling into the East Region of the March Madness bracket projection. It sets up a first-round matchup with No. 14-seed Portland State, with the winner facing No. 6 Tennessee or either No. 11-seeds New Mexico or Virginia Tech following a play-in game.
Across other major outlets, only Bleacher Report as Texas Tech earning a No. 3 seed instead of a No. 4 seed.
As of this week, the Red Raiders rank No. 17 in the NCAA's new NET metric, which evaluates teams on factors such as strength of schedule and win quality.
Tech has a 5-4 record in Quad 1 games, which weigh the most in the metric, while going 11-0 against Quad 2, 3, and 4 competition so far.
The Red Raiders are now 16-4 overall and 6-1 in conference play after rattling off five straight wins leading into the road matchup with UCF on Saturday Jan. 31.
Tech's last loss was at No. 7 Houston on Jan. 6 before getting revenge on Jan. 24 against the No.6-ranked Cougars in Lubbock, 90-86.
Texas Tech sits second in the current Big 12 standings behind undefeated Arizona, who is ranked as the No. 1 team in the country at 21-0 (8-0) and earned ESPN's top overall seed prediction in the West Region.
A load of Texas Tech's success this season has come due to the All-American forward JT Toppin, who is putting together a solid case to deserve back-to-back Big 12 Player of the Year awards.
Toppin earned the most recent conference Player of the Week honor after averaging 26.5 points and 8.0 rebounds as a two-way threat on offense and defense. His signature moment of the week came in a dominant 31-point, 12-rebound double-double against Houston, helping the Red Raiders to a statement win with ESPN's College GameDay in attendance.
More performances like that can improve Texas Tech's bracketology projection even more as the season unfolds.
