Texas Tech women’s basketball is back in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 13 years, but Villanova brings enough firepower to make Friday a real fight.
Texas Tech women’s basketball is finally back in the NCAA Tournament, and the return isn’t coming with a soft landing.
The Lady Raiders draw Villanova in a first-round matchup that feels a lot more dangerous than the seed line might suggest.
For a program that hasn’t danced in 13 years, this is the kind of game that can either launch a new era or turn into a brutal what-if.
That’s what makes Friday so big. Texas Tech enters at 25-7 after a season that blew past expectations. Picked near the bottom of the Big 12 preseason poll, the Lady Raiders instead fought their way to a tie for fourth in the conference and put together one of the program’s best all-around campaigns in years.
They’ve already proven they can beat tournament-caliber teams, too, going 7-3 against 2026 NCAA Tournament teams.
The Lady Raiders allow just 58.1 points per game, rank among the nation’s best in field-goal defense at 36.8 percent, and hold opponents to 27.1 percent from 3.
They also average 5.8 blocks per game and force 19.5 turnovers, which means they don’t just defend, they disrupt.
Offensively, Bailey Maupin sets the offense with 15.1 points per game, while Snudda Collins adds 14.8 points per game, a huge number for a player coming off the bench. Gemma Nunez brings control to the whole operation with 154 assists, 67 steals, and a strong 2.05 assist-to-turnover ratio.
But Villanova isn’t showing up to cooperate. The Wildcats are also 25-7, score 71.8 points per game, and are led by Jasmine Bascoe, who pours in 18.8 points per game while also stuffing the stat sheet with 154 assists and 603 total points.
Villanova moves the ball well, shoots 78.2 percent from the line, and has enough offensive rhythm to punish mistakes.
So this one comes down to style. If Texas Tech turns the game ugly, physical, and chaotic, that favors the Lady Raiders. If Villanova gets comfortable and starts humming offensively, things get tense fast.
Either way, Texas Tech’s long-awaited return to March won’t be quiet.
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