Large 12 Participant of the 12 months JT Toppin is spurning the NBA Draft and returning to Texas Tech for the 2025-26 season, he introduced Wednesday. Toppin earned consensus All-American honors as a sophomore star for the Crimson Raiders and is well-positioned to be faculty basketball’s preseason Participant of the 12 months.
Toppin’s return ensures Texas Tech will stay a drive on the nationwide degree after reaching the Elite Eight as a No. 3 seed in coach Grant McCasland’s second season. The 6-foot-9 ahead averaged 22.3 factors, 10.6 rebounds and 1.9 blocks over Texas Tech’s remaining 15 video games and rose to No. 15 within the CBS Sports activities NBA Draft Prospect Rankings.
The Crimson Raiders rank No. 13 in Gary Parrish’s way-too-early High 25 And 1 for the 2025-26 season. Getting Toppin again is a win not only for Texas Tech however faculty basketball as a complete. At a second of unprecedented participant compensation within the sport, the Crimson Raiders stored Toppin from testing the NBA Draft waters or getting into the switch portal.
CBS Sports activities’ Matt Norlander stories that Toppin is in line for a $4 million NIL payday along with his return.Â
Whereas Toppin was well-positioned as a possible a first-round choose within the NBA Draft, he has loads he can nonetheless enhance earlier than turning professional. The previous four-star prospect, who performed his freshman season at New Mexico, continues to be including versatility to his sport after getting used primarily as a conventional publish participant within the 2024-25 season.
Texas Tech deployed Toppin because the the roll man in pick-and-roll conditions with nice success on the way in which to a 28-9 file. Toppin additionally acquired ample touches on the block in post-ups and scored 37 buckets on offensive rebounds in 2024-25, per Synergy.
Although his 3-point makes an attempt elevated from 32 as a freshman at New Mexico to 55 this previous season, Toppin’s share ticked down from 34.4% to 32.7%. If the Dallas, Texas native can enhance his outdoors taking pictures and construct a bigger physique of labor defending gamers on the perimeter, he might draw much more curiosity from NBA scouts subsequent yr.