Texas Tech sophomore JT Toppin dominated on the court this season and has now been rewarded by being named the Big 12 Player of the Year, Big 12 Newcomer of the Year, to the All-Big 12 First Team and the All-Big 12 Newcomer Team.
Darrion Williams earned All-Big 12 First Team, Chance McMillian was selected to the All-Big 12 Second Team and Christian Anderson was tabbed to the All-Big 12 Freshman Team. The 2024-25 Phillips 66 All-Big 12 men's basketball awards were voted on by the league's head coaches.
Houston's Joseph Tugler (defensive player), LJ Cryer (Scholar-Athlete) and Kelvin Sampson (coach) earned league superlatives after a 19-1 regular season. Baylor's VJ Edgecombe (freshman), BYU's Richie Saunders (most improved) and Iowa State's Curtis Jones (sixth man) completed the Conference's superlatives. Along with Williams and Toppin, the Conference's first team was comprised of Cryer, Jones, Saunders, Caleb Love (Arizona), Norchad Omier (Baylor), J'Wan Roberts (Houston), Hunter Dickinson (Kansas) and Javon Small (West Virginia).
The No. 9-ranked Red Raiders (24-7, 15-5 Big 12) finished second in the Big 12 standings and will open the 2025 Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship at 6 p.m. on Thursday with a quarterfinal matchup against either Arizona State, Kansas State or Baylor. Tech earned a double-bye to automatically advance to the third day of the five-day tournament. The Big 12 Championship Final is set for 5 p.m. on Saturday at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri.
Toppin is the first player ever to earn Big 12 Player of the Year and Big 12 Newcomer of the Year in the same season after he recorded 14 double-doubles and averaged 18.1 points and 9.3 rebounds per game. Against Big 12 opponents, Toppin averaged 17.9 points and 8.7 rebounds per game. He scored 30 or more points in three games, highlighted by going for 41 points and 15 rebounds in a double-overtime win over Arizona State at home. He followed that performance with 32 points and 12 rebounds at Oklahoma State and most recently posted a game against Colorado with 30 points and 14 rebounds in the home finale. Toppin is in his first season at Texas Tech after transferring from New Mexico. He finished the regular season third in the Big 12 in scoring, rebounding and by shooting 55.8 percent from the field. His 14 double-doubles are the second most in program history and he enters the postseason with 1.3 blocks per game after having three in the regular-season finale at Arizona State. Toppin was a two-time Big 12 Player of the Week selection and earned four Big 12 Newcomer of the Week honors.
"JT has been an unselfish teammate all year," Texas Tech coach Grant McCasland said. "He's always making the right play to help our team win. He's extremely competitive and is always playing the game to win. These awards are always a compliment to the teams that win and play well together."
Toppin is the second Texas Tech player to earn Big 12 Player of the Year, following Jarrett Culver who was named the 2018-19 Big 12 Player of the Year also during his sophomore season. He is also the second Red Raider to earn Big 12 Newcomer of the Year with Mac McClung taking the honor in the 2020-21 season.
Williams earns All-Big 12 First Team honors after a season where he averaged 14.3 points, 5.1 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 1.2 steals per game. He scored a season-high 27 points in the double-overtime win over Arizona State and posted 22 double-figure scoring performances. He's scored 20 or more points in six games going into the postseason and had one double-double, going for 21 points and 10 rebounds in a non-conference win over Northern Colorado. He helped lead Texas Tech to a road win at Kansas, scoring 14 points, grabbing nine rebounds and having four assists against the Jayhawks. Williams was named an All-Big 12 Third Team selection last season as a sophomore. He has played in 95 career games where he has recorded 1,042 points, 637 rebounds and 283 assists.
McMillian secured All-Big 12 Second Team honors after averaging 14.7 points per game and leading the Big 12 by shooting 44.2 percent from 3-point range during the regular season. A fifth-year senior, he leads Tech by scoring in double figures in 24 games this season, including scoring season-highs of 23 points against Texas A&M in non-conference play and then again in the overtime win at Houston. McMillian has shot 69-for-156 from 3-point range this season with three games where he made five. He most recently went 5-for-7 from 3-point range at TCU and also made five against Baylor and Texas A&M. He scored 15 points against Colorado in the home finale after making 3-of-4 from beyond the arc. McMillian started his career by playing three seasons at Grand Canyon and has now played two at Tech. He has recorded 1,453 points and made 243 3-pointers through 153 career games.
Anderson was selected for the Big 12 All-Freshman Team after averaging 10.7 points, 3.0 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game. He matched a career-high with 21 points in the regular-season finale at Arizona State after he also scored 21 points in a home win over West Virginia. Anderson is 62-for-151 (41.1 percent) from 3-point range for the season and led Tech with 46 made 3-pointers (42.2 percent) during conference games. He has made four or more 3s in seven games this season, including career-bests with five in wins over West Virginia and at Kansas. He was 5-for-10 from 3-point range and finished with 15 points to help Tech to a road win at Kansas and is coming off a game at Arizona State where he was 4-for-8 on 3-pointers along with posting a career-best by going 7-of-7 from the free-throw line. He's shot 50 percent or better from deep in 12 games, highlighted by going 4-for-4 and finishing with 18 points against Iowa State. He enters the postseason with 309 points and 66 assists.
