No. 21 Texas Tech earned a first round bye at the 2026 Phillips 66 Big 12 Women’s Basketball Tournament as the five seed. After Kansas State’s 91-66 win over Cincinnati on Wednesday morning, the Lady Raiders are set to square off with the Wildcats at 11 am on Thursday in round two. The two played back on January 17 in Lubbock when KSU handed Texas Tech their first loss of the season, winning 65-59.
“First of all, it doesn’t matter who we play we’re going to be fired up and ready to do that,” said Gerlich. “But whenever you’ve dropped one to somebody, I think it definitely gives you a little bit of extra motivation to right a wrong. And so that’s definitely their [players] mindset.”
Kansas State hit a school and Big 12 tournament record 17 threes on 32 attempts in their win over Cincinnati. Freshman guard Jordan Speiser continued her back half of the season rise with 20 points (7-for-10 FG, 6-for-8 3PT) while sniper Taryn Sides added 20 points, five rebounds and five assists and Nastja Claessens rounded out the leaders with 18 points and eight rebounds.
When it comes to Texas Tech though, head coach Jeff Mittie was complementary of the season the Lady Raiders have had when asked postgame about tomorrow’s rematch.
“They’ve had a fantastic year. I’ve been a Bailey Maupin fan since she was in high school. I did not like her college choice,” he joked as the Wildcats recruited her heavily. “They’ve got such balance across the board. I think Snudda does such a great job coming off the bench. Bristow, all of the above. Their length defensively is something that they’ve been good at all year. So I just think their overall balance is really, really good and they played so well all year long.”
“I’ve been a Bailey Maupin fan since high school….wasn’t a fan of her college choice.”
Kansas State Head Coach Jeff Mittie joked as he talked about Texas Tech following their win over Cincinnati. The two face off at 11am on Thursday. pic.twitter.com/jffJuh1g28
— Shelby Hilliard (@ShelbyCHilliard) March 4, 2026
Game time is set for 11 am CT and to be broadcasted on ESPN+. The winner will move on to the Big 12 Quarterfinals vs. four seed Oklahoma State at 11 am CT on Friday.
Krista Gerlich Big 12 Coach of the Year
If you missed our full story on Krista Gerlich winning the Big 12 Coach of the Year you can read that here.
On Wednesday she spoke during halftime of the Kansas State and Cincinnati game on what the honor means to her and the team.
“I got pretty emotional because, you know, this league is just so great. I wanted to have our program relevant in this league and I feel like this year we’re finally getting back to that and just for the coaches to recognize the hard work and the effort that’s been put forth in trying to do that and to make our conference better. We want to make our conference better. And what we’ve done at Texas Tech, I think we’re doing that. So very overwhelmed, very humbled, very honored.”
About the author:
Shelby Hiliard has worked in sports media since graduating with dual masters degrees from Texas Tech in 2014. She joined Red Raider Sports as a writer in 2025 and is also the host of Texas Tech Sports podcast “Seeing Scarlet” on YouTube.
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