Texas Tech star guard Christian Anderson, injured during the team’s loss Thursday in the Big 12 tournament, will be available for the NCAA Tournament, the school announced late Saturday.
The sophomore is an All-Big 12 first-team selection who leads the conference and is fourth nationally with 7.6 assists per game. He also averages 18.9 points, 3.6 rebounds and 1.3 steals in 31 games. Projected to be a first-round NBA draft pick, Anderson has eight double-doubles and set a program mark with 236 assists in a single season.
The Red Raiders (22-10, 12-6 Big 12) will find out their NCAA Tournament seed and opponent when the brackets are announced on Sunday.
Anderson slipped and injured his groin during the second half of the team’s 75-53 quarterfinal loss to Iowa State on Thursday.
“I’m feeling good,” Anderson said afterward. “Obviously the floor is a bit slippery, so I think I just kind of misstepped or did a movement that caused me to slip and kind of ended up in a little unnatural position. That’s what it was.”
Concerns about slipping prompted the Big 12 to swap out its innovative LED glass court for traditional hardwood for the remainder of the conference tournament on Friday and Saturday in Kansas City, Mo. Arizona beat Houston on Saturday for the title.
The LED court displayed various graphics in real time and featured other innovations such as lighting up the 3-point line on shot attempts from behind the arc.
However, several players during the first three days of the tournament — and during the previous week’s Big 12 women’s tourney — slipped and struggled with grip issues on the surface.
