No. 22-ranked Texas Tech basketball pulled off a huge upset of No. 6 Houston on the road on Saturday, knocking off the Cougars 82-81 in a tense overtime thriller. However, the fact that the Red Raiders got the win doesn't mean that everything went their way.

Early in the first half of the game, Texas Tech star big man JT Toppin was ejected for kicking his leg up — in a move that looked and seemed unintentional — and kicking a Houston player below the belt. Toppin was given a flagrant 2 foul and was tossed from the game, and Texas Tech head coach Grant McCasland was also tossed after being given two technical fouls for arguing the call.

The ejection was objectively a poor decision, and throwing out a player of Toppin's stature in such a big game for a play that is definitely a basketball play is poor officiating. After the game, Texas Tech athletic director Kirby Hocutt expressed his displeasure with the call, via Jeff Borzello of ESPN.

“I am appalled and disappointed by the official's egregious decision to eject JT Toppin from tonight's game against Houston,” Hocutt said, per Borzello. “This decision, made on a play that was clearly accidental and without intent, is unacceptable.

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“Immediately after the ejection, I spoke with [Big 12] Commissioner [Brett] Yormark, who assured me that the situation would be addressed and there would be accountability. On behalf of Red Raider Nation, we are extremely proud of our team and the leadership of Coach McCasland.”

Toppin leads Texas Tech in points (15.4 per game) and rebounds (8.4), so it is very impressive that it was still able to pick up this win in a very difficult environment. This was Houston's first loss of the season in Big 12 play and will be a major boost to the Red Raiders' NCAA Tournament resume.

After this win, this Texas Tech basketball team can also now set its sights on a possible regular season Big 12 title, or at least a share of it. McCasland's squad is now 8-2 in conference play, just one game behind Arizona and Houston. The remaining schedule for Texas Tech is very difficult and includes road tests against Kansas and Arizona along with a home rematch with Houston on Feb. 24 in Lubbock, but it showed on Saturday that it can beat any team in any building on a given day.