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Candace Parker, TNT crew hilariously miss Texas Tech Kendrick Lamar troll after Drake victory

ns_headshot_2024-clearby:Nick Schultz•03/22/25•

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Kendrick Lamar
© Dave Creaney/For Austin American-Statesman. / USA TODAY NETWORK

Saturday night, Drake’s NCAA Tournament run came to an end. The Bulldogs fell to Texas Tech in the Round of 32, and the Red Raiders trolled them on social media afterward – and it took TNT’s Candace Parker and Adam Lefkoe a second to understand the reference.

Texas Tech came away with the 77-64 victory on Saturday to advance to the Sweet Sixteen in March Madness. The Red Raiders social media team two Kendrick Lamar references. One was a viral photo from his Super Bowl LIX halftime show, and another had the caption “MUSTARRRRRRRRD,” with a double-exclamation point emoji.

When the TNT studio crew showed the trolls, Parker and Lefkoe initially didn’t understand it. But when the photo of Lamar showed up, they understood.

Texas Tech’s offense was on full display in Saturday’s game. The Red Raiders shot 53.8% from the field despite making just two of their 14 attempts from three-point territory. Darrion Williams and JT Toppin led the charge with 28 and 25 points, respectively, while Toppin added 12 rebounds.

Elijah Hawkins also had a big game with 16 points and seven assists. He is now the program’s all-time leader for assists in a single season, and Grant McCasland said his efforts Saturday helped propel Texas Tech to the victory to reach the Sweet Sixteen in San Francisco next week.

“That dude – you talk about somebody that wants to win. He wants to win,” McCasland said afterward. “Seven assists, no turnovers. He got to the free-throw line 11 times, made 10 of them. I’ll tell you what I’ll always remember is how well he guarded Bennett [Stirtz] in the game. If you saw how many times Bennett ran off of screen after screen after screen, and he just never quit.

“I mean, he did ask for a timeout at the 1:50 mark. That was the only thing he asked of us all game long. We would not have won that game if it wasn’t for his grit and his fight.

Texas Tech will now get ready to take on Arkansas in the Sweet Sixteen. As for whether he’s ready to look ahead to the Razorbacks, McCasland said Saturday night is all about celebration. Then, it’ll be time to get ready for next week.

“I’m going to celebrate this one and celebrate our guys being here, and we’ll talk about that,” McCasland said. “We’ll have plenty of time to celebrate that. We are excited to move on, and that’s been our vision for this the whole time. One thing I do know, we’ll have Red Raiders in San Francisco.”