Toppin’s status for Tech’s final two non-conference games, starting with Monday’s home game against Oral Roberts, is still up in the air. McCasland isn’t concerned, but said they’re not going to push it.

“The more he moved, the more we saw that it was better for us in the long run if he didn’t play,” McCasland said of the A&M game. “He looks at it as he wants to play, and I think everybody is just evaluating it on a daily basis. I do feel like it is a true day-to-day. We’re seeing him do more in practice that gives me a lot of hope that we’re ready to see what he can do.

“We’re definitely not going to put him in live action until we know he’s fully healed. That’s what I will tell you. Lot of different ways you can err in this one. This one we feel like we need to wait until he’s full go and he doesn’t feel any restrictions before we put him out there to play live action.”

Toppin’s absence is the latest for the Red Raiders, who have had to shuffle their lineups and rotations since before the regular season even began. With Toppin out, Federiko Federiko has started each of the last two games, playing at least 26 minutes in each, while Eemeli Yalaho has been called upon to provide minutes behind Federiko and in place of Cambridge, moving between both post positions. Yalaho himself missed the first six games of the season with an injury of his own.