Back in April, while the college basketball coaching carousel was spinning at an all-time high, Texas Tech basketball coach Grant McCasland was reported to be part of the chaos.
While looking for a new coach to replace John Calipari, who left for Arkansas, Kentucky went through several big-time names. Before settling on BYU’s Mark Pope, the Wildcats made a strong push to pry Scott Drew away from Baylor.
Several prominent media members reported Drew and Kentucky were in negotiations. While that was going on, insider Trilly Donovan reported on his Discord that Baylor was already in talks with McCasland to replace Drew.
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“The hard part about all this is there’s just more speculation when it gets to anything,” McCasland told the Avalanche-Journal. “And I talked to Coach Drew specifically, and everybody, I think, tries to make contingency plans, but it never got to any point where it was specific.”
All of it was eventually rendered moot. Drew decided to stay at Baylor, making any potential decision by McCasland for him. McCasland said he spoke with Drew and never got the impression he was about to leave Waco.
And even if the Bears did need a new leading man, McCasland said it wasn’t going to be him.
“The honest part is I just didn’t see any way, shape or form there would be a way we would leave Texas Tech,” McCasland said, “and I don’t think it would have mattered what the school was in the world.”
Connecting McCasland to Baylor wouldn’t have been hard for even the novice fan. He spent five years as an assistant under Drew before beginning his head coaching career in 2016. McCasland continues to speak highly of his time at Baylor and his relationship with Drew — as well as Kansas State’s Jerome Tang, who was also on Drew’s staff at Baylor. McCasland was also a player at Baylor. The ties are certainly there in Waco.
McCasland also has plenty of ties to Texas Tech, though, serving as director of operations from 1999 to 2001 and meeting his wife Cece, beginning both his coaching career and family in Lubbock.
In his first year leading the Red Raiders, Texas Tech tied Baylor for third in the Big 12 standings after being picked to finish eighth before the season. He’s rejuvenated a program flirting with a fall from relevancy in the wake of Mark Adams’ departure — evidenced by the swarm of fans at Sunday’s team autograph signing at the 19th Street Market Street grocery store.
McCasland now intends to continue that upward trajectory
“I just feel like this is the right time,” McCasland said, “and we’re at the right place and we’ve got a roster that I believe in and a place that I feel like we can win a national championship. And we’ve never done that in men’s basketball, and that’s honestly something that really sticks with me.
“I believe in this place and I believe that we can do it here, and there’s no place I’d rather be.”
Darrion Williams on Texas Tech basketball’s focus for new season
Darrion Williams on Texas Tech basketball’s focus for new season.
