Setting roster, staff part of Grant McCasland's busy start as Texas Tech basketball coach
Taking over a college basketball program like Texas Tech tests how much a human can accomplish in a short amount of time.
Since his introduction as the Red Raiders' head coach April 3, Grant McCasland has orchestrated a makeover of the roster, brought in eight new members of the coaching and support staff, hit the road on a speaking tour and much more.
McCasland won't complain about the loaded schedule since coming back to Lubbock. It's exactly what he signed up for.
All of it.
"It's been a lot of hard work," McCasland said, "but it's been a blast. I can't say that enough. There's been a lot of joy associated with it. Our program has taken big steps, I think, in a short amount of time of adding guys to an already great roster."
Chief among McCasland's initial priorities was to figure out the roster. He met with each of the players to gauge their intentions. Retaining everybody during a coaching change is a near impossibility, so McCasland knew he'd have to bring in new players to fill things out.
"I felt like we needed experience," McCasland said, "especially experience that's played in the NCAA Tournament. That was a priority, because if you can come into a program with an expectation already of understanding what it takes to get in the tournament, that's the goal is to get them to win the national championship."
To replace departed members of the 2022-23 team, McCasland landed Chance McMillian from Grand Canyon, Darrion Williams from Nevada, Warren Washington and Devan Cambridge from Arizona State and, most recently, Joe Toussaint from West Virginia.
All five players competed in the NCAA Tournament in March. Williams and the Wolfpack even faced off against Washington and Cambridge in the First Four in Dayton.
Adding veteran players — Washington, Cambridge and Toussaint are graduate transfers — to the young returning group, including sophomores Williams, Pop Isaacs, Lamar Washington and Robert Jennings, should put the Red Raiders in position to compete from the jump.
"Playing in the Big 12 and winning the Big 12 championship," McCasland said, "is unique to a lot of these guys that have come as transfers, but the guys that are here understand that the goal is to play in the NCAA Tournament. I thought that was a real priority of finding guys that knew what that looked like, what it took to get in."
McCasland also focused on filling out the coaching staff. He got a jump on that when Matt Brauer and Achoki Moikobu decided to follow the head coach from UNT.
Earlier this month, McCasland announced six additional hires, including Luke Barnwell, a two-time Naismith high school boys coach of the year.
McCasland said in the coming weeks the Red Raiders will add "a couple more" assistants, though he wouldn't say in what capacity.
"I love our staff," McCasland said. "I love the wide range of experiences. I think experiences at different levels is really important, but ultimately it's your relatability to people that matters. People don't always care about what you have to say to them unless they know that you really love them. … I think we've got a staff that's very connected to our team and to our players."
Another item on McCasland's to-do list is finishing up the 2023-24 schedule. Only the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament and a Big 12-Big East Battle contest at Butler have been announced.
"It's still a work in progress," McCasland said. "There's some pretty significant holes we had to fill. The Battle 4 Atlantis tournament was about the only games we had in non-conference. We've had to fill every other game. I think we'll hopefully be nearing the conclusion of wrapping that up so we can release it here soon, but still have a few games to get."
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: A look at Grant McCasland's busy start as Texas Tech basketball coach
