The [autotag]Texas Tech Red Raiders[/autotag] are among three Power programs that have yet to make a hire for their men’s basketball program. The California Golden Bears and Penn State Nittany Lions are the other two.
Penn State became available when the Notre Dame Fighting Irish hired Micah Shrewsberry away after two seasons in Happy Valley. It could be that both Texas Tech and Cal are looking at head coaches currently competing in the annual NIT Tournament. The Golden Bears could have Mark Madsen of Utah Valley on their shortlist.
For the Red Raiders, we put together a list of notable names they could target with one clear No. 1 target in mind. That name is Grant McCasland of the [autotag]North Texas Mean Green[/autotag].
McCasland and North Texas are set to take on the Wisconsin Badgers at 6:00 p.m. CT from Orleans Arena in Las Vegas. Should the Badgers knock off the Mean Green in the NIT Semifinals, then the Red Raiders and athletic director Kirby Hocutt could make their move.
Recently Jeff Goodman of Stadium reported that McCasland was the top target for the job. As we previously noted, he has experience in Lubbock as the director of basketball operations with the Red Raiders under James Dickey from 1999 to 2001.
He spent most of collegiate coaching career with the Baylor Bears under head coach Scott Drew. He also played for the Bears from 1995 to 1999. He led Midwestern State to two Division II Elite Eight finishes in his first shot as a head coach from 2009 to 2011.
McCasland led North Texas to the CBI title in his first season and upset Purdue in the 2021 NCAA Tournament. He has led UNT to the NIT in each of the last two season. Last year they were knocked out in the second round and this year they are among the final four teams still alive. In both seasons they have won 25 or more games.
McCasland knows the Big 12 landscape and basketball in the state of Texas. A win tonight would only seem to prolong the inevitable. The longer that UNT remains in the tournament the further that Tech will get behind on recruiting players and working on landing top prospects currently in the transfer portal.
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