No one in the Texas Tech locker room was ready for this season to end.
So, when it did, after Florida surged past the Red Raiders over the final three minutes of Saturday’s West Region Elite Eight matchup in San Francisco, coach Grant McCasland found himself thinking of what they had accomplished and what might have been if not for those last six minutes.
“I wanted to sit in that locker room forever, honestly,” McCasland said after Texas Tech fell 84-79 to Florida, a game Tech led by 10 points with six minutes to go. “I hate that we aren’t continuing to play because I know these guys love each other. And the way Chance (McMillian) prepared gave us hope we could win the whole thing.”
Indeed, McMillian’s return from an oblique strain was emblematic, McCasland said, of a roster full of players willing to do whatever it took to return to Texas Tech to the national stage.
That’s been McCasland’s charge since taking over in 2023, when he was tapped to revive a sagging program that was just four years removed from playing for a national championship. McCasland, a Lone Star lifer, had just led North Texas to the NIT championship while the Red Raiders had failed to reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time in six seasons.
McCasland, an Irving, Texas, native who played his college ball at Baylor, has spent all but two of his 25-year coaching career in his home state.
With a 51-20 mark over the past two seasons and two NCAA appearances, including this season’s run to the Elite Eight, McCasland has helped position Texas Tech to be an annual contender in the Big 12.
Arizona may have the brand recognition and Houston – under Kelvin Sampson – may be the league’s best team the past five seasons, but the Red Raiders are back in the national conversation.
McCasland said that’s because of the players he’s been able to attract to Lubbock in a short time. That’s what was on display this month as the Red Raiders fought past UNC Wilmington, Drake and Arkansas to reach Saturday night’s showdown with the favored Gators.
When 6-foot-9 sophomore JT Toppin made a layup with 6:18 to play, the Red Raiders appeared San Antonio-bound, for a Final Four in their state, five hours from campus and four hours from where their coach was born.
But appearances, especially in March, can be deceiving. Texas Tech got swallowed up by the Gators, outscored 23-8 over the final 5:24.
Darrion Williams, a 6-foot-6 junior, scored 23 points and Toppin finished with 20 points and 11 rebounds. McMillian, a 6-foot-3 senior, scored 14, logging 26 minutes off the bench.
“I came in with the mindset of playing and giving my team the best chance there is,” McMillian said. “It took a lot. I know by playing there were a lot of risks that came with it, but I love (these) dudes, so I was willing to risk that.”
That’s the spirit that has McCasland convinced Texas Tech is on an upward trajectory.
“Just the heart of these guys that we’ve added and the guys that were here – they all really want to win,” he said. “They don’t care about individual performances, and that’s the thing I think, moving forward, we’ll keep focusing on.”
Of course, McCasland, 48, could be facing a massive rebuilding job. Top scorers Toppin and Williams are eligible to return – but both could be late first-round NBA draft picks. They combined for 43 points against the Gators. McMillian, 5-foot-11 senior Elijah Hawkins and 6-foot-11 senior Federiko Federiko are out of eligibility. That trio added 21 points.
So, players who accounted for 64 of the Red Raiders’ 79 points likely are gone.
McCasland has successfully overhauled the Texas Tech roster once, and the first time, he couldn’t get to work on the rebuild until he was hired in April, following the NIT title run at North Texas.
This time around? He may have a lot of work to do, but the process is well underway.
“That will be the most important part of these rosters, that heart,” McCasland said. “And we’ll be able to do it with the guys that we’ll have returning because of it.”
