Thursday night, the Texas Tech basketball program picked up an 82-72 win over UNCW in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. While it was far from the dominant showing that many expect from a No. 3 seed that is playing a No. 14 seed, no Red Raider fan is going to turn their nose up at the outcome.
With the win, Texas Tech head coach Grant McCasland moved to 2-2 all-time in NCAA Tournament games. That includes a record of 1-1 with the Red Raiders.
Of course, last season, he dropped his first-ever NCAA Tournament game as Texas Tech's head coach when the Red Raiders were no match for a red-hot NC State team in the first round. Prior to that, he had gone 1-1 as head coach of the North Texas Mean Green in the 2021 tournament.
That year, his No. 13-seeded team knocked off No. 4-seed Purdue in the first round. Then, UNT fell to No. 5-seed Villanova in the round of 32.
Now, the hope is that he's about to embark on a March Madness winning streak with Tech. That got off to a positive start late Thursday night and after the game, McCasland discussed how his team was able to come up with the win.
"I did feel like our fight when the game got close was awesome," he said. "Just the collective grit, all the Red Raiders in Wichita, it felt like a home game at times just with the belief behind us and the energy in the building. [Elijah Hawkins] with 10 assists, we only had seven turnovers, Kerwin making eight threes and his consistency and approach every day is unbelievable. It's to his credit that he has a game like this because he never takes a day off.
"I told them a couple of days ago, he's the only player that's played in every game this year for us. Just his availability, consistency, and will to win is just tremendous. So I'm so thankful for these guys.
"We did feel like we would have to win this thing on the glass and playing 50/50 basketball and winning those, and we were able to do enough of that to give us a chance to win, but credit to them, man, because they have a resilient program and a great group."
Texas Tech has played like a well-connected team for most of this season despite having eight newcomers to the roster. McCasland was asked about how well he feels his team is gelling now that the NCAA Tournament has begun.
"Well, the one part I love about this, and this is a credit to JT Toppin too," he said. "He attracted so much attention today. He was so unselfish. He just kept making the open pass. He really never forced it once. He ended the game with a turnover, and I don't know if that was off an offensive rebound that got taken from him or I don't know where that happened, but man, I just think that's the heart of this group is whatever you got to do to figure out a way to win, that's what these guys will do.
"It did get close. We got in that time-out, and there was some -- we were talking. It wasn't like it was all pretty every possession. We had some defensive miscues that we had to communicate, but, man, how quickly these guys bind together in those tough moments is the best part of these games."
For much of the game, Tech's offense was primarily centered around hoisting 3-point shots. In fact, the Red Raiders attempted a program-record 46. However, two key drives to the basket in the second half, one by Darrion Williams and one by Christian Anderson, proved to be pivotal. McCasland discussed the importance of those plays.
"We had a couple more drawn out coming out of time-out to try to create advantages that way," he said. "We shot a million threes. Didn't make all of them, but I thought we got great looks. If that's what teams are going to give us, then we're going to take those.
"But you also know when you shoot enough of them and they don't go in, you have to create another advantage. I thought Christian Anderson did a great job out of those timeouts of driving to the basketball. Darrion Williams attracted a lot of attention getting to the rim. I thought those two guys specifically really came up with huge plays getting to the basket and getting fouled."
Finally, McCasland talked about the big performance of point guard Elijah Hawkins, who had 14 points, 10 assists, and nine rebounds. As you might expect, McCasland was more than pleased with that effort especially when it came to rebounding the basketball.
"You can ask him what I said at halftime," he said. "I just said the reason why we're winning is because of him, and it didn't have anything to do with offense. I told him it was because of his rebounding. He was in the middle of traffic grabbing two-handed rebounds all game long. Got a few offensive rebounds early which isn't normally what we do, but because of the way the spacing was, he went and got them, but we don't win this game if it isn't for his rebounding.
"People can talk about a lot of different things, but to me that's what makes him elite. He does whatever the team needs to win, and tonight we needed him to rebound."