Prior to Saturday's 82-81 win at Houston, Texas Tech fans appreciated and liked head coach Grant McCasland. However, after he purposefully got himself thrown out of that game as he stood up for his wronged player, JT Toppin, McCasland became an instant hero around Raiderland.
To be fair, many coaches in McCasland's position would have done exactly what he did. After all, the Flagrant-2 foul that led to Toppin's ejection was one of the most egregious and unfathomably bad calls in the history of the Big 12.
Anyone could see that the only reason that Toppin's leg kicked the Houston defender in the groin area was that the defender crowded Toppin as he jumped and spun to make a cross-body pass. Toppin didn't even know that the defender he eventually kicked was behind him until he had already started his jumping motion. Therefore, he didn't have time to decide to kick the Houston player had he wanted to.
Of course, when the announcement was made that Toppin had been ejected from the game, McCasland lost his mind. It was a reaction the likes of which we haven't seen from him in his Red Raider career.
Some coaches are known for being clowns on the sidelines and putting on a show just about every game. Dan Hurley at UCONN and his brother Bobby Hurley at Arizona State have become notorious for their in-game antics, for instance. Meanwhile, TCU's Jamie Dixon spends more time on the court than he does in the coach's box.
While McCasland coaches with passion and intensity, he isn't one to act like a fool just for the sake of getting attention. That's why his response to Toppin's ejection resonated so soundly with Texas Tech fans.
Once he realized what the officials had ruled and then looked at the replay, McCasland threw a piece of paper toward the stands and then went off on the officials quickly drawing two technical fouls and an ejection. But before he left the court, he went back to his players and in an uncharacteristically emotional moment, he gave several a motivating shove in the chest while yelling some final words of encouragement.
Whatever he did seemed to work. Despite the shock of losing their leading scorer and rebounder as well as their head coach just four minutes into the game, the Red Raiders didn't fold in a hostile environment. In fact, they responded by playing their best basketball of the season.
Eventually, the Red Raiders did what no one thought they could. They took down Houston to end the Cougars' 33-game home winning streak and that was a testament to the culture McCasland has instilled in his program.
Of course, Texas Tech fans not only loved the fight that they saw from the team on Saturday, but they also loved the passion and emotion that McCasland displayed. It was unlike anything we've seen from a Red Raider head coach in years.
What's more, it wasn't for show. Rather, it was a raw response to an injustice doled out to one of his players. McCasland knew that his team got the short end of a controversial call and he was going to do the only thing he could do about it, raise hell.
This was the first signature moment of what we hope will be a long run in Lubbock for McCasland. Sure, he impressed a ton of people by guiding Tech to a tie for third place in the Big 12 and an NCAA Tournament birth last season.
However, there wasn't anything all that memorable about the 2023-24 Red Raiders. They missed out on the chance to do the fan base a solid by beating Texas in the Longhorns' last trip to Lubbock before joining the SEC and the signature wins they did pick up were ones that only the most hardcore fans will remember years from now.
Along the way, McCasland showed that he is a capable, quality, and rising basketball coach. But he didn't do anything to make himself a hero on the South Plains.
Saturday night in Houston, though, he had his first signature moment as Tech's head coach. He fought for his player and he inspired his team and the result was one of the most remarkable and memorable wins in the history of Texas Tech athletics.
If McCasland has a prolonged run at Tech, there will likely be even bigger wins, especially in the postseason. And hopefully, we will remember him most for the times when he will hold trophies over his head while wearing a net around his neck.
However, no one will ever forget his William Wallace moment in Houston. That will go down as the moment Red Raiders across the world fell in love with Grant McCasland.