McCasland commends resilience, Texas Tech fends off upset bid
The Texas Tech men’s basketball team will keep their dance shoes on as they outlast the Akron Zips 91-71 in the Round of 64. Head Coach Grant McCasland met with the media after the game to breakdown his thoughts on the adjustments made, Josiah Moseley’s spark off the bench, and gearing up to avoid a highly picked upset.
Changes Made With JT’s Absence
Following the game McCasland was quick to acknowledge how the guard play in this game helped tremendously. Jaylen Petty stole the show with 24 points, followed by Christian Anderson with 18. Plus, three more Red Raiders would finish the contest in double figures as Josiah Moseley had 16, Donovan Atwell with 15, and LeJuan Watts with 14.
“I think it was pretty obvious on display today our guard play is awesome. I don’t know if there’s three better guards than Christian Anderson, Jaylen Petty, and Donovan Atwell in making threes and playing together. JT (Toppin) was the leverage point for so long, just putting two on the ball and how they had to guard him whether it was in the post. I’ll tell you LeJuan (Watts) stepped up for us today. Just to start the second half we’d heard all along how great a second half team Akron was. Everybody kept saying ‘man, they’re an unbelievable second half team.’
Well, I thought our ability to score early in the second half by playing through LeJuan on some cross matches really was the difference. And us separating during that stretch. And just getting enough cushion when you know they’re going to make a run. How do you get stops, but also how do you leverage the paint. Without JT, we’ve done it a lot of different ways. Long roll, short roll, and then Josiah Moseley I thought had a great game also. Just his ability to put pressure on the rim in the middle of the paint was really affective. We’re always going to do this as a team, and that’s the way we’ve won these last few games without JT.”
The Spark off the Bench
What an amazing game Josiah Moseley had to provide such a spark for Texas Tech. To go along with his 16 points, he also recorded 4 rebounds and 4 rejections. Plus, as McCasland touched on “his ability to switch and guard the ball” and “pressuring the paint” was huge for making life difficult for the Zips.
“If there’s anybody we’ve coached hard these last 2 weeks, it’s Josiah Moseley. His literal first practice in a Red Raider uniform was January the 28th. He’s had to make some quick adjustments, and he’s had to improve in a short amount of time in a tough league, the best league in college basketball. Man did he respond. He had a few big time defensive effort plays where he got some blocks, but his ability to switch and guard the ball really was a difference maker.
And his force on the rim, his ability to get the ball and not settle for a difficult shot to go away from the basket. But I thought he put his nose to the rim and bounced it and went right to the basket. Had a great dunk in transition. Even the last offensive rebound he created the advantage he could’ve easily kind of floated and he didn’t. He turned and got over the top. It was a high level shot. He’s capable of that, and I’m glad he actually put what he’s been practicing into the game. He’s worked really hard for this moment. It’s cool to see his heart, and his competitiveness actually get to be put in the game.”
Avoiding a Highly-Picked Upset
Facing a surging Akron Zips squad that many across the country had pegged as a bracket-busting 12-over-5 upset, Texas Tech instead flipped the narrative with poise and execution in their opening round matchup. And the fact that there were many upsets yesterday with High Point over Wisconsin, VCU over North Carolina, Texas over BYU, and St. Louis over Georgia led to McCasland being asked the question if that helped him get the message across the team to prepare well for this game.
“We didn’t talk about it honestly. I’ve played in this game as a 13th seed. I just tried to show them the realities of this. This team (Akron) is stinking good. I mean, they can put pressure on you. Let’s not make this more than what it is. If you put the number by somebody’s name, and you try to determine how hard you’re going to play by a number, then you’re dumb.
To me, let’s look at what they do well and let’s try to take it away. Let’s talk about what we do well that they can’t handle and let’s really focus on that. So, ours was really focused on gameplan, effort, and how do we execute on every possession, and let y’all talk about all these seeds and numbers. Because we saw their jersey and it was blue, and ours was white. We wanted the white team to win, and that’s the way we approached it.”
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