McCasland Comments on the Torrential Threes Storm in Waco
The 12th ranked Texas Tech Men’s Basketball team put on a show in Waco, Texas this evening. For the third time, the Red Raiders tied the program record with seventeen threes in the 92-73 victory over the Baylor Bears.
Head coach Grant McCasland discussed his thoughts on the dominant offensive performance (via Texas Tech Sports Network/Learfield)
The Tale of Two Halves
Baylor in the first half decided to double JT Toppin, Texas Tech as a result bombed the Bears with threes. In the second half, Baylor decided to go one-on-one with the reigning Big 12 player of the year and he took them to school, yet it all equals a 92-73 win.
“We got such a great team of understanding. That’s what our coaching staff said at halftime. Literally JT just making all the right plays. He didn’t get a lot of assists from it. That’s where I feel bad for him, because it’s a one more play. So he’s getting all of the hockey assists but it wasn’t happening until he was getting two. But he was coming out of the double teams, and they were just having a really hard time guarding us in the post with JT and figuring out what they wanted to do. And then they went zone, and man what a great gameplan by our coaching staff to get us in the right spot.”
The Resurgence of Tyree Bryan
McCasland knew he had to get into his bench tonight because of foul trouble from LeJuan Watts, Christian Anderson, and Donovan Atwell with three. Tyree Bryan stepped up, finishing the night at 100% from the field, plus a pair of boards, an assist, and a steal in his 28 minutes. Bryan also displayed great body language and played a huge role in the win. McCasland referred to it as “pitching a perfect game” so to speak.
“I mean if you looked at his stat line he basically pitched a perfect game other than a couple of fouls. Perfect from the field, one assist, no turnovers and a steal. Honestly is really just dialed in to our team and winning. I thought his defensive urgency was really good. I thought he was guarding people off staggers and looked right. His effort was what it needed to be tonight. It was awesome to see him take a jump, and the guys were really excited for him in the locker room to.”
Donovan Atwell’s Threes Storm
Atwell was the one of the major reasons the score ran up the way it did in the first half. Atwell hit seven three-pointers to bring the Red Raiders to 73% from beyond the arc at the half. McCasland was asked if he ever in his career has seen a player hit four of them in the first four minutes of a game before.
“I don’t remember it. If I did, I’ve seen some good stuff and it was part of the good stuff. He and Chris (Anderson) just in the middle of the floor, thanks to the double team action with JT, they were just having a hard time figuring out who they were going to put bodies on.”
All American Effort
As usual, the resilience of Christian Anderson contributed significantly on both ends as he’s diving on the floor at the end of the game as the score was lopsided. Red Raider fans could make a comp to Keenan Evans as far as seeing this special of a player in program history. McCasland still shows love to his star player as he had since his arrival.
“He’s the ultimate competitor. He’s got all the game. Pass it, handle it, shoot it, and he’s got presence. He doesn’t ever really get sped up. Really just growing in every area it feels like every time he steps on the floor he grows a little bit in different actions. It’s fun to see him honestly be our anchor defensively. That’s where he’s been special. He’s starting to communicate the coverages of what we need, and orchestrating everything from the middle of it. We don’t always put him on the primary option, but tonight we did put him on the point, and he just keeps delivering on both sides of the ball. He and JT honestly. JT was all over the place at the end of the game blocking shots and getting deflections. That’s where I’ll tell you it’s fun to see these guys really grow is their defensive effort.”
Winning on the Road in the Big 12
McCasland is no stranger to the McLennan County area as he played and coached there throughout his career in basketball. He knows how hard it is to win on the road in a conference with as much parity in the Big 12, who by the way has six teams in the recent AP Top 25, the most out of any conference in the AP Poll. He also once more shared the vast respect he has for the guy coaching on the other sideline in Scott Drew.
“Coach Drew is the best. He won a national championship at the place that basically had the death penalty any way you look at it. They didn’t even play one Big 12 game. Which is crazy. He always finds a way to keep them engaged, and I knew he would in the second half and they came in and got a few baskets early and turned us over and it felt like “man are we going to be in a dog fight?” I think they cut it to maybe thirteen or something. Fourteen in the second half. To our guys’ credit I thought the glass would be a big deal. How well we kept them off the glass, and they had quite a few misses tonight. They ended up with eleven offensive rebounds and we didn’t have enough of them. But ultimately it felt like limited in second chance points was the difference, and coach (Drew) is the best at coaching that. Really proud of our guys fighting against them.”
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