Story Courtesy Wes Bloomquist, Texas Tech Athletics
Texas Tech and head men’s basketball coach Grant McCasland have agreed on a six-year contract extension that has him leading the Red Raiders through the 2030-31 season and making him one of the highest-paid college basketball coaches in the nation. Through two seasons, McCasland has led Tech to a 51-20 overall record, including going 26-12 in Big 12 games, 30-5 at home and back-to-back appearances in the NCAA Tournament.
“Coach McCasland immediately built upon our men’s basketball program’s established success and continues working to raise and deliver on high expectations,” Director of Athletics Kirby Hocutt said. “We look forward to an exciting future for Texas Tech basketball under Coach McCasland’s leadership.”
McCasland and the Red Raiders are coming off a 2024-25 season where they went 28-9 overall, were 15-5 in Big 12 play, reached the Elite Eight and finished the season in the AP Top 10 for a program record six straight weeks. Tech finished second in the conference standings and established new program records with the 15 wins in Big 12 play along with earning eight road wins. The team matched a program record with a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament and advanced to the Elite Eight after wins over UNC Wilmington, Drake and Arkansas before falling to eventual national champion Florida in the Elite Eight. Tech played an exciting brand of basketball throughout the season, establishing program records by making 371 3-pointers and scoring 2,993 total points. The Red Raiders finished the season at No. 8 in the AP Top 25 and are firmly in the top 10 of multiple early prognostications for next season.
McCasland is the 19th head coach in program history and owns the best record for a head coach through his first two seasons. He was named to the Werner Ladder Naismith Men’s College Coach of the Year Watch List last season and is now 262-109 through 11 seasons as an NCAA head coach and 206-97 leading NCAA Division I programs. He has won 20 or more games in every full season of play – the lone exception coming in a Covid-reduced season. McCasland goes into his third season at Tech with a .706 career winning percentage and will represent the program and country this summer as an assistant coach for the USA U19 National Team at the 2025 FIBA U19 World Cup in Lausanne, Switzerland, from June 28 to July 6.
Along with success on the court, McCasland has energized the Texas Tech fanbase with nine sell-outs, an average of 3,126 students while in session during Big 12 games and over 450,000 fans in attendance at United Supermarkets Arena throughout the past two seasons.
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