Grant McCasland is trying to steer Texas Tech to the Sweet 16 for the fourth time in the past seven NCAA Tournaments and the first time in his two seasons at the school.
Standing in his way is his best friend, Drake coach Ben McCollum.
Rest assured that the friendship will be on pause for a few hours Saturday when the third-seeded Red Raiders battle the 11th-seeded Bulldogs in a West Region second-round game at Wichita, Kan.
Texas Tech (26-8) beat No. 14 UNC Wilmington 82-72 in its first-round matchup, while Drake (31-3) upset No. 6 Missouri 67-57.
Those results created the March Madness matchup between McCasland and McCollum, who met in the early 2000s while they were assistant coaches at the junior-college level and trying to move up the ranks.
Current Texas Tech assistant Jeff Linder — who was head coach at Wyoming from 2020-24 — also was part of the mix. The trio engaged in nearly non-stop basketball chatter while envisioning running their own programs.
The three went on a trout fishing trip in Wyoming during Linder’s stint.
But the big catch on Saturday is winning a basketball game and reaching the Sweet 16.
“He’s going to try to beat us. We will try to beat him,” the 43-year-old McCollum said. “It’s all love. It’s just like playing pick-up with your teammates. When you are playing pick-up, sometimes you kind of get after each other a little bit, but afterwards it’s all love.”
McCasland, 48, expressed similar thoughts.
“I love him, but you know, when you play him, it’s different,” McCasland said. “So we’ll look forward to the opportunity to compete. We’ll always be friends, but Saturday, I guess, it will be on.”
McCasland got his opportunity at Texas Tech after six seasons at North Texas. He won NIT and CBI titles with the Mean Green and he also engineered a first-round NCAA Tournament upset of Purdue in the 2021 tourney.
McCollum won four NCAA Division II national championships at Northwest Missouri State. Drake offered him a job after last season and has been rewarded with a school record for victories.
Making the Bulldogs’ run crazier is that McCollum brought four of his Division II starters with him to start at Drake. This group has won 19 of its past 20 games.
One of them, guard Bennett Stirtz, was Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year. He has team-best averages of 19.2 points and 5.6 assists and also has a team-leading 72 steals.
Stirtz scored 21 points against Missouri, an in-state school that declined to recruit him while he was in high school.
The other Northwest Missouri transfers are second-leading scorer Daniel Abreu (10.2 ppg), leading 3-point shooter Mitch Mascari (9.7 ppg, 87 3-pointers) and standout defender Isaiah Jackson (3.9 ppg).
“I guess my super power is finding winners, finding tough kids, and believing in them,” McCollum said. “So I kind of expected this. I did. I would be lying if I said I didn’t. I know I’ve tried to be humble in other ones, but man, I believe in these kids.”
Texas Tech received a career game from Kerwin Walton in the win over UNC Wilmington. Walton scored 27 points and knocked down eight 3-pointers. The school record for treys is held by Alan Voskuil, who had nine against Kansas on March 4, 2009.
“Every single day, every practice, my teammates, the coaches, they just tell me to shoot it if I got space,” Walton said. “If I felt like it was green, it was green, and that’s all I thought about. Just getting it up. If I miss, I’m going to hit the next one.”
Big 12 Player of the Year JT Toppin had just 12 points but collected 11 rebounds. He has team-best averages of 17.9 points and 9.2 boards.
–Field Level Media
