{"id":52051,"date":"2025-11-16T17:37:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-16T17:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/52051\/"},"modified":"2025-11-16T17:37:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-16T17:37:11","slug":"grant-mccasland-disappointed-in-lack-of-competitiveness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/52051\/","title":{"rendered":"Grant McCasland disappointed in lack of competitiveness"},"content":{"rendered":"

Grant McCasland<\/a> following a 80-63 win over Milwaukee<\/a> praised the Panthers for their competitiveness and fight. Whilst on the other side disappointed with his team\u2019s lack of competitiveness overall and on defense. The Red Raiders will head to the Bahamas for a matchup against Wake Forest<\/a>, following that one up with either Purdue<\/a> or Memphis<\/a> next week.<\/p>\n

Lack of competitiveness + struggles<\/p>\n

In another slow start, the Red Raiders found themselves up, but never being able to end the Panthers dreams of an upset until a few Christian Anderson<\/a> buckets put it away.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was disappointed in our competitiveness. I thought Milwaukee played super hard and they made some difficult shots and they\u2019re a well coached team. And I said this to our team before, they are never gonna back down. I told Coach (Bart) Lundy before the game, I do love his team. I think that team has a chance to win their league.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we purposely are scheduling more difficult so that we\u2019re challenged. And we started this game really flat. And you just can\u2019t let teams have rhythm. And we weren\u2019t competitive in the first half defensively like we needed to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026we need some more time together, especially that lineup where we get him (Luke Bamgboye<\/a>) out there. I thought he gave us some good minutes, especially his defensive energy. I was really impressed with Jaylen Petty<\/a>\u2018s fight, and I told those guys, man, we just need to be ready to practice. So tomorrow we\u2019re going to cheer on the football team, and let\u2019s get the win, and then we\u2019re all focused on figuring out a way to be at our best to play Wake Forest in the Bahamas.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought our point of attack defense wasn\u2019t horrible, but I thought our help defense was horrible. And give them credit too, because they were doing that continuity ball screen offense where they\u2019re running through and they were getting to the next action.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI told our team, man, it\u2019s two different things. It\u2019s pace of play that they get you on your heels. And any time a team plays that fast, getting the ball moving side to side, then you have a tendency to get hugged up and you get fatigued. And we did both of those. And over the possession, I showed them film at half.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coach McCasland also came away from Friday night\u2019s matchup feeling like his team had too many problems with the zone press Milwaukee set up to cause havoc.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought their zone press caused us problems early, which we had five turnovers early, which led to some confidence for them. And honestly, we just \u2013 we didn\u2019t give the energy that we need to in order to win real games in the Big 12, for sure. But Milwaukee deserved a lot of credit for what they did for that. And I know our team was disappointed in the locker room.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll get better at it. I mean, we got better over the course of the game. We didn\u2019t turn the ball over. We just didn\u2019t make very many shots and we didn\u2019t have much flow to what we did. I mean, we were pretty stagnant, honestly. It was stalled out quite a bit. And we didn\u2019t recognize the next action.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey came out and changed defenses a couple times and switched some and changed the way they were guarding ball screens. They had a great plan to keep us on our heels. And we just didn\u2019t adjust quick enough to it. And honestly, it\u2019s just a lack of experience and I got to do a better job coaching our team.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to do a better job preparing us in these windows to get better where when we face these different changes over the course of the game that we recognize them and can attack them, not that we recognize them and look for the right option. You\u2019ve got to go attack people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t hold the ball and hope JT (Toppin)<\/a> can dribble down close to the basket and shoot a layup. I mean, that works to some extent, but it wasn\u2019t working tonight, so you\u2019ve got to be able to get to the next action. And we\u2019ll get better at it. We just need to practice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Luke Bamgboye<\/p>\n

The Red Raiders got back a key piece tonight in Luke Bamgboye<\/a> who made his debut in a Texas Tech uniform. The Forward was ranked as the #1 defender by Andy Katz<\/a>. Grant McCasland trusts him, and is ready for Bamgboye\u2019s high-end defensive skills to be on the floor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019ve got the opportunity to really separate from teams when he\u2019s out there defensively. And he\u2019s a lob threat, and we didn\u2019t get him the ball there very often because we were in the wrong spot several times. We just really trust him on that defensive end and it\u2019s going to take some time to get some flow on the offensive end. He\u2019s a game changer down there defensively.\u201d<\/p>\n

Christian Anderson<\/p>\n

Christian Anderson<\/a> is continuing to rapidly progress as a sophomore, giving the Red Raiders a possible NBA-like talent on the court. Although, there is some more room for growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019ve been challenging him with. Like, even though we\u2019re running some actions, how do you still keep people on their heels? And he tried it tonight. I thought he was better than what he\u2019d been. And there\u2019s this balance because he\u2019s such a good scorer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t want him to shoot everything off the bounce. You want to try to get him in a catch scenario. And that\u2019s where the more time we get to play together, we can maybe get him to that second action where he doesn\u2019t have to feel like he\u2019s trying to do it on the first one.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that\u2019s where some continuity and practice will really benefit this group because we\u2019re going to play JT (Toppin) and Luke (Bamgboye) together. So that\u2019s happening. And with the way Luke is a lob threat and JT can drive it from the perimeter and make a three, I mean, it\u2019s just going to open up and it\u2019ll give Christian an opportunity, I think, to be in even a better position to look for offense. I do think the more he thinks shoot, the better we play.\u201d<\/p>\n

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