Grant McCasland is New UNT Basketball Coach

[TheReal_jayD]

I love this hire. Young guy with DFW roots

[jtm0097]

Nice find JD!

[TreeFiddy]

I will wait for @CoachingChanges to report it.  Not sure I trust some random dude named Jon Rothstein.  Spells his name like a like a Yankee.

[Harry]

Great find @TheReal_jayD!

Great hire!  Surprised they kicked in the $500K buy-out but things are a changin at North Texas these days.

Excited about basketball again!

[bloodstunt]

Good hire if true. Guy has been successful everywhere he has been. 

[AustinFromUNT]

I like this for a multitude of reasons. It shows that the AD has been fundraising to get that buyout in his first year.

[Harry]

Bio: http://www.astateredwolves.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=7200&ATCLID=210811791

Grant McCasland Bio

Courtesy: ArkansasState Release: 03/17/2016

Grant McCasland was named the 15th head coach in Arkansas State's history on March 16, 2016. A 17-year coaching veteran, McCasland holds a 199-44 (.819) record as a head coach at the junior college and NCAA Division II levels.  THE McCASLAND FILE GRANT McCASLAND College Baylor, 1999 (B.S.) Texas Tech, 2001 (M.S.) Family Wife: Cece Children: Amaris, Jett, Jersey, Beckett   COACHING EXPERIENCE Year School, Position 1999-01 Texas Tech, Director of Operations 2001-03 Northeastern JC, Assistant Coach 2004-09 Midland College, Head Coach 2009-11 Midwestern State, Head Coach 2011-16 Baylor, Assistant Coach 2016-present Arkansas State, Head Coach   POSTSEASON EXPERIENCE 2004-05 NJCAA Elite Eight (Midland) 2005-06 NJCAA Region 5 Final (Midland) 2006-07 NJCAA, National Champions (Midland) 2007-08 NJCAA Region 5 Semifinals (Midland) 2008-09 NJCAA, finals (Midland) 2009-10 NCAA Division II, Elite Eight (MSU) 2010-11 NCAA Division II, Elite Eight (MSU) 2011-12 NCAA, Elite Eight (Baylor) 2012-13 NIT, champions (Baylor) 2013-14 NCAA, Sweet 16 (Baylor) 2014-15 NCAA, First Round (Baylor) 2015-16 NCAA, First Round (Baylor) McCasland spent the last five seasons as an assistant coach at Baylor, helping lead the Bears to NCAA Tournament appearances in 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2016.  Prior to Baylor, he spent two seasons as the head coach at Midwestern State and led the program to back-to-back Elite Eight appearances in the NCAA Division II Tournament.  McCasland also has head coaching experience at the junior college level, leading Midland College to the 2007 NJCAA national championship. Working on head coach Scott Drew’s staff at Baylor, McCasland has helped the Bears average 26 wins per year, posting a 125-55 record, including a 10-3 postseason mark. The Irving, Texas native helped Baylor rise to national prominence with five 20-win seasons, five postseason appearances, the Big 12’s first NIT championship and Baylor’s first postseason tournament title in its 107-year history. In his final season at Baylor he helped lead the club to a program best third straight NCAA Tournament apperance. The Bears posted a 22-11 mark this season, playing 18 games against teams that are in the 2016 NCAA Tournament. During the 2014-15 season the Bears went 24-10 and earned a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament, tying the best seed in program history and recorded the program’s first-ever back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances. It was the program’s seventh 20-win season in the previous eight years, accounting for all but three of the 20-win seasons in school history. A school-record seven of Baylor’s 24 wins came against top-25 ranked teams during the 2014-15 campaign. Baylor became one of just 12 teams nationally to reach three Sweet 16s in a five-year span (2010-14) with a late seasons surge that saw the Bears reach the 2014 NCAA Tournament. The Bears advanced to the Big 12 Championship title game and posted 26 wins in the 2013-14 season.  The 2012-13 season saw Baylor become the first Big 12 team to claim a NIT title. The Bears won five straight that culminated with a 20-point win over Iowa in the championship game. In his first season with the Bears (2011-12), McCasland helped the squad to a school-record 30 wins and an appearance in the NCAA Tournament South Region Final, the second in three seasons. Baylor was ranked throughout the season, a first in program history, reaching as high as No. 3 in the polls while not falling below 14th. Before his five-year stint at Baylor, McCasland spent two seasons as head coach at Midwestern State (Texas), posting a combined 56-12 mark. In the 2010-11 season, McCasland, the Lone Star Conference (LSC) South Division and National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) South Region Coach of the Year, saw his Mustangs finish 25-9, win the NCAA Division II South Central Region title and reach the NCAA Division II Elite Eight. The Mustangs were knocked out of the national tournament with a 70-64 loss to eventual champion Bellarmine. The previous season (2009-10) saw Midwestern State earn the LSC South Division title, the LSC Tournament championship, the NCAA Division II South Central Region championship and a berth in the NCAA Division II Elite Eight. Prior to his tenure at Midwestern State, McCasland spent five successful seasons as the head coach at Midland (Texas) College, taking the reins of the program prior to the 2004-05 campaign. It didn’t take long to see the impact he made on the program as his first season as the head coach resulted in the Region V championship and trip to the NJCAA Elite Eight. In the 2006-07 season, the Chaps finished 29-8 and won the national championship. In his final season in Midland (2008-09), the Chaps finished 33-4 and lost in the national championship game and McCasland ended his time at Midwestern State with a record of 143-32 while earning district, region and national coach of the year honors. Preceding his time at Midland College, McCasland was the assistant coach at Northeastern Junior College in Sterling, Colo., for two seasons (2001-02 and 2002-03). He began his coaching career in Lubbock, Texas, where he served as the Director of Basketball Operations on James Dickey’s staff at Texas Tech in the 1999-2000 and 2000-01 seasons. A three-year letterman and four-year player for head coach Harry Miller at Baylor, McCasland earned Academic All-Big 12 honorable mention honors in his senior campaign of 1998-99. He graduated from Baylor in 1999 with a degree in entrepreneurship and management and received his master’s degree from Texas Tech in 2001. Grant and his wife, Cece, have four children: daughters Amaris and Jersey and sons Jett and Beckett. What they are saying: Baylor Head Coach Scott Drew "Coach McCasland is a proven winner. He has won wherever he's been, and I know he will have the same success at Arkansas State. In addition to being a home run hire on the court, Coach Mac is a great man and a great leader, and he will be a major asset on the campus and in the community. He will truly be missed at Baylor." James Dickey, Former Texas Tech head coach and current Oklahoma State assistant coach “You ought to be ecstatic. He is a wonderful young man.  I’m an old Arkansas guy and I know they love basketball in Northeast Arkansas.  He will represent Arkansas State and make you all very proud.  He is a quality young man with an infectious personality.  I’d coached against him when he was a player, and I had watched him work my camp and observed how he conducted himself.  I jumped at the chance to hire him to be a part of my team at Texas Tech.  He has the whole package – a strong recruiter, great X’s and O’s, and he’ll be a community member.  Grant and his family will be great representatives of and ambassadors for A-State basketball, the athletic department, the university, the city of Jonesboro and all of Northeast Arkansas.” A-State Director of Athletics Terry Mohajir “Grant McCasland has proven himself as an outstanding coach and recruiter, winning on many levels. He is coming from a program that carried out one of the nation’s biggest turnarounds and then sustained its success.  We have high expectations for our men’s basketball program, and we believe Coach McCasland has the skills, drive and determination to build a consistent championship-caliber program here at Arkansas State.” Arkansas State System President Dr. Chuck Welch “I knew within minutes of meeting Coach McCasland that he was the right person to lead our men’s basketball program. He has been a big-time winner at every level, and his energy, enthusiasm, and intensity are infectious.  Our fans are going to love him and his family, and I have absolutely no doubt that he will elevate our program the right way and bring winning basketball to the Convo immediately.”

 

[untbowler]

looking at record, why is everyone so high him?

He lost to ULM in the 1st round of the Belt Tournament after beating them by 30 pts in season.

They dropped 6 of 8 down the stretch. Lost to both Cross and Kaspar.

His record prior to joining Baylor is phenomenal. Just curious if he is worth $500k buyout.

Just my opinion, would prefer Harper, but sounds like could be a solid hire.

[CMJ]

I'm down with this.

[Travis]

I am neither high or low. I am in a wait and see mode. 

[DeepGreen]

4 minutes ago, CMJ said:

I'm down with this.

Back to the chat room next BB season?

[GoMeanGreen1999]

He turned ASU around in one season if I read it right from 11 wins to 20?  I like that.  He has a proven record.  I think it's a good hire.  It's definitely better than the last one.

Edited March 13, 2017 by GoMeanGreen1999

[VideoEagle]

If he really is the guy, I think this is great. He checks a lot of the boxes for what we want. Texas connection, check. P5 experience, check. Able to work with limited resources of a G5 school, check. Successful at multiple locations, check. Current or recent D1 head coaching experience, check. 

I just scanned the bio so I could have missed this. Is there already a connection to Baker? I've seen several mentions of a worry that Baker wouldn't explore beyond the options he already knew for his first coaching hire. 

[UNTFan23]

21 minutes ago, untbowler said:

looking at record, why is everyone so high him?

He lost to ULM in the 1st round of the Belt Tournament after beating them by 30 pts in season.

They dropped 6 of 8 down the stretch. Lost to both Cross and Kaspar.

His record prior to joining Baylor is phenomenal. Just curious if he is worth $500k buyout.

Just my opinion, would prefer Harper, but sounds like could be a solid hire.

He holds a career record 199-44 (.819) record as a head coach at the junior college and NCAA Division II levels. He won the NJCAA National Championship while at Midland JC in 2007. What more do you want?

[TreeFiddy]

I hope he was able to force WB and NS to commit to facilities upgrades, increased assistant salary pool, etc...

McCasland has a pretty nice group of assistants at ASU that have a history of recruiting well.  Hope he is able to bring them along.

[Tyler Maryak]

So I'm asking quite a bit of you, but if someone wanted to outline how this hire compares to the Benford hire at the time, I'd love to read the breakdown. 

[TreeFiddy]

1 minute ago, Tyler Maryak said:

So I'm asking quite a bit of you, but if someone wanted to outline how this hire compares to the Benford hire at the time, I'd love to read the breakdown. 

I will take a stab at a quick comparison of a potentially meaningless stat:

Benford record as head coach prior to UNT:  0 - 0

McCasland record as head coach prior to UNT:  220 - 54

[Wag Tag]

Great hire based off of HC exp , assistant exp and knowing the local area market! Need some insight on the O & D he plays??

[Brett Vito]

MGB: Source -- Deal not finalized, but UNT is in the process of hiring Arkansas State head coach

http://meangreenblog.dentonrc.com/2017/03/breaking-unt-expected-to-hire-grant-mccasland.html/

Edited March 13, 2017 by Brett Vito

[Harry]

 

[emmitt01]

56 minutes ago, Harry said:

Great find @TheReal_jayD!

Great hire!  Surprised they kicked in the $500K buy-out but things are a changin at North Texas these days.

Excited about basketball again!

Not true!  Wren baker has done nothing, NOTHING, since being hired.  There is simply NO WAY North Texas would pay for a buyout, and there is even less chance that a current head coach would come to this "coach graveyard."  

I simply won't believe it...if this is true then we are quickly running out of things to bitch incessantly about, and I can't have that

[AustinFromUNT]

I'm just waiting for the hot takes of why "This is an underwhelming hire" and "The AD doesn't care about BB" *sips tea and waits*

[untbowler]

36 minutes ago, UNTFan23 said:

He holds a career record 199-44 (.819) record as a head coach at the junior college and NCAA Division II levels. He won the NJCAA National Championship while at Midland JC in 2007. What more do you want?

That's great was just asking the question. I am hoping his success can translate.

Maybe AState had injuries down the stretch, so was asking the question.

[UNTFan23]

Just now, untbowler said:

That's great was just asking the question. I am hoping his success can translate.

Maybe AState had injuries down the stretch, so was asking the question.

Ark State had beaten ULM twice already in the regular season. It's a bit cliche but always hard to beat a team three times in the same season.

[KingDL1]

What is Tasty's take on Grant?