McCasland Article (dated)

Coach Andy Mac · October 19, 2022

Grant McCasland

Age: 45

Current position: North Texas head coach (fifth year)

Past experience: Arkansas State head coach (one year), Baylor assistant coach (five years)

Salary: $600,000

Buyout: unknown

McCasland has emerged as one of the hottest mid-major names in this year's coaching carousel because of his success at North Texas. A season ago, McCasland led the Mean Green to their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2010 and their first ever victory in the Big Dance. North Texas upset 4-seed Purdue in the round of 64.

McCasland's success in Denton hasn't been limited to a single March run, however. When McCasland took over the North Texas program in 2018, the Mean Green hadn't experienced a winning season in five years and had just bottomed out at 8-22 in Tony Benford'sfinal season. During McCasland's first year on the job, he led North Texas to 20 wins, a mark the team has reached in each of his five seasons except last year, when it played a shortened schedule due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2019-20, McCasland led North Texas to a 14-4 record in Conference USA, which earned the Mean Green their first regular-season conference title in 31 years. They would have entered the conference tournament as the top seed had it not been canceled due to the pandemic. A year ago, North Texas wasn't quite as successful during the regular season but won four games in four days to win the conference tournament title and earn a bid to the NCAA Tournament. North Texas then went 24-6 overall, 16-2 in Conference USA to win the regular season crown again this year before losing to Louisiana Tech in the league tournament semifinals. It will be a No. 2 seed in the NIT.

read more: https://missouri.rivals.com/news/candidate-profile-grant-mccasland