Texas Tech head coach Grant McCasland gave major credit to his coaching staff following Tuesday’s 98-60 season-opening home win vs. Lindenwood (set program record in three-pointers made with 17).
(via Texas Tech Red Raiders):
Reporter: “Could you just talk a little bit about your spacing and the ball movement tonight?”
McCasland: “Coach [Jeff] Linder’s the best, man. It’s funny, we were junior college coaches together for a couple of years and we had played Mark Adams’ team. And Charlie Burgess. I don’t know if anybody remembers Charlie Burgess, but Charlie Burgess was on the other team. He was an unbelievable driver and their defense was so good. And Coach Linder and I changed what we did going into that game for our personnel, and then we changed at halftime what we did offensively and won the game and ended up beating a team that was really good that Charlie Burgess was on that won a bunch of games and we ended up taking that team to the national tournament.
“So, it’s fun. It’s not the way we’d want to do it every game is to be short-handed like we were without Player of the Year JT Toppin and all that nonsense, but man, we’ve got really good coaches, like really good coaches that we have. And I thought our spacing and our prepared play for everybody considering we haven’t played these lineups was attributed to our understanding of how we want to do everything. It wasn’t just scheme driven for one guy; everybody understands and the simplicity. But also the ability of these guys to share the ball was on display with a team that hadn’t actually played much together, and to do it in a short amount of time really showed a lot of our guys and what they’re learning and how committed they are to our team and winning. I think we’ve got the best coaches, man, and I’m not talking about myself. I honestly do. I think we’ve got the best coaches and our staff’s really prepared and done a phenomenal job.”
