Grant McCasland takes the blame for Texas Tech basketball getting 'embarrassed' by Texas

Everybody's heard of a trap game, one sandwiched between two bigger contests a team might overlook.

The Texas Tech basketball team might consider the entirety of February a trap month.

Through the month of January, the Red Raiders were the darlings of the college basketball world. Grant McCasland was one of the leading candidates for national coach of the year. Turning around a Texas Tech program almost from scratch in less than a year to being atop the Big 12 standings, how could they not be the hot topic of the sport?

Then February came calling. Despite being the shortest month on the calendar, it's also the most critical in college basketball. Teams can either cement or diminish their NCAA Tournament prospects, each game taking on a larger-than-life narrative, every outcome swinging you one direction or another.

That narrative swing couldn't have been any bigger on Tuesday. Again, how could it not? Students started camping out outside of United Supermarkets Arena five days before the Texas Longhorns were in town for their final scheduled visit. Laying on the cold, hard ground, braving 45-mile per hour winds just to get a front-row seat to the game every Red Raider fan has had circled for months.

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What those students, and the rest of the 15,098 in the sold-out crowd witnessed, was a Texas team playing for its NCAA Tournament life and a Texas Tech squad trying to fast forward to March.

Dylan Disu said after the game he and his teammates know the Longhorns aren't projected to be a tournament team by very many. Going into enemy territory for a big win was something Texas desperately needed to keep its name in the conversation. The Red Raiders, meanwhile, haven't had to worry too much about their prospects. ESPN considers them a lock for the field. Other outlets had them on the cusp of securing a bid before Tuesday's game.

It was the perfect storm in Lubbock. Texas pressured the Red Raiders from the jump and got out to a 29-point lead early in the second half. Texas Tech made a push late, but the damage had already been done. The 81-69 Longhorn victory was decided within the first two minutes.

"I'm embarrassed for our team," McCasland said, "and it just felt like Texas got after us in the beginning of the game and beat us. Physically dominated the game."

There's no way to sugarcoat the output from the Red Raiders in the game, which featured Texas Tech's worst offensive showing since the second game of the year and one of worst defensive efforts all season in terms of efficiency, according to analytics site Bart Torvik.

Of course, there's a built-in excuse. Warren Washington was once again on the bench, missing his third game in the last four outings with an injured right foot. Washington's return Saturday against UCF was short lived and he wasn't able to help Texas Tech handle Disu (21 points) or keep Texas off the glass — the Longhorns had 44 boards to Tech's 30.

As big of a factor as the 7-foot Washington is on the defensive end, his absence is being felt ever more on offense.

Including Tuesday's loss, Texas Tech has shot below 40% in three straight games, the worst such stretch of the season. The team is also 29-of-100 from 3-point range over the last four games, well below the team's mark of 40% shooting from distance for much of league play.

Without Washington's ability to handle hand-offs at the top of the arc, set hard screens and be a rim-running presence, Texas Tech hasn't been able to get the ball movement that made it one of the top 20 offenses in the country. Robert Jennings, Eemeli Yalaho and KyeRon Lindsay have all had solid moments in Washington's absence, but none of them can operate the offense like he can.

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"Going forward I am going to have to be creative in finding ways of utilizing our strengths," McCasland said, "because what was Warren's strength maybe's not what everybody else's strengths are."

But if you're looking to blame anybody for what was a disappointing outcome in a significant game, McCasland has one person you can point the finger at: himself.

Throughout his postgame press session, McCasland said some variation if "I didn't do a good enough job" roughly a dozen times. Tech's offensive struggles? His fault. The turnovers? He didn't put guys in the right spots. Defensive lapses? You guessed it.

"I did a terrible job coaching our team tonight" he said at one point, "and I've got to do a better job making sure we're ready."

Whether or not Texas Tech can rest assured of its NCAA Tournament status is moot at this point. McCasland knows that with how his team has played throughout February — going 3-5 after being 16-4 in the first three months — even if the Red Raiders make it to the dance, they won't be on the floor very long if their recent efforts continue into March.

"I walk into the locker room, you can all imagine," McCasland said, "you walk in there, there's a lot of people in there. Administrators, everybody's looking at you like, 'Oh, crud. What happened?' You know what happened? We got beat. Bad. In a significant game. And I did a terrible job of preparing us.

"What you do is you look at it in the mirror and you tell the truth and you figure out how you're gonna get better."

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: McCasland takes the blame for Texas Tech basketball getting 'embarrassed' by Texas