The past is dead for Big 12-leading Texas Tech basketball, Grant McCasland

By looking into the eyes, listening to the words of the Texas Tech basketball players, Grant McCasland knew they were going to win.

He had no idea how the Red Raiders (14-2, 3-0) were going to pull it off. Kansas State sucked the momentum with a 20-0 run in the first half to keep the 14,856 in attendance at United Supermarkets Arena tense.

McCasland was especially encouraged by looking at the demeanor of Pop Isaacs. Texas Tech's leading scorer had a clean look at what would've been the go-ahead 3-pointer with less than a minute to go. Isaacs struggled from the field, as did everyone else in a Red Raider uniform. It was how Isaacs looked after the miss that reassured McCasland's confidence.

"It didn't discourage him," McCasland said. "I just look at him and I'm like, is he down? Nope. This dude wants to get a stop. I'm like, we're gonna win."

Down the stretch it was Darrion Williams and Joe Toussaint who made that belief pay off. Williams had a personal 5-0 run to tie the game 57-all, then it was Joe Toussaint's three-point play with about 30 seconds left, and contesting the shot of K-State's Tylor Perry, that sent the Red Raiders to their ninth win in a row.

Nerve-inducing as the 60-59 win on Saturday afternoon was, McCasland wasn't sweating it.

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"That's what I love about this team," McCasland said. "Even in timeouts early in the second half it was like, hey, we're gonna win this game. Let's get stops. Let's do it with the defense. That's what we did."

Texas Tech has now won its first three Big 12 games for the fourth time in program history, the first since the team's 2019 run to the national championship game. The Red Raiders also find themselves in first place in the conference standings, tied with Baylor at 3-0 in league play.

To get the Red Raiders to this point, to get the victory over the Wildcats, McCasland's bunch had to overcome his former colleague (Jerome Tang) and his former star player at North Texas (Perry).

Perry's outside shooting ignited the Wildcats' 20-0 run in the first half. He had four 3-pointers in the period, half of the team's eight makes from the outside. It was a different story in the second half.

Guarded primarily by Toussaint (12 points) and Isaacs (10), Perry (game-high 16 points) was held to 1-of-8 from the field in the second half, including an 0-for-4 mark from beyond the arc. Still, Tang wasn't about to go away from his prized recruit out of the transfer portal, the same player who's made big shots throughout the year, as he did in bringing an NIT title to UNT while playing for McCasland.

With the game on the line, Toussaint made sure McCasland's old point guard didn't get a good look at the game-winner.

"He's a good player," Toussaint said of Perry. "He was player of the year in his conference last year, so we knew it was going to be a fight. Just trying to slow him down, not trying to let him see the rim clearly, trying to stay on his hip because he's a real good shooter. Just trying to force him into my help, and that was really the thought process on that."

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In picking up the dramatic win, the Red Raiders were able to keep the engine rolling up hill. Last year's Texas Tech team didn't get to its 14th win until Feb. 13, the same day it got its third conference win. Both marks were achieved exactly a month earlier this year.

For McCasland, beating Kansas State isn't about what last year's team did or didn't do. It certainly wasn't about him getting the better of Tang and Perry.

It was about what he and the team have in front of them, and what's still out there to be attained. The Red Raiders are living in the now.

"It just has to be about your preparation and what gives you the best chance to win the game," McCasland said. "I mean this in all sincerity. The moment you make it about anything other than your team, you're losing, and I love to win. So I'm going to make it about our guys, and I'm so thrilled at the way we competed in the face of adversity because we're showing that we've got a team that I think can win championships.

"I told them that yesterday. We're in this league to win it."

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Grant McCasland, Big 12-leading Texas Tech basketball putting the past away