Reunion tour brings Grant McCasland back to his roots before Texas Tech basketball debut

DENTON — Green cloth clad with North Texas insignia sits behind Grant McCasland in the media room at the Super Pit, a scene that, a year earlier, wouldn't have seemed all that unusual.

A look out to the assembled media, or a quick glance at his chest, would've provided McCasland a reminder just how different the scene really is. Sporting a red quarter-zip pullover, the Texas Tech logo in plain view, McCasland's return to UNT came with emotions familiar, yet foreign to the 47-year-old basketball coach.

McCasland returned to Denton for basketball, an exhibition against nationally-ranked Texas A&M to be played in front of a collision of two worlds. Before his Texas Tech basketball team took the floor, McCasland watched the Mean Green as much as he could. Most of his time was occupied catching up with UNT boosters and fans that rooted for his is squad over his six-year stay.

Many of the fans that came to cheer on the Mean Green against Sam Houston hung around for the second game: McCasland's unofficial debut as the leader of the Red Raiders. Tech fans in attendance had some new recruits against the Aggies. Few of the UNT faithful left the arena. They hung around, continuing to root for McCasland's team, even if it's no longer their squad he's coaching.

"Someone asked me what it was like," McCasland said, "I said it felt weird. ... but it felt right."

The universe can seem vast and empty all at once. The basketball universe can often feel as big as a thimble.

Since being formally introduced as the Texas Tech's new head coach in April, McCasland has been on a seven-month nostalgia trip. A reunion tour mixed with a victory lap. Back where his coaching career began in 2000, McCasland has visited many friends and colleagues from the last two decades, each a different reflection of his path back to the Red Raiders.

'Where we're supposed to be'

Two of his UNT assistants, Matt Braeuer and Achoki Mokobu, joined McCasland in the transition to Texas Tech. Braeuer spent five years working with McMcCasland, Mokobu one.

Ross Hodges didn't make the move. Having spent the last seven years as McCasland's associate head coach — first at Arkansas State, then UNT — Hodges stuck around Denton to succeed McCasland for the second time in his career.

Dating back to their time in the junior college ranks, Hodges and McCasland have been in each other's orbit for more than a decade, before they became confidants.

Hodges, try as he might, couldn't even find a way to sum up his relationship with his former boss.

"It's like way beyond just anything that you couldn't even put into words to describe," Hodges said. "... If you're with somebody for seven years, you're not only coaching basketball with them, you're doing life with them. We've experienced every range of emotion that you could possibly experience personally and professionally.

There were wins and losses, births and deaths and everything in between. Seeing where each has wound up in that time, to have Denton be the sight of McCasland's first contest as Tech's coach, would be even too unbelievable for TV, Hodges said.

"It felt like we're where we're supposed to be," McCasland said, "and he's where he's supposed to be."

'Surreal moment'

McCasland's first Big 12 media days were a reminder of how much, and how little, things can change.

He was a player at Baylor when the conference began in 1996. The Big 12 is now a 14-team juggernaut considered by many to be the toughest league in the country.

"Surreal moment," McCasland said on stage in the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri. There to speak about the Red Raiders, McCasland glanced up at the jumbotron as he was peppered with questions.

Media days were a bit of a time portal into McCasland's past. There, he caught up with Baylor head coach Scott Drew and Kansas State's Jerome Tang. He coached with both at Baylor, his first coaching job in the Division I ranks. McCasland still considers both friends, though all bets are off when their teams collide in league play.

"He's somebody that has won everywhere he's gone," Drew said. "When he left us, he did a great job at Arkansas State and then did a great job at North Texas. Doesn't take long to win and is somebody that his teams get better throughout the year. They never beat themselves and it's someone that's going to have a lot of success."

Kansas State is a double dose of déjà vu for McCasland. Tang is also coaching Tylor Perry, McCasland's star player at UNT the past two seasons. Tang, meanwhile, credits McCasland with helping him get in shape through boxing.

"... His investment in my life and caring about me as a person is going to allow me to live longer," Tang said. "And so I tell people he saved my life. And I love him."

McCasland thinks he gets a little more credit than he deserves, though the workouts helped he and Tang grow closer.

"I remember we didn't walk out of that first workout," McCasland said. "We laid on the ground together for an hour and neither one of us got in the car immediately.

"I think any time you go through hard things with people, that makes you appreciate it even more."

'Beautiful night'

During the offseason, McCasland showed his Texas Tech players the movie "Shawshank Redemption" to instill the message that the journey is long. The end is often unseeable until reaching the destination. But if they keep tunneling through the sewer — the schedule, the competition — the other side comes into full view.

For the past 22 years, McCasland has been on his own Andy Dufresne-like journey, continuing to carve his path that ultimately led him back to Lubbock and Texas Tech, where he met his wife Cece, started his family and his career.

Since his reintroduction to Red Raider Nation, McCasland has, in a sense, gone back down the tunnel, revisiting stops he's made since being the director of operations under James Dickey.

In May, his first Red Raider Club speaking tour took him to Midland, where he won a JUCO national championship

July saw his old and new worlds converging with The Basketball Tournament. McCasland enjoyed seeing several of his former UNT players and coaches in Lubbock, though he also made a point of building relationships with the former Red Raiders who made up the Air Raiders team.

Last week's return to Denton was a reminder of where McCasland was and where he is. As he walked out of the Super Pit, Tech logo on his shirt, the reunion tour was brought to an end, and another journey officially began.

"Just really a beautiful night," McCasland said, "and a blessing to be around such great people, honestly."

Arne Green of the Topeka Capital-Journal contributed to this story.

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Reunion tour brings Grant McCasland back to his roots before Texas Tech basketball debut