@C. Level caught up with McCasland following the game. Audio via the Texas Tech Sports Network.
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Chris Level: Chris Level here with the head coach of the Red Raiders, Grant McCasland. 61-57, hey, first of all, it's a road win. You don't, I mean, you take them however you can get them, yes?
Grant McCasland: Yeah, I thought it was said well, I was walking off the court and we got some great Red Raiders that were here. And he said, man, that game was uglier than my first girlfriend. And I said, I'd hate to see your girlfriend. Honestly, it was ugly. And there wasn't a lot of it. I mean, you look at the numbers and shooting percentage wise, it was actually pretty solid.
Turned the ball over way too much and our switch attack plan, we just got stalled out completely. And JT's been such a big part of what we do in the half court, especially against the switch attack, and then D5 twists his ankle.
And to be honest, JT's under the weather, he's not feeling great tonight and he wasn't feeling great in the game the other day at home against Iowa State. So hopefully we'll get him healthy and get him back full speed but you could tell he was a step slow in everything he did. And that's a big part of our offense, and those two guys are. And just struggled down the stretch of finishing the game. But we did come up with some rebounds, some huge ones and we did come up with a few loose balls at the end, finally, when the game was kinda on the line. And man, we'll take them.
I mean, that's three wins on the road in the Big 12, and no easy way to do it but that was about as ugly as a game I've been a part of.
CL: Have you ever seen a game, though, where neither team really scores a field goal in the last five or six minutes? And you're just kind of, I mean, basically each team could say the same thing. Like, we're still in this thing, we better take advantage of it. Nobody really could, but you had the two-point lead.
GM: Yeah, no, I mean, that was a big part of it. And we did miss some free throws, too. Just like the game just felt like, I just walked up and down the bench with about 14 minutes to go in the second half. I said, we're gonna have to win this the hard way. I don't even know what that is gonna be but I just felt like this was one of those games where whatever it was gonna be, it was gonna be difficult, it wasn't gonna be easy. And I am thrilled that we figured out a way to do it.
But I told the team in the locker room, there is a component to this where the teams that give everything they have to each other and sell out to trying to figure out how to make the team the priority and the best is the team that's gonna end up winning.
CL: Because you could argue, we say ugly, and it wasn't as easy on the eyes. But this is one that you should feel great about because you gritted one out on the road in a kind of a weird atmosphere and got a desperate Kansas State.
GM: Yeah, no, there's no question about it. We did not in any way separate ourselves and cause them, we didn't make them lose. We kind of survived the game and got to a few possessions where we finished the game off.
And I will say I'm really thrilled with what D5 was able to do. Just with the ankle and twisted it and kind of figured out a way to grid it out. And then just kind of put the ball in his hands.
He wasn't very stable in there, but it felt like the best opportunity for us in a night where we didn't have our best and he did kind of will it. And then we did come up with a few rebounds at the end, which we'll look back at. But we've got to improve dramatically if we want to be relevant in this league. This can't be what we do.
CL: Hey man, congrats. You just keep winning them on the road and we'll keep talking about how ugly they are.
GM: We will do that. Wreck Em.
Grant KState postgame .m4a
Listen to Grant KState postgame .m4a by Ben Golan - RRS #np on #SoundCloud
Chris Level: Chris Level here with the head coach of the Red Raiders, Grant McCasland. 61-57, hey, first of all, it's a road win. You don't, I mean, you take them however you can get them, yes?
Grant McCasland: Yeah, I thought it was said well, I was walking off the court and we got some great Red Raiders that were here. And he said, man, that game was uglier than my first girlfriend. And I said, I'd hate to see your girlfriend. Honestly, it was ugly. And there wasn't a lot of it. I mean, you look at the numbers and shooting percentage wise, it was actually pretty solid.
Turned the ball over way too much and our switch attack plan, we just got stalled out completely. And JT's been such a big part of what we do in the half court, especially against the switch attack, and then D5 twists his ankle.
And to be honest, JT's under the weather, he's not feeling great tonight and he wasn't feeling great in the game the other day at home against Iowa State. So hopefully we'll get him healthy and get him back full speed but you could tell he was a step slow in everything he did. And that's a big part of our offense, and those two guys are. And just struggled down the stretch of finishing the game. But we did come up with some rebounds, some huge ones and we did come up with a few loose balls at the end, finally, when the game was kinda on the line. And man, we'll take them.
I mean, that's three wins on the road in the Big 12, and no easy way to do it but that was about as ugly as a game I've been a part of.
CL: Have you ever seen a game, though, where neither team really scores a field goal in the last five or six minutes? And you're just kind of, I mean, basically each team could say the same thing. Like, we're still in this thing, we better take advantage of it. Nobody really could, but you had the two-point lead.
GM: Yeah, no, I mean, that was a big part of it. And we did miss some free throws, too. Just like the game just felt like, I just walked up and down the bench with about 14 minutes to go in the second half. I said, we're gonna have to win this the hard way. I don't even know what that is gonna be but I just felt like this was one of those games where whatever it was gonna be, it was gonna be difficult, it wasn't gonna be easy. And I am thrilled that we figured out a way to do it.
But I told the team in the locker room, there is a component to this where the teams that give everything they have to each other and sell out to trying to figure out how to make the team the priority and the best is the team that's gonna end up winning.
CL: Because you could argue, we say ugly, and it wasn't as easy on the eyes. But this is one that you should feel great about because you gritted one out on the road in a kind of a weird atmosphere and got a desperate Kansas State.
GM: Yeah, no, there's no question about it. We did not in any way separate ourselves and cause them, we didn't make them lose. We kind of survived the game and got to a few possessions where we finished the game off.
And I will say I'm really thrilled with what D5 was able to do. Just with the ankle and twisted it and kind of figured out a way to grid it out. And then just kind of put the ball in his hands.
He wasn't very stable in there, but it felt like the best opportunity for us in a night where we didn't have our best and he did kind of will it. And then we did come up with a few rebounds at the end, which we'll look back at. But we've got to improve dramatically if we want to be relevant in this league. This can't be what we do.
CL: Hey man, congrats. You just keep winning them on the road and we'll keep talking about how ugly they are.
GM: We will do that. Wreck Em.
