About 10 weeks after what Grant McCasland called “one of the most difficult losses probably all of us have experienced,” the Texas Tech basketball head coach is ready to move forward.
Losing to eventual national champion Florida in the Elite Eight, letting a double-digit lead slip away in the final minutes, has stuck with McCasland. On Friday, June 13, he said he learned a lot about what the Red Raiders need to do to take those next steps to reach the Final Four and win the national championship.
Last year’s Texas Tech team was close, but the Gators showed the Red Raiders’ weaknesses. Florida’s backcourt was bigger and physically stronger than Texas Tech’s. Its interior height made things difficult near the basket. Clutch shot making, even with solid defense, helped the Gators erase that deficit — and do so time and again throughout the NCAA Tournament.
The 84-79 loss is one McCasland used to identify what the 2025-26 version of the Red Raiders would look like.
“What I really love about our team is I do think we have more depth defensively to pressure up and to get after people with size and athleticism,” McCasland said. “… We’ll miss a lot of the athleticism that we had of our guards, but I just think we’ve gotten bigger and the depth of physicality that you need in our league to make that endurance race is always going to be kind of the key to how you finish strong.”
The returns of JT Toppin, the reigning Big 12 player of the year, and Christian Anderson were the starting point. The new additions all share similar traits to the players they’re replacing. McCasland said the focus was on playmaking and the ability to shoot the 3.
Guards Donovan Atwell (UNC Greensboro) and Tyeree Bryan (Santa Clara) are both 6-foot-5 with career 3-point shooting percentages around 40%. LeJuan Watts (Washington State) is considered the replacement for Darrion Williams, sharing a similar 6-foot-6 build and producing identical numbers to Williams, who has transferred to NC State.
VCU transfer Luke Bamgboye (6-foot-10) is a younger shot blocker to fill in for the departed Federiko Federiko (Texas A&M). McCasland is also high on Villanova transfer Josiah Moseley, the 6-foot-6 forward who didn’t get much run with the Wildcats as a freshman.
“I do think the versatility of keeping the ball moving and attacking people in different spots,” McCasland said, “is really important, and we’ve improved that with this team.”
Players have been on campus together about a week, playing pickup games with each other. They’ll go through individual skill work while McCasland is with Team USA’s U19 team for the 2025 FIBA World Cup. While the coach hasn’t spent too much time instructing his new group yet, the players have started to identify their roles without being told what they are.
“I do think that’s intentional,” McCasland said, “not necessarily specific to the guys that were before them, but how this group fits together and we built it was really based off of what we feel like guys are capable of doing this first year and how they can grow into that.”
Chemistry has started to form. After a recent pickup game, McCasland walked over to the players, who were seated together in a corner, chatting away. No phones, everybody engaged with one another.
“It’s just not always normal for them to be together for a week and that’s what they’re doing,” McCasland said. “I do think it’s a unique group because of who they are as people, and that’s really been the focus of what we do and try to put a team together.”
How Grant McCasland wants to round up Texas Tech basketball’s 2025-26 roster, coaching staff
As things stand, the Red Raiders have 12 players on the roster for the 2025-26 season. Texas Tech could add another true ball handler alongside Anderson — who spent much of his freshman year playing the off-guard spot — and Watts, the point-forward who can initiate offense as well.
McCasland said the Red Raiders will “for sure” add another player, and possibly two over the next few weeks. The name to watch is 6-foot-6 Australian guard Ben Henshall, who withdrew from the 2025 NBA Draft on June 14. The Red Raiders have been recruiting Henshall for months and had to wait out his draft decision.
As for the other possible addition, that depends on who is available. McCasland isn’t going to add another player just because he can.
“With these last few spots, because I do love our team, I’m gonna be crazy selective,” McCasland said. “We’re not going to roll the dice on anybody. This is going to be like, this fits for this reason, and if not, we’re not going to do it because I love our team too much to disrupt what we have.”
Texas Tech also lost a pair of assistants this offseason. Matt Braeuer became the head coach at Stephen F. Austin, while Luke Barnwell left to take a role on Ben McCollum’s staff at Iowa.
McCasland said he has “several guys in mind” for who he wants to occupy those vacancies and expects a resolution “sooner rather than later.”
“Because we have two positions that I want to fill,” McCasland said, “I think it’s more about how they complement each other more than do we just get one guy. I think putting it together is really important.”
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Is Texas Tech basketball’s roster for 2025-26 complete? Not quite, Grant McCasland says
Reporting by Nathan Giese, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal / Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
