North Texas Basketball: Grant McCasland’s Mean Green defensive machine
By Shea Irish
Deciding to commit to North Texas Basketball and play for Coach Grant McCasland’s program is not for the faint-hearted. You won’t be playing in an offensive-oriented, track-level paced, exciting run and gun system like you did for your AAU team. You probably won’t be playing the most aesthetically pleasing basketball and you certainly won’t be seeing your name anywhere on the list of individual scoring records.
Instead, McCasland’s program predicates itself on toughness, discipline, and the desire to play intense defense for a full 40 minutes. As followers of Conference USA have learned, this unique philosophy has turned the Mean Green into an annual championship contender.
In McCasland’s five years at the helm of Mean Green basketball, the 2020 C-USA Coach of the Year has developed a championship-level program in Denton by priding his team’s culture on its defensive identity. In the 2021-22 season, the Mean Green held opponents to just 55.7 PPG, which was the lowest allowed in the entire country.
In 32 games last year, North Texas gave up 70+ points on just three occasions; one of them to the eventual National Champion Kansas Jayhawks, who barely passed that elusive mark in a 71-59 neutral site contest. Even more impressive; over a course of the last 68 games they have played dating back to February 1st 2020, they’ve only allowed 80 points in a game one time.
So how did a team that averaged just 65.1 PPG (317th out of 358 division 1 schools) this past year win 25 games and run through C-USA to a 16-2 record and a regular-season championship? Simple, they made it a priority to bring an unmatched intensity on the defensive end, paired with a resilient attitude and togetherness stemming down from their passionate coach.
By grinding out the shot clock each trip down the floor on offense, paired with the tenacious style of defense North Texas plays, it makes it nearly impossible for the opposing team to develop any sort of rhythm on the offensive end of the floor.
According to KenPom, North Texas averaged just 59.3 possessions per 40 minutes last year; the slowest tempo in all of NCAA basketball. That’s right, even slower than Tony Bennett’s Virginia squad.
If that isn’t frustrating enough for the opposition, they also take away the 3-ball better than any other team in the nation. Giving up an NCAA low of just 4.2 made 3-PT per game on 14.7 attempts, they held their opponents to a dismal 28.5 3-PT% for the year.
It takes a special group to buy into McCasland’s distinctive style of play. With the ability to recruit players that are overlooked by other programs, and then get them to buy in to his culture; the Mean Green head coach has established a championship contender that no team in C-USA is delighted to see on the schedule.