North Texas Basketball: Grant McCasland’s Mean Green defensive machine
By Shea Irish
How Coach McCasland built the Mean Green to contender status
McCasland, just 45 years old, is a former Baylor assistant of five seasons under Scott Drew. After leaving Waco, he became the head coach at Arkansas State for the 2016-17 season, before relocating to Denton, TX the following year. Since taking over the reins of North Texas, he has brought championship banners to the Super Pit in four of his five seasons.
In just his first season, North Texas won the 2018 College Basketball Invitational championship. Then in 2018-19, they followed it up with a 16-1 start, the best in school history.
If it wasn’t for the pandemic, the Mean Green could have been dancing in the 2020 NCAA Tournament. With a 14-4 conference record, they were set to head into the C-USA tournament as the 1 seed before the entire country shut down and March Madness was canceled.
Having to wait another year, the 2020-21 team would make sure the opportunity of playing in the big dance would finally be achieved, doing so for just the 4th time in school history and first time since the 2009-10 season. During the 2021 NCAA Tournament, McCasland’s team officially put North Texas on the map by shocking Purdue in a 13-4 upset, the program’s first NCAA Tournament win in school history.
You can credit the resiliency McCasland has instilled in his program as one of the reasons they have become so successful. North Texas is an incredible 8-2 in games decided in OT during his time, including that historic upset of 4th seeded Purdue in the 2021 Round of 64.
Over the last half-decade, the Mean Green has accumulated 104 wins, a CBI championship, two C-USA regular-season championships, one C-USA tournament title, and an NCAA Tournament appearance. A terrific stretch by every sense of the imagination, this rising mid-major program isn’t satisfied just yet. They will look to bring home a 4th straight championship in 2022-23.