Big 12 Basketball: Ranking all 16 head coaches for 2024-25 season

8. Grant McCasland (Texas Tech)

McCasland was a point guard at Baylor in the late 90’s before becoming a successful head coach, winning a junior college title at Midland College. He returned to Baylor on Scott Drew’s staff before beginning his D1 head coaching career with a year at Arkansas State and a long stretch at North Texas, winning an NIT title, a CBI title, and an NCAA Tournament upset.

Profound success across those six years led Texas Tech to hand McCasland their head coaching gig last offseason and year one went pretty well. The Red Raiders were coming off a rough season but shined, with McCasland leading them to 3rd place in the Big 12 and a return to the Big Dance. He’s just getting started with the Red Raiders but does have plenty of experience in this league at least.

7. Jerome Tang (Kansas State)

Very few people knew about Tang when he was a high school coach in Texas, but he rose to prominence during his time on the coaching staff at Baylor. He joined Scott Drew’s first staff back in 2003 and helped lead the best rebuilding job in college basketball. Tang helped Baylor build into a successful Big 12 program, punctuated by their national championship in 2021. Tang would spend 19 years on Baylor’s staff before beginning his own collegiate head coaching career in 2022.

Now two years into that run at Kansas State, Tang won national coaching awards for his debut with the Wildcats. He greatly exceeded expectations, finishing 3rd place in a tough Big 12 while leading the Wildcats to the Elite Eight. Kansas State missed out on the Big Dance this season but it’s clear that Tang has been a tremendous addition in Manhattan. With more than two decades of Big 12 experience, Tang has seen plenty of the history in this league and continues to add to it.