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Foundation for Texas Tech basketball set despite early March Madness departure
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- Foundation for Texas Tech basketball set despite early March Madness departure
PITTSBURGH — Expectations can be the enemy of progress.
Time and time again this season, the Texas Tech basketball team found ways to conjure up improbable comebacks. The Red Raiders overcame double-digit deficits to earn big victories that were part of a dramatic turnaround in Grant McCasland's first year leading the program.
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When the Red Raiders faced another one of those deficits Thursday night in PPG Paints Arena in the first round of the NCAA Tournament against NC State, many Texas Tech fans, who can sometimes be a bit fickle with their teams, might have expected the team to pull another rabbit out of the hat.
No magic was found in the Steel City. Cold offense and a sublime performance from the Wolfpack brought Texas Tech's season to an end.
"One thing about this team," McCasland said after the 80-67 loss, "we got down a lot. I mean, we got down in this game, but I thought the last two and a half minutes of this game, three minutes, just showed kind of the collective fight and grit of these guys, and it was the way we did it all year long."
Before the season began, not much was expected of these Red Raiders (23-11), a collection of new faces blended together with holdovers from the previous regime. They were picked eighth in the preseason Big 12 coaches poll, some seeing that as being a bit high for the new 14-team mega conference.
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Pulling the program out of the gutter was going to require some finesse. McCasland spoke of competing for a national championship sooner rather than later in his introductory press conference a year ago, setting his sights on Texas Tech returning to the NCAA Tournament.
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Can't compete for the title if you're not in the field to begin with. Experiencing March Madness, and everything it encompasses, was the first step in McCasland's grand plan.
Doing that required becoming a more veteran team. That included bringing in New York and California natives Joe Toussaint and Warren Washington to man the point and paint, the bread of Tech's lineup sandwich. In between were versatile scorers such as Pop Isaacs, Darrion Williams, Chance McMillian and Kerwin Walton.
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For a time, it also included Devan Cambridge, the athletic wing/post hybrid who spent the first month of the season anchoring Tech's most lethal lineups operating as the 5 man on the court. His season-ending knee injury in December forced McCasland and his staff to change the complexion of the team in short order. They had to do so again with Washington missing eight of the last 10 games with a foot injury.
Warren Washington of Texas Tech reacts during the first half of a game against North Carolina State in the first round of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at PPG PAINTS Arena on Thursday, March 21, 2024 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Washington's return to the court was well received. Beloved on and off the court, his booming baritone voice a soothing presence for the Red Raiders. Washington looked solid in his return, though clearly rusty and not up to the same level of effectiveness that, when healthy, had Texas Tech as one of the most lethal offenses in the country.
"I'd like to say thank you to the medical staff," Washington said. "They gave me the opportunity to be available in this game. And I mean, I could use that as an excuse, but it's no excuse. They were the tougher team."
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As the season went along, the Red Raiders seemed to get stronger, able to adjust on the fly and crawl out of any hole with enough time. Much like Andy Dufresne in "Shawshank Redemption," the movie McCasland showed the team to drive home the message that the journey is long, the ending often unknowable until the final destination is reached.
Thursday night was not that final destination. Not as a whole. It was for this season, and it came earlier than many would have liked. That's the price of overachieving what many even thought possible.
"I mean, we brought a team that was dead last in the Big 12 last year to the tournament," Toussaint said. "The coaching staff gave us a chance to go to the Sweet 16 if we would have won this game. So I feel like people can take it how they want, but we know in the locker room what we did. We know we're always together, we always will care about each other, no matter what.
"So, honestly, it doesn't really matter to me what people think about us in this group. We know what we did and we know what we accomplished this year."
Joe Toussaint of Texas Tech reacts during the first half of a game against North Carolina State in the first round of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at PPG PAINTS Arena on Thursday, March 21, 2024 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
At the very least, this year's Red Raiders made an NCAA Tournament appearance when that seemed like a stretch at a program where such occurrences were incredibly rare before a decade ago. At most, it's now the measuring stick of where McCasland wants to take the program from here.
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Even with a full year under his belt, McCasland's day one speech hasn't changed.
"I just believe honestly we'll compete for a national championship," McCasland said Thursday, "and I believe it'll be soon. ... I can't be more excited about where we're going and what we're going to do, and I do believe that the best days are ahead of us and I'm thankful for Joe and Warren and their investment in trusting us because they set the foundation to move this forward."
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Washington and Toussaint are the only guarantees not to return to Texas Tech next season. Feasibly, everybody else on the roster could be back in a Red Raider uniform, and they got a message of encouragement from the departing big man.
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"I told the guys in the locker room to remember this feeling," Washington said, "I know they're going to come back even stronger next year. I'm proud of all my brothers and what we accomplished this year, but this isn't the end for any of us.
"At the end of the day, we just gotta keep pulling for each other, and I love these guys, man. It's been a ride. It's been a roller coaster."
Texas Tech's head basketball coach Grant McCasland looks on during the first half of a game against the NC State in the first round of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, Thursday, March 21, 2024, at PPG PAINTS Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech basketball sets foundation with NCAA Tournament appearance
