Texas Tech head coach Grant McCasland talks about the Red Raiders' 78-85 loss at TCU.
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00:00 [BLANK_AUDIO]
00:02 >> All right guys, we'll have Coach Haslam,
00:04 not start with an opening statement, then questions for Coach.
00:07 So, Coach, you wanna start?
00:09 >> Yeah, man, TCU really put us in a lot of tough situations with their
00:13 athleticism, their shot making tonight, their offensive rebounding,
00:19 their physicality, their ability to get to the free throw line.
00:22 I just felt like they beat us in all the tough areas.
00:25 What this league's about is imposing your will on teams.
00:31 And I thought TCU imposed their will on us,
00:33 just did a tremendous job of kind of staying in attack mode.
00:36 And then when they needed to make open shots, they made open shots.
00:39 So, very impressive effort on their end.
00:43 And I've gotta do a better job as a coach to put us in the right positions,
00:48 cuz I do think we've got good offensive players.
00:49 But we got beat severely on the glass, and
00:52 their ability to get to the free throw line was the difference.
00:55 >> Coach, Pop obviously at 25, so he had a good night.
00:58 But did you see or notice any impact when they switched Mike and
01:01 PP onto him in terms of maybe making life a little bit more difficult for him?
01:04 >> Yeah, no, Mike is a tremendous player.
01:06 His physicality, I thought Pop's decision making with him,
01:10 pressuring him, and putting two on him, and
01:11 his ability to distribute the ball really was big for us.
01:16 We just had too many turnovers at bad times.
01:19 I mean, right when we'd kinda get it close, we'd have a turnover as a team.
01:22 And in a game like this, where you're having a hard time getting stops and
01:27 keeping them from getting offensive rebounds,
01:30 you really gotta counter with some big punches.
01:32 And I felt like those opportunities we had, we didn't take advantage of.
01:37 >> What do you attribute to Joe's turnovers tonight?
01:39 Was it a kind of a team thing, a function of the system?
01:42 Was he kinda putting himself in bad spots?
01:44 >> Well, I think Joe's trying to find that balance.
01:47 And tonight we were moving the basketball a little differently because of their side
01:51 defense and what they did.
01:53 And in this league, you got so much length and athleticism over the ball.
01:56 You gotta find the aggressiveness to still think score.
02:03 And I think Joe's trying to find a way to distribute a little bit more, and
02:06 that's taking him out of his aggressiveness to score, which second guess is in.
02:10 I think it's just a process in this league that he's going through.
02:14 I have no doubt he'll figure it out.
02:15 He's super tough, cares about our team tremendously, and really wants to win.
02:19 I thought he made some phenomenal decisions too.
02:22 Just unfortunately, that's why I'm saying I gotta do a better job as a coach,
02:26 cuz we did change some things going into this game.
02:28 And when you're in one or
02:30 two day preps playing on the road against an experienced team,
02:34 you gotta need all the pieces to go well.
02:38 Can't just have one guy know what he's doing or three guys know what they're
02:41 doing, all five guys need to know what they're doing.
02:43 And there were a few times, wasn't his fault,
02:45 was kinda like two of the pieces didn't know what, and that's on me.
02:48 I gotta do a better job of helping Joe in those spots make the right decisions.
02:54 >> You're talking about you doing a better job and the process and all that.
02:57 Can you just speak to this being your first year that, I mean,
03:00 things have gone pretty well to this point, but this seems to be a process for
03:03 you figuring out how to be a head coach at this level in this conference.
03:07 And it seems like it's a tough game every single week, right?
03:09 >> Yeah, I mean, no doubt, this league is tremendous.
03:12 And when you play against teams, you try to play some numbers, right?
03:18 You try to make sure that you got the right guys shooting for their team, and
03:21 you try to get the right guys shooting for our team.
03:23 And I thought that was, we did what we wanted to do.
03:26 And so in this league, you're always learning.
03:28 But fortunately, I got a chance to play in it.
03:31 I got a chance to be an assistant in it.
03:32 So familiar with what we needed to do.
03:35 And there is some growing in this of how do we do this as a staff and
03:40 how do we do this?
03:41 And I thought our late game stuff had some really good moments and
03:44 really bad moments.
03:45 So we're gonna be in more of those.
03:47 And that's where I've got to continue to grow and get better.
03:50 >> Coach, your team had an 11 point lead about halfway through the first half.
03:54 What shifted from that point on?
03:57 >> Yeah, they went small and we got in foul trouble.
04:00 And Warren Washington is such a big part of what we do.
04:03 And then when we had two guys in foul trouble, Darian Williams,
04:07 Warren Washington, and Kerwin, we're not built quite there at that depth for
04:13 us to withstand that in an experienced team on the road.
04:16 And that's where I've got to do a better job of helping us get those guys prepared
04:20 so that we don't have that big run happens on us if we have to go deeper in our bench.
04:25 And their switchability when they went to that small lineup, and
04:29 that's a heck of a lineup.
04:30 And they've got guys that can play and have experience in this league.
04:34 And you can tell we got rattled in that stretch.
04:38 And that's something that we'll get better because of.
04:41 >> Track mean tennis and number 11 for them had 23 points.
04:44 I guess what did you see from him tonight?
04:46 >> Yeah, you know what, he's obviously known as a shooter, but
04:50 I thought he was making plays off the bounce in a way that created opportunities.
04:53 I mean, just to start the game, he shot like a floater going left on the baseline.
04:58 That was a difficult shot.
05:00 And then he was driving down the lane and making good decisions.
05:03 I thought he kept it simple.
05:04 Their team does such a good job, and
05:06 Jamie does such a good job of limiting those spots where they put them in bad places.
05:11 And I thought not only did he make great decisions, but
05:13 he scored a couple tough layups down the lane line.
05:15 I mean, he was effective in a lot of areas, not just shooting the ball.
05:20 >> Does a game like this kind of show you how thin the margins are in a conference
05:23 like this?
05:24 Because you hit one more of those threes, that pot three doesn't hit the shot clock.
05:28 If you get that lob, it could be kind of a different game sort of thing.
05:32 >> I don't need this game to know the margins are thin in this league.
05:35 I can tell you what it is.
05:37 Told these guys what it is.
05:38 But the expectation is what it is, too.
05:40 I mean, we play this game to win this league.
05:42 We don't play this schedule to see how it works out.
05:46 So the expectation's the same every night.
05:50 Unfortunately, I didn't do a good enough job to help our team in this situation to
05:53 win this one.
05:54 But they had a lot to do with it.
05:56 I mean, it's a good team, man.
05:57 It's an experienced team with a great coach, with a great plan.
06:01 And they were scoring at a rate tonight that I thought had us on our heels.
06:05 And we just didn't do a good enough job rebounding and being physical.
06:10 >> All right, thank you guys.
06:12 >> Thank you.
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