Texas Tech's Grant McCasland reveals key difference in bonkers win vs. Arizona State

02/13/2025 01:32 AM

In one of the best college basketball games of the year, No. 12-ranked Texas Tech basketball survived a spirited upset bid from Arizona State with a wild 111-106 win in double overtime. Thanks to some big time plays down the stretch, most notably by star big man JT Toppin, the Red Raiders kept pace in the Big 12 race as they pursue a conference championship in the regular season.

After the game, where Texas Tech looked down and out on multiple occasions, head coach Grant McCasland spoke on the biggest difference in the game, via KTXT Sports.

Texas Tech's Head Coach Grant McCasland opening statement after tonight's double OT game: pic.twitter.com/sP9QZVVZxu

— KTXT Sports (@KTXT_Sports) February 13, 2025

“What a great college basketball game,” McCasland said. “The atmosphere I always think is the difference in these wins. Just the energy in this building to get stops when you’re playing against an Arizona State team and Coach [Bobby] Hurley, man is that guy good at getting his team to scrap and fight and believe when they’ve had a hard season.”

Texas Tech has been one of the hottest teams in the country over the last couple of weeks, despite a road loss to Arizona on Saturday stemming some of that momentum. Before that one, McCasland’s group had won seven games in a row, including wins over Houston and that same Arizona team. The Red Raiders have proven that they can compete with the best of the best, and now they have some more momentum to build off of moving forward.

Toppin was the unquestioned hero of the game on Wednesday, as he finished with not only the best game of his career but one of the best games in the history of the Big 12. With his 41-point, 15-rebound explosion, Toppin joined Blake Griffin, Michael Beasley and Melvin Ejim as the only Big 12 players to record 40 points and 15 rebounds in a game, per Jared Berson.

This Texas Tech basketball team was able to get the win in this one despite not getting a ton of production on offense from star wing Chance McMillan. Toppin and Darrion Williams carried the day on offense for Texas Tech, which should give it plenty of confidence on offense as not heads into a lighter stretch of the schedule in the Big 12.

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