Grant McCasland - Men's Basketball Coach - University of North Texas Athletics

Grant McCasland

Title:
Head Coach
Email:
Grant.McCasland@unt.edu
Phone:
940-565-3654

In his six seasons (2017-2023) as the North Texas men's basketball head coach, Grant McCasland took the Mean Green to heights it had never seen before.

Coach Mac accumulated a 135-65 all-time record at North Texas. His 135 head coaching victories were the third-most in program history when he left UNT and his .675 UNT career winning percentage was also the third-best in school history when he left. McCasland owned a 71-35 (.669) record in conference games over his six seasons at UNT.

He led the Mean Green to two regular season Conference USA championships (2020 and 2022) and to the 2021 Conference Tournament championship. The 2020 C-USA regular season title was the program's first regular season league title in 31 years.

McCasland was 12-3 at UNT in NCAA national postseason games. Prior to McCasland's arrival to Denton in 2017 the Mean Green had never won a NCAA national postseason game.

With the 2021 C-USA Tournament championship, UNT earned an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament, which was its fourth ever trip to the Big Dance. They received a No. 13 seeding, Its highest seeding ever in a NCAA Tournament. In the first round of the 2021 NCAA Tournament they upset Purdue, 78-69 (OT), for the school's first ever NCAA Tournament victory. The win was also North Texas' first victory over an AP Top 25 team since 1971. The Boilermakers were ranked No. 20 by the AP headed into the tournament.

In 2023 McCasland guided North Texas to the 2023 National Invitation Tournament championship. UNT defeated Alcorn, Sam Houston, Oklahoma State, Wisconsin and UAB in route to the NIT title.

The 2023 NIT championship was North Texas' second NCAA national postseason title under his tenure. In his first season in Denton, McCasland led the Mean Green to the 2018 College Basketball Invitational championship.

Under his leadership North Texas featured 18 all-conference honorees including the 2020 C-USA Player of the Year Javion Hamlet and the 2023 C-USA Player of the Year Tylor Perry. McCasland was named the 2020 C-USA Coach of the Year after guiding the Mean Green to a then program-record 14 league wins.

McCasland twice led North Texas to a program record single season win total. In his last season at North Texas in 2022-23, McCasland led UNT to a program record 31 wins surpassing the previous high of 25 that his team set in 2021-22. In his second to last season at UNT (2021-22), the Mean Green won a program record 15 straight games from January through March. UNT won a program record 16 league games. They won 16 league games again the next season in 2022-23.

Under McCasland, North Texas was one of the best defensive teams in the country. In each of his final two seasons at UNT the Mean Green led the nation in scoring defense. In 2021-22, North Texas gave up just 55.7 points per game, which was a record for a C-USA team. In 2022-23, North Texas gave up just 55.8 points per game, which again led the nation and was the second-best scoring defense in C-USA history only behind UNT the season before.

At the end of the 2022-23 regular season, McCasland's final season, UNT was ranked No. 39 in the NET It's the highest NET/RPI ranking the Mean Green have ever had to end a regular season. UNT was the highest ranked team that didn't earn an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.

McCasland was hired on March 13, 2017 and was UNT's 18th all-time head coach.