Athletic Director Jared Mosley delivered good on his word when he said a new men’s basketball coach would be in place before April 1. Mosley introduced Grant McCasland as the program’s new head coach on Wednesday.
“We are very excited to have him on board,” Mosley said. “He matched everything we were looking for in our next head coach.”
Coach McCasland just finished a 25-9 2010-2011 campaign in which he took his former team, the Midwestern State Mustangs, to the NCAA Division II Elite Eight for the second year in a row.
McCasland will take over a fledgling ACU basketball program that has amassed just one winning season since the late 90’s.
The Wildcats finished a dismal 9-17 on the season and managed just one win in the Lone Star Conference, the third time in five years the team has failed to win multiple LSC games.
“It’s all happened so fast so I haven’t had a lot of time to get into the particulars of our program,” McCasland said. “But I know what I want to see and when I go in there and get a feel for our guys.”
During his time at Midwestern McCasland went 56-12 in just two seasons as the head of the Mustangs’ program. Prior to his tenure at MSU he spent five years as the head coach of the Midland College Chaparrals. In those five years McCasland lead his teams to the Elite Eight three times, one of which ended with an NJCAA National Championship.
“We looked at his track record as a head coach,” Mosley said. “It’s certainly undeniable that coach McCasland brings that to the table.”
In an athletic program where the players are more important than the wins, McCasland knows the first priority is getting to know his players off the court.
“My main goal is to get to know the players personally,” McCasland said. “I know what they are basketball wise from the times we have played against them.”
With the recruiting process already well underway and national signing day just around the corner on April 13, McCasland knows that he has to get moving to find the players he needs to make ACU a contender.
“We’ll go out and find the right fit for ACU and we will build a team that is going to compete for championships next year,” McCasland said.
