Texas Tech torched Kansas State 100-72 without JT Toppin, and Grant McCasland says the answer isn’t a replacement, it’s a freer, faster offense.
The first instinct after a star goes down is panic-shopping for a replacement. Texas Tech isn’t doing that. Grant McCasland is doing something far more uncomfortable for opponents: he’s letting the rest of the roster breathe.
Yes, the Red Raiders are learning life without JT Toppin. But if you watched the 100-72 demolition of Kansas State, it didn’t look like a team grieving. It looked like a team unchained.
McCasland’s point is simple: stop obsessing over what Tech isn’t and start leaning into what it can be. And the dirty little secret is this ... as special as Toppin is, there’s a cost when one player becomes the gravitational center of every half-court possession.
When Tech dumped it to Toppin, the game paused. Defenders loaded up. Teammates watched. Everybody waited to see what crease he’d carve out.
With that pause removed, the offense sped up and spread out.
Drive-and-kicks popped. Touches multiplied. Confidence followed. Five Red Raiders hit double figures against K-State - the sixth time that’s happened this season and the first time since the Big 12 opener vs. Oklahoma State.
McCasland called it exactly what it looked like.
“Those things, I think are what are team is leaning into … and seeing how valuable everybody is and seeing how much we need each other in order to be successful. And tonight that was on full display,” McCasland said via the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.
And here’s where it gets spicy ... the “replacement” might not be a scorer at all. It might be a bruiser.
Josiah Moseley has been a slow-burning story. He didn’t play his first minutes of the season until Jan. 24, and he had only two practices before that.
But against Kansas State, he logged 14 minutes, scored four points, and ripped down five rebounds. McCasland didn’t hide what he saw.
“I thought his offensive rebounds were timely and big… He can really help us in that way because he’s a physical, bouncy, active player. And when he’s right, he’s got special talent.”
Christian Anderson backed it up from the floor.
“I think he gave us a lot of chances on the the rebounding… even if he didn’t get it, I just think he affects the ball on a couple plays… his ability to attack and put pressure on the rim and be so physical, I think he helps us a lot, especially cutting to the basket.”
Now McCasland is tinkering with Luke Bamgboye in the dunker spot, LeJuan Watts starting, Marial Akuentok rotating, and a Moseley-Bamgboye pairing that adds defensive flexibility and keeps the ball moving (including a Bamgboye-to-Moseley alley-oop that screamed “new era”).
But the biggest shift isn’t a lineup card. It’s an attitude.
McCasland admitted he’s living in the what-if world.
“I’m one of those guys that likes to think through every scenario… I got to be honest, mine has more to do with the fight and the look in your eye when I look at you.”
Then came the thesis for the post-Toppin stretch.
“We’re going a little bit off of fight and will to win… today was more about let’s keep energy high… where in the past we’ve kind of played, who do we feel more on offense than the energy defensively? That was a shift in this approach.”
Texas Tech isn’t trying to replace JT Toppin. It’s trying to become harder to guard. And that might be worse news for the Big 12.