When Dave Smart left the Texas Tech basketball team to become the new head coach at Pacific University, there was a glaring hole on Grant McCasland's staff.
Ultimately, with one assistant coach to replace, McCasland had to find a current head coach to fill the vacancy.
Jeff Linder, who has led the Wyoming men's basketball program for the past four years, officially joined McCasland's staff on May 14 under fairly unusual circumstances.
ESPN's Pete Thamel reported that Linder was scheduled to arrive in Lubbock on May 9. He also reported on May 12, two days before Wyoming Tech announced Linder's signing, that Wyoming already had a replacement in Sundance Wicks.
During those five days, it became clear that things weren't great between Lindor and the Cowboys, and McCasland shed some light on the situation during his first appearance of the offseason earlier this week.
“I think what happened in his scenario was completely specific to (the name, image and likeness),” McCasland said. “How do you make a team and does each university have a chance to make a team? At the end of the day, he's in a transitional period where he's trying to figure out how to navigate this new environment and I think we were able to convince him to come to Tech and help him win a national championship.”
McCasland and Linder, who attended Midland College together and led the team to the junior college national quarterfinals, first met when McCasland was a house director at Northeastern Junior College in Colorado and Linder was working at Division II Emporia State University, where Linder was looking to recruit some of Northeastern's players.
The two coaches are the same age — Linder turns 47 next month — and have children the same age. They've known each other for decades, and the opportunity to reunite in Lubbock came up.
“In college basketball these days, it's all about teamwork,” McCasland said. “Not only do the players have to love the game of basketball, they have to be able to trust each other. He's someone I can trust with everything.”
But there are some aftereffects to how Linder ended up in Lubbock.
Wyoming Tribune reporter Alex Taylor reported Tuesday via X (formerly Twitter) that Tech and the University of Wyoming had reached an agreement to finalize Linder's buyout from his former university.
In exchange for Lindor transferring to Texas Tech, Wyoming will play non-conference games in Lubbock during the 2024-25 and 2025-26 seasons and Texas Tech will pay him $150,000 in guaranteed deposits each (for a total of $300,000), Taylor reported.
Wyoming will receive an additional $200,000 for a football rematch in Lubbock in 2028. Tech, which lost to Wyoming in the 2023 season opener, was set to pay $300,000 for the Cowboys' trip to Lubbock. That amount will now be $500,000.
“After Coach Linder released the money he owed, UW agreed to release the remainder of the damages owed to him,” University of Wyoming AD Tom Berman said in a statement, “and Texas Tech agreed to help fund some athletics. UW felt this was a good compromise.”
“Linder has spoken frequently over the past two seasons about the lack of NIL in Laramie,” Taylor said in a previous social media post.
Now that the dust has settled, Linder has officially committed to the Red Raiders, and McCasland thinks that will be an immediate positive for Tech's on-court chances.
“I think he's really going to be a great asset to us in terms of on-court coaching and game planning,” McCasland said. “… I really think he's a great person first and foremost and will help us basketball-wise, but his character and personhood will be the biggest asset to our program.”
