McCasland hires two UNT assistants for Texas Tech staff

Achoki Moikobu and Matt Braeuer, assistant coaches for Grant McCasland on the North Texas men's basketball team that won the National Invitation Tournament, will join McCasland on the new staff at Texas Tech.

Tech announced the hires Friday.

UNT's 31-7 record this season was a program best. The Mean Green led NCAA Division I in scoring defense, holding opponents to 55.8 points per game, and were sixth in field-goal percentage defense, holding teams to 39.1 percent shooting. Braeuer was on the UNT staff for five seasons, Moikobu just the past one.

"Both of them have been instrumental in our success," McCasland said in the announcement. "We've always recruited, coached and tried to love our teams together as a staff. Their hearts are invested in our program to help our players have success on the court and as men. I'm excited to have Coach B and AC join me here and know that they are going to help us achieve great things."

Braeuer was a Class 5A all-state player at Belton and played at Wichita State from 2004-08, starting for three seasons as a 5-foot-11 point guard. He worked as a graduate assistant at Wichita State (2008-10), assistant coach at Midland College (2010-11), video coordinator at Maryland (2011-13), assistant coach at Sam Houston State (2013-16), director of operations at College of Charleston (2016-18) and assistant coach at North Texas (2018-23).

During Braeuer's time at UNT, the Mean Green went 115-47, won Conference USA in 2020 and 2021 and beat Purdue in the 2021 NCAA Tournament.

"He is a relentless recruiter with a brilliant basketball mind," McCasland said. "He had success as a player and had coached at the highest levels. He also has a great feel for what winning looks like."

Moikobu graduated from Renton (Wash.) High School in 2010, then played at Yuba (Calif.) College and Fort Hays State, graduating from the latter in 2015. He was a 6-1 guard.

Moikobu spent six seasons as a postgraduate head coach at Sunrise Christian Academy in Bel Air, Kansas, where he coached 28 future Division I players. Then he was director of recruiting at Grand Canyon (2020-21), which made the NCAA Tournament that year, and an assistant at Drake (2021-22), which went 25-11.

"Coach AC has great experience as a head coach in prep school and a great assistant coach for us," McCasland said. "He does a great job of developing and building relationships. He is as authentic as it gets. I think he has a tremendous overall perspective of the game and is really special in individual workouts because he understands how to get the best out of players on a daily basis."

Basketball

Texas Tech center Fardaws Aimaq and point guard De'Vion Harmon are leaving the program. Harmon announced Friday he is declaring for the NBA draft and "immersing myself in the pursuit of a pro basketball career."

Harmon was Tech's second-leading scorer this season, averaging 13.6 points per game, and he averaged a team-leading 3.6 assists.

Aimaq has committed to California, which finished 3-29 this season with a 2-18 record in the Pac-12 Conference.

Cal would be the fourth college program for Aimaq, who spent one year at Mercer, two at Utah Valley and this season at Texas Tech. He averaged 11.1 points and 7.9 rebounds for the Red Raiders, but didn't debut until Jan. 14 because of a foot injury and played in only 11 games.

Aimaq played for new Cal coach Mark Madsen at Utah Valley. Cal hired Madsen last week.

Softball

NORMAN, Okla. — Alex Storako pitched a three-hit shutout and top-ranked Oklahoma beat Texas Tech 3-0 in a Big 12 series opener Thursday night for its 26th victory in a row.

Storako (12-0) struck out four, walked one and lowered her earned-run average to 0.67.

The only hits she allowed were a leadoff single by Arriana Villa in the second inning, a two-out single by Kennedy Crites in the fifth and a leadoff double by Abbie Orrick in the sixth. Ellie Bailey drew a two-out walk in the sixth, but Storako got Peyton Blythe on a groundout to strand two.

Haley Lee homered off Maddie Kuehl (1-1) in the first, and Alyssa Brito hit a two-run double off Kendall Fritz in the fourth.

Oklahoma (34-1, 7-0) and Tech (28-13, 2-5) were scheduled for to play again Friday night and complete the series at 1 p.m. Saturday.

Tech men's tennis

Eliot Spizzirri and Evin McDonald won in both doubles and singles, leading top-ranked Texas to a 5-2 victory against Texas Tech in a Big 12 match Thursday at the McLeod Tennis Center.

Texas (19-2, 3-0) won the best-of-three doubles point with wins from the teams of Spizzirri-Cleeve Harper and McDonald-Chih Chi Huang. Then UT's Spizzirri, Pierre-Yves Bailly, Siem Woldeab and McDonald won singles positions 1, 2, 3 and 6.

Reed Collier pulled Tech (12-8, 0-2) within 3-1 by beating Harper in straight sets, and Red Raiders freshman Lorenzo Esquici won the last match completed.

Tech hosts No. 2 TCU (19-1, 3-0) at 1 p.m. Saturday.

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Tech sports roundup: McCasland hires two UNT assistants for Texas Tech staff