Blue Raider Stats

Congratulations to Kennesaw on a fine season

Buckle up Zags. A CUSA champion is going to pack a punch

Come on Owls. Show the CUSA grit

I will have no problem continuing to hate them

@BlueRaiderStats @TheHilton_MT My son was born at halftime. They came to take my wife back for the c-section at the exact moment Izzo called the timeout. A nurse gave me updates throughout. We wheeled my wife back to the room and I walked back in just in time to see Reggie’s dunk. Pretty good day.

@kbgardner1 @TheHilton_MT Weren’t many “lean” years in his tenure. Only 1 losing record in 16 seasons, and even in that year the team rallied to get to the Sun Belt semis. Regardless what his teams faced, he never allowed a season to go off the rails

@BlueRaiderStats @TheHilton_MT I can remember in one of the lean Kermit years he kicked the team out of their locker room. I also remember it was good motivation to get back in the locker room. 😀

Incoming LONG post, but this is my tribute to the 2016 Blue Raiders: I've now spent more than 25 years of my life metaphorically living and dying with every dribble, pass, shot, and rebound by Blue Raider basketball teams. These teams are all in history books with varying degrees of success, but each one with its own story that played out across successive cold winters of the 21stcentury. Those stories, whether joyful or painful to now recall, each captivated my attention in the moment. But some of those emotional connections will carry on forever, such as with the iconic 2016 Blue Raiders. As MT Basketball celebrates the 10-year anniversary of the team that won the CUSA Tournament and stunned the nation with a surgical defeat of heavily favored Michigan State in the NCAA Tournament, my mind floods with memories. But to fully appreciate how a long-time fan views that team, one must understand the program's grinding climb in the years preceding the final breakthrough. I became a fan in the closing years of the Randy Wiel era. Wiel was a fine man, but the basketball program sputtered under his leadership. The 2000-01 campaign was the program's inaugural year in the Sun Belt Conference, and the team lifelessly limped to just five wins. Wiel coached the final year of his contract the following season, in which the Blue Raiders were an improved team but not a special one. Then, the hire of Kermit Davis injected immediate energy into the program that desperately needed to be reminded of its potential. MT had not been to the NCAA Tournament since 1989 and Murphy Center had deteriorated into a drab home for a once proud brand. But the ability to bust down the door into the national college basketball conversation was stubbornly elusive for the first decade of the Davis era. MT advanced to the Sun Belt Tournament championship in 2003 and 2008, but each time was turned away by Western Kentucky. There were other frustratingly close calls. In 2004, an injury to shooting guard Mike Dean on the eve of the Sun Belt Tournament left MT shorthanded and yet the Blue Raiders still came within a heartbreaking 70-66 semifinal loss to Louisiana-Lafayette from once again playing for a championship. Murphy Center hosted the Sun Belt Tournament in 2006 and MT looked poised to contend for the title on its home floor, but an Adam Vogelsberg migraine headache and a terribly unfortunate bounce of the ball on the game's final play resulted in a game winning layup for Denver's Yemi Nicholson. MT won a share of the Sun Belt regular season championship in 2010, but once again the team could not achieve a Sun Belt Conference tournament title. The 2012 Blue Raiders emerged with a smashingly successful season but had to settle for an NIT bid (and ultimately wins over Marshall and Tennessee) after a Sun Belt Tournament quarterfinal loss to Arkansas State. The 2013 team was even better, reeling off a 28-5 regular season campaign and earning an at large bid to the NCAA Tournament, a stunning achievement for a Sun Belt Conference team. But the Blue Raiders were knocked out in a First Four matchup with St. Mary's, and it felt again like that final rung in the ladder just couldn't be grasped. But then came the 2015-16 season. The team had a special mix of players. Core high school signees like Giddy Potts and Reggie Upshaw teamed with junior college talents Darnell Harris and Perrin Buford and N.C. State transfer Jaqawn Raymond for a terrific blend of skill and toughness. Role players filled the gaps on any given night, as Ed Simpson, Xavier Habersham, Karl Gamble, Aldonis Foote, and Quay Copeland all contributed invaluably to the team. What made the team's ultimate accomplishments so special is that for much of the year, the season had all the calling cards of what seemed to be another really good team that probably would not be able to get over the hump. The Blue Raiders trailed UAB in the league standings all year, but a 3-game homestand in late February against UAB, Western Kentucky, and Marshall offered hope that the team could burst to the top with a late surge. But that homestand started with a whimper, as both the Blazers and the Hilltoppers hung a loss on the Blue Raiders at Murphy Center. What followed, however, is what wrote the legacy of the team: three straight wins to close the regular season, then the memorable three wins in the CUSA Tournament in Birmingham. The fact that Reggie Upshaw sealed the championship win over Old Dominion with two free throws (in a year where his free throw percentage was an absurdly low 49%) added a sense of destiny to the program's ascendancy to the sport's grandest stage. When the bracket came out that Sunday with the Blue Raiders as a 15 seed and the popular national title pick Spartans as a 2 seed, there was in some corners of the fan base a sense of disappointment and looming dread. Each team was very arguably under-seeded by one line, but they were scheduled to clash in the opening round. However, when the game started on Friday afternoon, it was immediately evident that MT had not traveled to St. Louis expecting a purely ceremonial brief stay. Darnell Harris drilled a mid-range jumper, then Giddy Potts nailed a 3-pointer; Perrin Buford scored a driving layup and Reggie Upshaw beat the shot clock on a 3-pointer; MT then burned the Spartans on a baseline out of bounds play for a layup and Harris swished a pick and pop 3-pointer to force Michigan State coach Tom Izzo to call a panicked timeout with a 15-2 deficit. The Spartans made several pushes the rest of the game, but never could draw even with a resilient bunch of Blue Raiders, who through the ups and downs of the 2016 season had forged an unbreakable bond backed by steel spine toughness. When the horn sounded, the program announced with authority what had been building over the course of the prior 14 years: MT Basketball was nationally competitive in college basketball and intended to stay that way. Ten years have passed since that day in St. Louis, but the bond I feel with that team is just as strong today as it was then. They are legends forever.

Mixed emotions 10 years later. Pride, joy, and yet heavy doses of sadness and wistful regret when I think about opportunities lost in the years that have followed

Job Description: 1) Believe the institution can be distinctly great 2) Sell that vision with energy and with no apology 3) Put people in authoritative positions to take action on that vision 4) Communicate with stakeholders with enthusiasm and accountability 5) Repeat steps

Tom Hanks’ line at the end of Apollo 13 fits my emotions when I look at yet another NCAA Tournament bracket that we never had a realistic chance to be in: “I look up at the moon and wonder, when will we be going back, and who will that be?”

Somebody whip up the MT Presidential Hot Board

McPhee’s announced retirement probably cements no major changes in athletics for the coming year, but I hope it means a new accountability for every single position on the university payroll. It’s time to systematically strive for greatness. Huge pivot point for MT

Is there a video link somewhere to McDevitt’s postgame press conference from Thursday? I have not located one

What stocks should I pick AJ?

Congratulations to the Kennesaw State Owls. Carrying the banner for CUSA into the Big Dance. Excellent combination of relentless tenacity, commitment to their playing identity, and athletic playmaking. We’re pulling for you next week.

If you’re gonna get a rebound in this game, you’re gonna earn it. Relentless stuff

@SSN_Kennesaw Ha. When our baseball team gives me a reason to pay attention I will

@BlueRaiderStats Thanks! In baseball too? That would be something 🤣

Pulling for Kennesaw today. It’s your day, Owls. Seize it

“That thing is rigged man. I was there. Of course I didn’t say anything about it at the time but now I will pretend to be outraged by those dastardly big conference people. But when I was one of those people, it was all good.”

Terrific analysis. And ferocious offensive rebounders when their energy level is on point