WSU: “What A Beautiful Feeling.”
Mar 9, 2007 1:16:11 GMT -5
Post by Admin on Mar 9, 2007 1:16:11 GMT -5
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WSU: “What A Beautiful Feeling.”
By Tom Archdeacon | Wednesday, March 7, 2007, 04:11 PM
As the Wright State Nation rejoiced in the stands and on the Nutter Center floor Tuesday night — its 60-55 victory over Butler burning on the overhead scoreboard, the NCAA Tournament invite soon to come — here are some of the scenes, conversation snippets and first-hand observations:
All-Tournament pick Scottie Wilson shared the moment and a on-court hug with teammate Drew Burleson, then quietly added:
“What a beautiful feeling. I feel like crying, but there’s too many people around.”
Asked if he felt as though he and his teammates had finally arrived, Burleson, the fifth-year senior playing for his third coach, shook his head:
“We’ve been here all year, it’s just that nobody noticed. Hopefully that will change now.”
It already is changing. Their game was broadcast nationwide on ESPN and highlights of it kept playing on the SportsCenter cycle. They were the lead story in today’s USA Today sports page and the dot.com hoops junkies now are all over them — especially guard DaShaun Wood, the Horizon League Player of the Year and tournament MVP, and coach Brad Brownell.
As for the Raiders’ first-year coach — who left UNC-Wilmington last season thanks, in part, to a major difference of opinion with the micro-managing athletics director (whose team this year won just seven games) — he’s one of the best young talents on the college sidelines.
When a guy take’s two mid-major schools to the NCAA Tournament — in fact, gets three bids in just five years as a head coach — he’s something special.
But who would have expected this?
He took over an under-sized, under-manned team in the spring — too late to do much recruiting — and then his new players struggled mightily with the offensive scheme he was trying to teach them. The Raiders started off losing five of their first eight, six of their first 11.
In their first 16 games they suffered losses by 39 points to Bradley, 26 to LSU, 31 to Butler and 16 to Chicago State.
Over their next 16 games — which includes Tuesday night’s victory over Butler — they’ve won 14.
“We worked hard all year on building relationships,” Brownell said as he waited to cut down the nets Tuesday. “We learned to believe in each other.”
It took them until mid-December, but his players finally started trusting him and bought into his system.
Tuesday night he showed how much he believed in his team after it fell behind Butler 0-10 at the start of the game.
“You notice I didn’t call time out?” he said. “I thought we were getting good shots. We just needed one to drop.”
And he got one when he called a play for Wood, who promptly turned it into a three-pointer with 16:24 left in the half. Some 5 1/2 minutes later, Wright State led 15-12.
“Coach Brownell tells us we’re fighters,” said reserve guard Reinaldo Smith. “We’re at our best when we’re backed into a corner and have to fight our way out. It’s when we get to the center of the ring where we stumble sometimes. We like it when we have to prove ourselves.”
Raiders fans realize they have a special team here, which is one reason it looked like the running of the bulls in Pamplona, when the Nutter Center doors opened 90 minutes before tip-off. People painted, wigged, wearing Viking horns, Hawaiian leis, carrying signs, bullhorns, pon poms, you name it, came stampeding down the arena aisles for choice seats.
Over in Section 221 and partying in a big RV in the parking lot, former Raiders players from decades past gathered and reminisced and celebrated the good times now.
One guy who stood out was Jim Brown — the long-time assistant coach, one-time head coach and all-time Raiders’ loyalist. There’s not a better man who ever represented Wright State.
And then there was Terri Williams, who along with husband Steve and their three children make up a diehard WSU family. How diehard? Well, Steve is a WSU grad, their daughter goes there now, the family has had season tickets since the Nutter Center opened and the kids have been involved in the various Raiders’ youth programs.
But the real devotion showed Tuesday when Terri took off early from her job at Wright Patterson AFB and drove all the way to Athens and back to pick up son Shane, a freshman at Ohio University.
He’d come home for Saturday’s semi-final game, but his parents made him go back for classes Monday. They told him the game was televised so he could watch it from school.
“The more I thought about it, the more I knew he had to be here,” Terri said. “This was a great moment for Wright State and it should be for our family — out whole family — too.”
Wednesday morning she got up before dawn to drive him back for classes.
That special feeling engulfed the players, as well.
“This is everything I imagined and so much more,” gushed center Jordan Pleiman after the trophy had been awarded and the nets cut down
“I’m mean, its just sinking in. We’re in the Big Dance. Our name will be called on Selection Sunday. Our game will be televised. And through it all, each one of us will be living the dream every college basketball player has.”
WSU: “What A Beautiful Feeling.”
By Tom Archdeacon | Wednesday, March 7, 2007, 04:11 PM
As the Wright State Nation rejoiced in the stands and on the Nutter Center floor Tuesday night — its 60-55 victory over Butler burning on the overhead scoreboard, the NCAA Tournament invite soon to come — here are some of the scenes, conversation snippets and first-hand observations:
All-Tournament pick Scottie Wilson shared the moment and a on-court hug with teammate Drew Burleson, then quietly added:
“What a beautiful feeling. I feel like crying, but there’s too many people around.”
Asked if he felt as though he and his teammates had finally arrived, Burleson, the fifth-year senior playing for his third coach, shook his head:
“We’ve been here all year, it’s just that nobody noticed. Hopefully that will change now.”
It already is changing. Their game was broadcast nationwide on ESPN and highlights of it kept playing on the SportsCenter cycle. They were the lead story in today’s USA Today sports page and the dot.com hoops junkies now are all over them — especially guard DaShaun Wood, the Horizon League Player of the Year and tournament MVP, and coach Brad Brownell.
As for the Raiders’ first-year coach — who left UNC-Wilmington last season thanks, in part, to a major difference of opinion with the micro-managing athletics director (whose team this year won just seven games) — he’s one of the best young talents on the college sidelines.
When a guy take’s two mid-major schools to the NCAA Tournament — in fact, gets three bids in just five years as a head coach — he’s something special.
But who would have expected this?
He took over an under-sized, under-manned team in the spring — too late to do much recruiting — and then his new players struggled mightily with the offensive scheme he was trying to teach them. The Raiders started off losing five of their first eight, six of their first 11.
In their first 16 games they suffered losses by 39 points to Bradley, 26 to LSU, 31 to Butler and 16 to Chicago State.
Over their next 16 games — which includes Tuesday night’s victory over Butler — they’ve won 14.
“We worked hard all year on building relationships,” Brownell said as he waited to cut down the nets Tuesday. “We learned to believe in each other.”
It took them until mid-December, but his players finally started trusting him and bought into his system.
Tuesday night he showed how much he believed in his team after it fell behind Butler 0-10 at the start of the game.
“You notice I didn’t call time out?” he said. “I thought we were getting good shots. We just needed one to drop.”
And he got one when he called a play for Wood, who promptly turned it into a three-pointer with 16:24 left in the half. Some 5 1/2 minutes later, Wright State led 15-12.
“Coach Brownell tells us we’re fighters,” said reserve guard Reinaldo Smith. “We’re at our best when we’re backed into a corner and have to fight our way out. It’s when we get to the center of the ring where we stumble sometimes. We like it when we have to prove ourselves.”
Raiders fans realize they have a special team here, which is one reason it looked like the running of the bulls in Pamplona, when the Nutter Center doors opened 90 minutes before tip-off. People painted, wigged, wearing Viking horns, Hawaiian leis, carrying signs, bullhorns, pon poms, you name it, came stampeding down the arena aisles for choice seats.
Over in Section 221 and partying in a big RV in the parking lot, former Raiders players from decades past gathered and reminisced and celebrated the good times now.
One guy who stood out was Jim Brown — the long-time assistant coach, one-time head coach and all-time Raiders’ loyalist. There’s not a better man who ever represented Wright State.
And then there was Terri Williams, who along with husband Steve and their three children make up a diehard WSU family. How diehard? Well, Steve is a WSU grad, their daughter goes there now, the family has had season tickets since the Nutter Center opened and the kids have been involved in the various Raiders’ youth programs.
But the real devotion showed Tuesday when Terri took off early from her job at Wright Patterson AFB and drove all the way to Athens and back to pick up son Shane, a freshman at Ohio University.
He’d come home for Saturday’s semi-final game, but his parents made him go back for classes Monday. They told him the game was televised so he could watch it from school.
“The more I thought about it, the more I knew he had to be here,” Terri said. “This was a great moment for Wright State and it should be for our family — out whole family — too.”
Wednesday morning she got up before dawn to drive him back for classes.
That special feeling engulfed the players, as well.
“This is everything I imagined and so much more,” gushed center Jordan Pleiman after the trophy had been awarded and the nets cut down
“I’m mean, its just sinking in. We’re in the Big Dance. Our name will be called on Selection Sunday. Our game will be televised. And through it all, each one of us will be living the dream every college basketball player has.”
