Savannah State in the field, before it disappears from Division I.
You want to see a place where the clock is ticking? It’s almost now-or-never for the Tigers to get the school’s first-ever bid to the NCAA tournament. They reclassify to Division II after next season. They’re one of four teams in a virtual tie for the lead in the MEAC and recently won nine games in a row. Who knows if they’ll ever have this good of a chance again?
“I try emphasize that to some degree with the kids,” coach Horace Broadnax said Tuesday. “Let’s have a sense of urgency and let’s use it for motivation. You need everything you can to motivate yourself in this league.”
The conference tournament should be lively. Things always are around Savannah State, which leads the nation by firing up 41 3-pointers a game, and has broken 100 points nine times (alas, the opponents have done it 13 times). If only more of those long-range missiles hit the target. The Tigers are 339th in the nation in shooting percentage.
They’re also 13-15 overall, but consider the non-conference gauntlet they ran — Virginia, Michigan State, Texas Tech, Cincinnati and Wichita State. Otherwise known as the Nos. 1, 2, 6, 11 and 13 teams in this week’s Associated Press poll.
If the coach’s name rings a bell, he was one of John Thompson’s national champions at Georgetown back in 1984, when the Hoyas ruled the world with defense. Wonder what Thompson thinks when he gets a load of Savannah State’s fire-away style?
“Initially, he said that I was crazy,” Broadnax said. “But the one thing about Coach Thompson, he was very high IQ basketball-wise, and he wanted to win.
“You have to try to figure things out, and that’s basically what I’m trying to do. How can I win here? We take a lot of shots, we take a lot of 3s, we just don’t make them. If we were a little bit more efficient, we could be successful. Teams have played slow against bigger programs and got killed, so why not have fun?”
The fun will really start for the Tigers if they win the league tournament and pull off a first-ever NCAA bid — while they still can. But it'll be hard work, in a balanced conference that offers one bid only.
“I always make the analogy of 13 wild dogs chasing one bone,” Broadnax said. “A lot of people are going to get hurt, and eventually one will come out. But it’s going to be ugly.”
You want to see a place where the clock is ticking? It’s almost now-or-never for the Tigers to get the school’s first-ever bid to the NCAA tournament. They reclassify to Division II after next season. They’re one of four teams in a virtual tie for the lead in the MEAC and recently won nine games in a row. Who knows if they’ll ever have this good of a chance again?
“I try emphasize that to some degree with the kids,” coach Horace Broadnax said Tuesday. “Let’s have a sense of urgency and let’s use it for motivation. You need everything you can to motivate yourself in this league.”
The conference tournament should be lively. Things always are around Savannah State, which leads the nation by firing up 41 3-pointers a game, and has broken 100 points nine times (alas, the opponents have done it 13 times). If only more of those long-range missiles hit the target. The Tigers are 339th in the nation in shooting percentage.
They’re also 13-15 overall, but consider the non-conference gauntlet they ran — Virginia, Michigan State, Texas Tech, Cincinnati and Wichita State. Otherwise known as the Nos. 1, 2, 6, 11 and 13 teams in this week’s Associated Press poll.
If the coach’s name rings a bell, he was one of John Thompson’s national champions at Georgetown back in 1984, when the Hoyas ruled the world with defense. Wonder what Thompson thinks when he gets a load of Savannah State’s fire-away style?
“Initially, he said that I was crazy,” Broadnax said. “But the one thing about Coach Thompson, he was very high IQ basketball-wise, and he wanted to win.
“You have to try to figure things out, and that’s basically what I’m trying to do. How can I win here? We take a lot of shots, we take a lot of 3s, we just don’t make them. If we were a little bit more efficient, we could be successful. Teams have played slow against bigger programs and got killed, so why not have fun?”
The fun will really start for the Tigers if they win the league tournament and pull off a first-ever NCAA bid — while they still can. But it'll be hard work, in a balanced conference that offers one bid only.
“I always make the analogy of 13 wild dogs chasing one bone,” Broadnax said. “A lot of people are going to get hurt, and eventually one will come out. But it’s going to be ugly.”