Thank you, Troy Trojans

I don’t know about you, but I feel like dancing right now. It took special players to give our community a special memory. (I added a cute picture at the end of this).

The Troy University Trojans, Sunbelt Conference regular season and Tournament Champs. (Photos contributed by Troy Athletics).

As our fight song informs us, We are Trojans one and all and, today, all Trojans are dancing a little two step because our team is going back to the Biggest Dance of All.

Before a game had been played this season, Coach Scott Cross said, “… This team has a chance to win a (conference) championship, go to the NCAA Tournament and do some things that have never happened …I like what we have, the togetherness of our team …”

Coach Cross is a proven winner, a wonderful leader and … clairvoyant.

Through the decades, several special athletic teams have provided gifts to my hometown. But this might be one of my favorite teams.

Not only did our Trojans run the table at the Sun Belt Conference Tournament (winning all three games by at least 13 points), the same team claimed another banner for posterity by being co-champions of the regular season.

Noted Coach Cross in last night’s press conference:

“This is one of the hardest things to do, especially in the Sun Belt because there are 14 teams, and they are very close in terms of talent and ability. It's a different league. It's a gauntlet.”

While usually residing in the upper echelons of Sunbelt basketball, it’s been 15 years since Troy survived this gauntlet and won a regular season title.

Even rarer, for only the third time in school history, this year’s collection of hoops ambassadors will advertise our college on a stage that’s grown a tad larger than Mr. Naismith’s first peach basket.

In basketball, you want to peak in February and March

Troy played its best basketball when it mattered most. The 23-10 Trojans have now won six straight games and eight of the last nine.

(The next great “stop-the-presses” moment in Troy sports history will come if and when Troy extends this win streak to seven games. If the win streak extends to eight games, Katie Hawkins bar the door!)

Before cutting down the nets Monday night, Troy’s biggest victory was a season-defining 71-70 upset victory over the same Arkansas State team, the Wolves’ only home defeat of the season.

That victory, plus another road victory over Southern Miss, coupled with James Madison suffering a road loss on the same day, allowed Troy to end up in a four-way tie for first place.

First banner … check.

In the regular season, Troy finished 13-5 in the SBC.

What might be more impressive is that Troy, with a couple more made baskets (or missed baskets by opponents), could have won all 21 conference games this year.

Troy’s five conference losses were by a combined 14 points. Troy lost two games by one point, two by three points and one game by six points.

Tough losses didn’t spoil the season after all …

At the time, one of those losses (a 74-73 defeat to Texas State in Trojan Arena) pierced like a dagger.

(In the game, Texas State’s best player was fouled with 0.4 seconds left in a tie game. The player missed his first foul shot, but the second shot seemed almost lethal.)

When it turns out a victory many fans thought was assured … wasn’t, depression can sink in and one realizes his character’s getting ready to be tested.

True, this was just one game, but almost every conference title is determined by “just one game.”

As it turned out, over a period of 10 days, Troy lost three conference games in four outings (including another narrow defeat at home to Louisiana).

For a while, the grimace of dashed expectations supplanted the expected joy of a season to remember.

***

The drama sports delivers is unscripted. In Big-Time Sports, participation trophies are not awarded. In basketball, an important rule is that athletes have to play for 40 minutes and then see what the scoreboard says.

Athletes also have to play the entire season. Fair or not, five decades in the future, the final standings are the ones everyone will remember.

A lifetime connoisseur of sports, I should have known breathtaking mountain-top views often follow a trudge through mosquito-infested swamp land.

With every game and in every season, the life lesson’s the same: Don’t quit. Hang in there. Things might change.

If, as a fan, I was on the verge of writing off an unfinished season, that’s my shame.

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What made this team so special …

What made this team and season so special is the players didn’t give up.

Coach Cross’s gunslingers kept shooting … and more shots started to fall.

The opponents also kept shooting … but those players now had an extra hand in their face. If enough field goal attempts become defensive rebounds, the team you pull for might be off and running.

Trite characteristics like leadership, hard work and pride became corny cliches for a reason.

Some players actually do get better as the season progresses. Team chemistry can gell.

Troy’s players kept playing hard every possession and - for 8 out of the final 9 games - the scoreboard revealed the Good Guys had scored more points.

Troy still had to win 3 games in P-Town

Not only did the team rally to claim a share of the regular season crown, the Trojans - one of the deepest teams in basketball - had plenty of fuel in their tanks to hit the accelerator for three more games.

Alas, for a mid-major program like Troy, it’s possible to put together a stellar regular season, and still feel tremendous disappointment when the season’s final horn sounds.

For many basketball aficionados, the only thing that matters is if your team makes it to the Big Dance.

Hey, kids, no pressure …

Troy’s kids (actually young adults) responded by saying, “Pressure Smeasure.”

… Watch us. We’re not going to lose.

The first two games in Pensacola resembled a day at the beach. In the semi-finals Troy dispatched James Madison, one of the conference’s four co-champions and owner of the league’s best basketball pedigree, with ease.

Next, in a rubber match for all the marbles, Troy had to beat Arkansas State in a game televised to the nation on ESPN 2.

While another cakewalk would have been appreciated by those watching their blood pressure, such an outcome wouldn’t have comported with this season’s theme, which was the resilient will win the prize.

As Coach Cross told us in numerous post-game press conferences, “It’s never easy.”

With 10 minutes left in the game, after stroking another trifecta, the Wolves led by 8 points.

Fans of Arkansas State, who had waited 26 years to be asked to basketball’s ultimate prom - could almost taste the thrill of a generational victory.

I’m not sure what Coach Cross said in a timeout - or what team leaders spoke up (if anybody) - but that was it for Arkansas State’s Dream Season.

Tayton Conerway was the MVP of the regular season and the Sunbelt Tournament.

In Tayton We Trust …

It was fitting Conference Player of the Year Tayton Conerway seized control of the game, scoring 16 of his 21 points in this drama’s denouement.

The day he left a Texas junior college and became a Trojan, Conerway was already a very good player. However, at some point two or three months ago, he became an exceptional player, the “go-to” player every special team must have.

While Coach Cross can draw up nifty plays on his Coaching Board, magic-marker hieroglyphs aren’t needed to allow No. 12 to take it to the hoop.

If the offense becomes stagnant, Conerway can and would create offense with defensive steals or thread-the-needle passes.

The basketball guard who looks like he could play strong safety used the “It factor” to keep his team in games or, when needed, steal or take-over games.

But basketball is a team sport and Conerway is far from the only Trojan with skills, moxie and true athletic grit.

In most games, Coach Cross would play 10 to 12 players and all of these players took turns being difference-makers.

Myles Rigsby was the conference Freshman of the Year last season - and scored 20 against Arkansas State (including hitting 9 of 10 free throws).

Before the season, Coach Cross said Dothan sophomore Thomas Dowd had the potential to be a great player. He was a good player most of the season, but - when it mattered most - in the SBC Tournament - that star was born.

Jackson Fields had started more games than any other Trojan and fit central casting as the classic power forward capable of recording 10 rebounds and providing the dunk segment for that night’s highlight reel.

Late in the season, however, the power forward suddenly became a deadly three-point shooter.

And they all came back …

One reason many Trojan fans were pulling so hard for this particular team is because, collectively, they did something almost unheard of in modern basketball.

The entire team came back to play this season … for their university, for Coach Cross, for the school’s fans and for each other.

That is, nobody entered the Transfer Portal.

One can only assume they must have decided among themselves that the 2024-2025 team could be … special.

The video montage we all saw play out over three nights - or, really, over four months - the players had already pictured in their minds.

When the team experienced adversity, they must have known they had the right stuff to overcome it.

Like life, sports isn’t always fair, but it would have been a shame if such a special group of athletes hadn’t been rewarded with such a priceless memory.

I’m sure all Trojans join me in saying, “Thank you, young men. You made us all proud.”

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When a student sees her teacher on ESPN!

Belinda Dykes Kitchens is a veteran elementary school teacher. Belinda’s student, Charlotte Fuller, saw her several times on the ESPN 2 telecast. Charlotte is the daughter of Ashley and Braxton Fuller. Mrs. Fuller sent this photo to Belinda, who posted it on Facebook. Belinda and I went to high school together and I know she’s been a huge Troy basketball fan for many decades.

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Writer gratuities via Ko-Fi.