“It’s amazing how this platform shines a light and gets people’s attention,” WSU Athletics Director Bob Grant said before tonight’s tipoff.
“Wright State’s name will be everywhere today. We’re in every bracket. Our game is prime time against one of college basketball’s blue bloods. People will see our name on the tickers (on their TV screens) and it will be all over the evening news shows, here and back home. And the national sports shows – ESPN and Fox and all the others – will talk about it.
“It’s pretty incredible. If you are able to get to this stage, it’s tremendous for your university.”
The past few days the Raiders have been feeling an embrace like never before. The UD Arena crowd gave them full-throated support – “Let’s go Raiders!” chants rocked the sold-out arena late in the First Four game – and that was just the start of the whirlwind.
“From the time the game ended at UD Arena until I got to the airport, I had 222 text messages,” Grant said. “It was pretty gratifying. There were people I haven’t heard from in years. There were former athletes from all across the United States.
He said several former Raiders would be at Viejas Arena to give the team their cheers and mostly their love. Among them, he said, would be:
Eddie McClintock, the former WSU wrestler who is now an actor and has appeared in numerous TV shows, including The King of Queens, Desperate Housewives, Monk, House, Modern Family, Sex in the City and especially as secret agent Pete Lattimer in the SyFy series Warehouse 13.
A few years ago Buddy TV voted McClintock one of the top 100 sexiest men on TV.
Ricky Martinez, the heady Raiders guard from California who played on the last three Ralph Underhill teams, said he was coming and Mark Starkey, a guard from the Paul Biancardi days, and 6-foot-8 Johann Mpondo, from the Billy Donlon era, were both expected.
So was women’s track standout Taylor Schweickart and soccer ace Alec Philippe.
Grant said they all have one thing in common:
“All of them are proud of the Raiders.”
It wasn’t too long ago that Wright State considered deemphasizing sports.
After considerable cuts to the faculty and certain academic programs, some raised questions on the worth of sports and why some programs, like men’s basketball, got so much financial consideration.
There were public forms and private debates and a panel – albeit one where some members had sports roots -- was established to determine the future of Wright State athletics.
Prior to that, some sports at the school already had been dropped and athletic department personnel had been trimmed.
In the end the panel decided athletics were a worthwhile endeavor at WSU.
The school’s new president, Sue Edwards, is a big basketball fan and sits courtside at every Nutter Center game.
So, on this March Madness day – thanks to a talented and ever-resilient team – Wright State has been able to answer the question of basketball worth at Wright State.
And this isn’t talking about the $330,000-plus (2021 figures) unit payout teams earn for each NCAA Tournament game they play. Granted that’s shared with the conference, but WSU gets a good chunk.
The focus here is on the Raiders team.
The players – many coming back from heartbreaking losses of family members this season, all of them showing a love for one another that got them through the personal tragedies and the struggles of the season – have won converts wherever they play.
Reporters from around the country –at the First Four and now here in San Diego – have talked to them about that.
And a wider audience than just the basketball fraternity is getting to know more about Raiders coach Scott Nagy, who’s in his 27th season as a head coach – 21 at South Dakota State and now six at WSU.
“He’s the real deal,” Grant said. “What’s that Dennis Green quote? He’s who we thought he was.
“He’s very consistent. He’s almost a grinder. He does things the right way, gets good kids and then gets them to play together,
“And look what he’s done: South Dakota State, three NCAA Tournaments in a place where it’s not easy to win. Now, Wright State, two NCAA Tournaments and two NITs in a place where it’s not easy to win.
Elevating the program, university
Arizona though would present a monumental challenge.
The 31-3 Wildcats have seven victories over NCAA Tournament teams this season. They’re ranked fifth in the nation on offense, 20th on defense and are led by two likely first round NBA draft picks, including Bennedict Mathurin, the Pac-12 Player of the Year.
Inside they start a 7-foot-1 center and a 6-foot-11 forward. They’ve got another 7-footer coming off the bench.
In their three previous trips to the NCAA Tournament, Wright State always has had a tough go against top-seeded teams and was routed in 1993 by Indiana, 2007 by Pitt and 2018 by Tennessee.
But regardless of what happens with Arizona – and there is the giddy reality of No. 15 Saint Peters over No. 2 Kentucky on Thursday – WSU already has won big this season.
And Nagy, for one, wants it continue. The other day he said he hopes the NCAA Tournament becomes an oft-visited destination for WSU and not just to make an off-the-court statement, but to win games and advance
Grant agreed: “This gives us a chance to elevate the program to another level.
“Can we do that? What does it look like? I’m not sure,
“But you can look at the way Butler started. The way Xavier started. The way Gonzaga started. They all started with a similar kind of path.
“The question is: ‘When you knock on the door, do you keep knocking? Or do you fall back? And if you keep knocking hard, do you finally push it open?’
“The Butler and Xavier models that are in close proximity to us are the kind of schools we want to emulate.”
Whether that’s the intoxicating talk that comes when your team is just about to tip off on college basketball’s biggest stage or really the first spadework in building the foundation of an elevated basketball program is a debate for another time.
One thing is certain, Grant said:
“There have been all kinds of studies on the value of athletics. They tell how, from moments like this, your applications jump, your pride jumps and your resume looks a little shinier when it’s on a pile with a lot of other resumes.
“Your resume stands out if your school is more recognizable.”
That’s the real benefit of Friday, a day like no other in school history.
It would be a day when more people than ever before would hear, speak, talk about and hopefully remember one name:
Wright State.
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