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“If you’re at the Big Ten, and you’re the one, two, three or four seed, you know you’re going to the NCAA tournament. There’s less desperation because you know you’re already in and you’re going to get a good seed. There probably are more chances of upsets. Here (at the mid-major level), everyone is desperate. Everyone knows you get one shot,” he said.
Nagy, who took the Raiders to the NCAA tourney last season, can remember in vivid detail the four times his South Dakota State teams were 40 minutes away from being part of March Madness after reaching the Summit League title game.
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Two stand out because the outcome hinged on a single possession.
2012: SDSU 52, Western Illinois 50, OT.
“Western Illinois had us down 12 in that game, and they’re one of the slowest-paced teams in the country,” Nagy said. “Being down 12 to them was like being down 20. But we worked our way back and tied it.”
Regulation ended at 44-all. And the Jackrabbits made a 3-pointer with 1:27 left in OT to take a two-point lead.
Neither team scored after that, sending SDSU to its first NCAA tourney just seven years after becoming a Division-I program.
2015: North Dakota State 57, South Dakota State 56.
In a game between league co-champs, the Jackrabbits ripped off seven straight points to cut an eight-point deficit to one. NDSU missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with 7.9 seconds left, but a potential game-winning 3-pointer bounced off the rim at the buzzer.
“That was hard. That was one of the toughest losses I’ve ever had to face with a group of kids in trying to help them get through it and get ready for the NIT,” Nagy said.
He must have done just fine. South Dakota State was seeded eighth in the NIT and beat top-seeded Colorado State on the road in the first round.
The Jackrabbits made the NCAA tourney two other times under Nagy, including his final season in 2016.
“That tournament was really unusual because, in our first two games, we played Oral Roberts, and they had us down the entire game, and it was a slow, grinding game. We worked our way back in it and barely won (73-70). And the next night was against Denver, which was probably THE slowest-paced team in the league. They had us down 13 with about five minutes to go, and the game ended strangely,” he said.
The Jackrabbits took a 54-53 lead on a free throw with two seconds left — and then, incredibly, fouled a Denver player bringing the ball up the court. But the Pioneers missed a 1-and-1 with 1.2 seconds left, allowing SDSU to escape.
By comparison, the 67-59 win over North Dakota State in the finals was drama-free.
Freshman Mike Daum was the MVP of the tourney — despite not being a starter all season — and would become the 10th player in college basketball history to score 3,000 points this season.
“We didn’t start him the whole year because he wouldn’t guard anybody,” Nagy said with a chuckle. “But he was a phenomenal offensive player and was first-team all-league coming off the bench. As a freshman, he carried us through that year for sure.”
Nagy, who left for Wright State the next season, has watched with pride from afar as Daum reached that milestone.
“It’s an unbelievable feat,” he said. “I stay in touch with him. I’m really happy for him and his family.”
Nagy doesn’t seem to pine for a little more margin for error in reaching the NCAA tourney. If Wright State gets through the Horizon League semifinals Monday and plays for the title Tuesday, the only guarantee he and his players will have is that the games won’t soon be forgotten.
“They’re highly emotional — winning or losing. But you sign up for that. And I always tell our guys, ‘This is what living feels like,’” he said.
“Most people kind of just live life and exist. With sports, there’s no in-between. Either you’re ecstatic or you’re crushed because you poured your heart into it. Most people don’t ever get to feel this low or this high based on pouring their life into something. So, really, the experience of that is how we want our guys to live.”
MONDAY’S GAME
Wright State vs. Green Bay, 7 p.m., ESPNU, 106.5-FM
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