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Printer-Friendly ModeA nine year wait
Men's basketball in limbo over GLIAC tourney bid
February 25, 2008 —
Nine years ago, Napster was free, Y2K was a threat, not a joke, and the SVSU men's basketball team had just made the GLIAC tournament.
To date, the Cardinals have yet to return. Now, with two wins over the weekend, and four victories in a row, the men's basketball team is on the cusp of reaching the postseason for the first time since 1999.
At 7:30 p.m. tonight, they'll come together to watch Lake Superior State play at Michigan Tech, the game that will decide their postseason fate.
"We're watching this tomorrow like it's an NCAA bid, because it means that much to this team, to these players, and to this program," first year head coach Frankie Smith said. "Even though it's just the GLIAC tournament, it's still the tournament, and once you're in, anything can happen."
The Cards have finished with a regular season record of 12-14 (7-11 GLIAC). Having not yet finished their regular season, Lake Superior State currently has a 10-15 (7-10 GLIAC) record, which places them just ahead of SVSU in the standings. If they win tonight, they will keep their lead over the Cardinals and move on to the GLIAC tournament. However, SVSU owns a tie-breaker over LSS because of a 50-49 victory in Sault Ste. Marie on Jan. 3 and an 89-88 victory at home on Jan. 24, which means if LSS loses, it would be senior point guard Mario Mackey's buzzer-beating half court shot on the 24th that sends them to tourament play.
"Coach came in this year, and he came in and told everybody, with a lot of confidence, exactly what's gonna happen: 'Nothing less than the GLIAC,'" Mackey said. "Now, we're just waiting, one day away from his statement being true."
If the Cardinals do make the tournament, they'll go in as the sixth seed. In the preseason, they were picked to finish 10th.
From his first days at Saginaw Valley, Smith said he was setting the bar high for his team, regardless of ourside expectations.
"One thing I'm passionate about, and I know it's going to be tough, is getting us back to tournament this year," Smith said in an interview before the season began.
His demeanor rubbed off on his players, who said the beginning of this season came with a more positive outlook than years past.
"Everyone had a lot better attitude coming into this year," sophomore forward Adam Gries said. "Team moral was a lot higher."
The team credits their end-of-the-season surge to upping the pressure defensively, something they said they hadn't done.
"We knew it was going to come down to defense to start winning," junior guard Dante Williams said. "Once we got that feel of how it felt to play that defense and get those wins, I think everybody went out there looking for that same feeling every game."