After five crazy days at the Gulf South Conference Tournament in Tupelo, I'm back in the friendly confines of Conway ready for sleep and more basketball. After watching the Bears play three games in four days, I'm going to have withdrawals now that their season is over. The Sugar Bears made a brief appearance, but will continue their season in the regional tournament Friday in Winter Park, Fla. at Rollins College against Fort Valley State.
Now that I'm back home and have had an hour or two to collect my thoughts (after some crack head rolled up on me as I was walking in the front door and tried selling me a Nintendo 64 and a game for $15 so he and his wife could "get some food". Here's betting they had some, umm... Coke to wash it down.) I figured it would be a good time to reflect on one small part of the Tupelo experience.
I haven't been around too long, but I don't think there are any finer coaches in the GSC men's ranks than Rand Chappell and Montevallo's Danny Young. Young, who applied for the UCA job last year, had an incredible 51-11 record during his time at Salem (WV) International University before taking the Montevallo job in June of 2003. When Young took over, he had exactly one returning player and only a couple months to assemble a team. Of course, maybe that's not all bad since the Falcons went 4-25 a year ago.
Sunday, with a hastily thrown-together group of players, Young wrapped up the school's first GSC Tournament title and moved his record to 21-9. Even more amazing is that the Falcons beat 25-3 Valdosta State and West Georgia without the services of starting guard Tarieck Leach. Montevallo and Valdosta hook up for a rematch next week in the regional tournament.
Chappell and company fell a little short of a regional tournament berth, but I can't imagine too many people (outside the team) would be disappointed with 20 wins (including a pair over Henderson) and a conference tourney semifinal appearance. Those types of things haven't been seen here in quite some time. The road may have been rocky, but in the end, it was a successful journey.
The Bears had possibly their two most exciting games of the season in consecutive days in Tupelo. On Wednesday, they rallied from 17 down to dismiss West Florida, then battled back from 13 down to knock off top-seeded Henderson. The guys battled and played hard, and never really got their heads down. It was the best team effort of the season.
Against West Georgia, the Bears made the mistake of leading too soon, instead of waiting around 'til the end to make their move. The defensive effort was there, but the shots just wouldn't fall. A win there would've set up the epic Young vs. Chappell battle in Sunday's final. You'd have a battle of ultra-successful coaches in their first year at programs that had been the league's doormats, and with the conference title at stake. It would've been huge.
The two coaches took over programs that won four and five games a year ago, and each has reached the 20-win plateau. Both are renowned for their relentless recruiting and ability to assemble good talent in a short time, and that showed this season. Give these guys another year to recruit and with returnees actually in place, it should be fun to see how closely the two programs continue to parallel one another.
They narrowly missed meeting in this year's tournament, but by all indications, they should have several more chances to tangle in the tourney.
Maybe next year.
