Bisons arrive at Spectrum Center for shoot around, media day
Kim Chaudoin | 615.966.6494 |
When the Bisons walked into the player entrance of Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, Thursday morning, the dream of making it to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament finally became very real.
Since the 23-9 Bisons made school history March 4 by knocking off Florida Gulf Coast University to win the 2018 ASUN men’s basketball tournament championship — giving them an automatic berth into the NCAA tournament for the first-time ever — the team has been on an 11-day blitz filled with hundreds of media interviews, celebrations, excitement and practice.
Thursday the reality of this historic season hit as the Bisons, coached by Casey Alexander, embarked on their first official NCAA tournament activities.
The #15 seed Bisons, accompanied by the Lipscomb cheerleading squad, headed to the arena around 10:45 a.m. local time for a round of press conferences, locker room media interviews and their only practice on the Spectrum Center court before Friday’s matchup against the #2 seed Tar Heels of North Carolina.
“It’s been incredible, the support of the campus. Everyone is coming up saying things to us,” junior forward Eli Pepper told the crowd gathered for the late-morning press conference. “It’s a fun time, but when you get seeded with somebody like North Carolina, it’s even better because we’re here to win a game and play our best first. That’s the best case we can get.”
Junior guard Garrison Mathews said it has been an exciting time.
“It’s been an amazing feeling being around campus with everybody and celebrating with them,” said Mathews. “It’s not just about us, it’s about the whole community. And obviously it’s the first time, so it’s been a great feeling.”
“Talking about community,” said Rob Marberry, a junior forward from Nashville, “Belmont, Vanderbilt, MTSU, TSU, they’re not in the tournament. All eyes in Nashville are on us. That’s a great feeling to have that we’re kind of the center of attention right now. So it’s nice to have that.”
Franklin Road Academy product Kenny Cooper agreed.
“The City of Nashville is behind us,” said Cooper, a sophomore guard.
North Carolina, coached by the legendary Roy Williams, who has three NCAA championships under his belt, is the defending national champion, and are a favorite to win it all again this year. But the Bisons aren’t intimidated by being the underdog in their first tournament appearance.
“When we played Gulf Coast in the (ASUN) championship game, we were also the underdogs,” said Marberry of the Bisons’ 108-96 victory over FGCU. “We take it and run with it, honestly. We can play with any team. We can compete with any team. Having them as a powerhouse, and having us as the underdog really doesn’t matter to us. We’re going to play the 40 minutes like they play the 40 minutes. All that talk before the game doesn’t matter.”
Cooper said the team is going into the game with the mentality that they have nothing to lose but everything to gain.
“We can go out here and play hard, compete and win a game, then that builds our culture at Lipscomb, builds a better basketball program within itself and become more known,” said Cooper.
“I’m just going into this game trying to better the name of Lipscomb and get the name of Lipscomb out there.”
Williams said he has a lot of respect for Lipscomb.
“There are a lot of things that stick out that could give us problems — their ability to shoot the ball, their ability to score and the pace they play,” said Williams at the Tar Heels’ press conference Thursday. “One thing that really jumps out at me is (Garrison) Mathews has shot. I don’t have the stats here in front of me, but I think he shot like 130 or 140 more free throws than anybody on our team. I mean, that’s remarkable.”
“(Lipscomb has) rebounders, defenders, guys who set screens,” he continued. “Casey has done a nice job. It’s a very well-coached team.”
Tip-off for Lipscomb’s first-ever NCAA men’s basketball national tournament game is set for 1:45 p.m. CST on CBS.
— Photos by Kristi Jones