Lipscomb men’s basketball coach Casey Alexander can already appreciate how much a first trip to the NCAA Tournament can put an obscure school on the map.
“That’s what it’s all about: You get to see your players enjoy it for the first time, your university enjoy it for the first time,” Alexander said of his team’s winning the Atlantic Sun championship to clinch its first NCAA trip. “You can’t even put a price tag on that. There will be another one like the first one.”
This one's worth celebrating over and over again #Champs #beLieve #ASUNMadness pic.twitter.com/fTMHAUSBzG
— Lipscomb Men's Basketball (@LipscombMBB) March 6, 2018
His Bisons — yes, plural with an s — will make their tournament debut next week, with a tough draw against a top seed, if not a trip to Dayton for the First Four games that lead to the field of 64.
Playing in an early tournament — they upset No. 1 seed Florida Gulf Coast in their own gym in Sunday’s championship — gave them a full week to savor the milestone before they even know who their opponent will be. There’s a national exposure not only for the team, but for the entire university, which has been around since 1891.
“We can take Lipscomb out across the country and let people hear about us and see us for the first time,” the 45-year-old coach said. “We carry the torch, and it’s a great opportunity and responsibility. Before you do it, you talk about what could happen: ‘Hey, we need this, this, that, because we’re trying to get to the NCAA Tournament,’ and then we can return the favor to the university. It’s a really rewarding thing.”
Lipscomb had success as an NAIA school, but made the move to NCAA Division I in 1999. The program has its work cut out just carving out a niche of the Nashville college basketball scene. Cinderella did have her step-sisters, after all: The campus is only three miles from Vanderbilt, which made the NCAAs in each of the last two seasons, but even closer is rival Belmont, whose Bruins went to the NCAAs four times from 2011-15 and are just two miles down the road.
I know nothing about Lipscomb basketball but they're kicking the crap out of Dunk City right now and they have a guy who looks like the Undertaker when he was known as Mean Mark Callous pic.twitter.com/xEnZWrsSNQ
— Dan Why-Ner IS FREE (@DanWeiner) March 4, 2018
That road, only adding to the rivalry, is Belmont Boulevard, and the annual series is the “Battle of the Boulevard.” If there’s one way to feel better about your campus being on a road that bears your closest rival’s name, it’s simply to beat that team twice, as the Bisons did this season.
“We’re fighting for our own respect,” he said. “It’s not like we’re a step-child to those folks, but now there’s an instant credibility. And this happens to coincide with those teams not being in the tournament. We could end up being the only one from this area.”
Lipscomb is 23-9, and finished second in the A-Sun in the regular season, so while this step is huge, it wasn’t something the Bisons thought was out of reach this year.
“There’s a lot of validation that occurs with this,” Alexander said. “We had a good team. We had a good season. It wasn’t a fluke. It’s not like we had a magical run through the tournament.”
Lipscomb statistically gets more quality jumpers than any team in college basketball. That offense is beautiful. https://t.co/eksGxPcJTx
— Wes Rucker (@wesrucker247) March 4, 2018
Lipscomb nearly saw that glory slip away — they led FGCU by 32 in the second half of the championship game, only to see that lead dwindle to five before they closed out the win. They’re battle-tested — they played against ranked Tennessee and Purdue teams, lost at Texas and Alabama.
Junior guard Garrison Matthews led the conference with 22 points per game, as part of a lineup that led the A-Sun in scoring. Junior forward Eli Pepper was third in the league with 7.9 rebounds per game.
So Nashville has a different buzz this week — as might be expected, Lipscomb’s biggest alums are singers like country star Kelsea Ballerini, or for older listeners, singer Pat Boone was once a student there.
WE ARE GOING DANCING!!!!!!!
FINAL | Lipscomb 108, FGCU 96 #beLieve #ASUNMBB#beLieve #ASUNMadness pic.twitter.com/3UqoBAjIoM
— Lipscomb Men's Basketball (@LipscombMBB) March 4, 2018
The Atlantic Sun has been a dangerous conference in the tournament — Florida Gulf Coast’s “Dunk City” team famously made the Sweet 16 as a No. 15 seed in 2013, and the next year, Mercer knocked off Duke in the opening round as a No. 14 seed.
So even for a first time, Alexander feels like his team can enter the tournament with hopes of more than just a cameo.
“I think we have the right mentality — our players know what to expect as far as level of competition,” he said. “We know it’s not going to be easy by any stretch, but we will approach the game planning to win.”
