Texas Southern Incredible 2018 March Madness Run

On March tenth, twenty eighteen, the University of Texas Southern defeated Arkansas Pine Bluff to win the south Western Athletic Conference Tournament, earning a ticket into March Madness. And with this win, they became the first team to go oh to thirteen to start the season to make the Big Dance and became the first team with a losing record to win a game in the NCAA Tournament, coming back from rock bottom to become history makers that are often forgot about. Today, we're going to dive into what happened during this tumultuous season with Texas Southern and an unforgettable journey that got them in the history books today on Daily Sports History. Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Rees, your guide as you daily learn more about sports history, increasing your sports knowledge. And today's trivia question to listen out for is how many non conference home games did Texas Southern play in the twenty seventeen twenty eighteen season. Listen to the episode for the answer and if you miss it, I will give it to you at the end. Before we get into Texas Southern, let's dive into the worst teams to make the NCAA Tournament. Now, we talked previously about how the bracket actually started, the sixty four team bracket, and if you go back and listen to that episode, you learn that everything got based off conferences, and if you want your conference, you can make the tournament, no matter how good you were. Previously, this led to great teams missing out because they just didn't win their conference. Some teams didn't and some teams it was just based off who had the best record, and there wasn't even a tournament. But once they started having tournaments, that's when teams really started. That's when there started to be more and more parody. And in nineteen ninety five, Florida International became the worst team to make the NCAA Tournament, winning only eleven games in losing eighteen. That number was tied one year later by the University of Central Florida, and in nineteen ninety seven Fairfield College in the MIAC Conference had this same exact win lost ratio, So in three straight years, three teams only winning eleven games that year with a winning percentage just under thirty eight percent made the Big Dance. Now, normally we don't hear much about these teams because they are the lesser teams to make the tournaments. But there have been a total of nineteen teams that finished the regular season five hundred or below in the history of the sixty fourteen bracket. But only one team with five hundred or below record had ever made it to the Big Dance, and one it came, and that was Texas Southern University in twenty eighteen. And let you know, oh, in twenty twenty three, Texas Southern actually did it again, winning only fourteen games that season with a winning percentage of forty two percent. They won the Swack Conference again and made it to the Big Dance with a losing record. Now, let's dive into what happened in the twenty eighteen season for Texas Southern. Now, they came into the season off a strong previous season. They made the NC double and not only won the Southwestwestern Athletic Conference or better known as the Swack Conference Tournament, put the regular season as well, having a twenty three to twelve record. And they were led by head coach Mike Davis. Now you might recognize that name as he took over the Indiana Hoosiers after Bobby Knight was let go and was able to lead them to a Final Four appearance and has bounced around ever since leaving IU, but having success as with Texas Southern. Coming into a sixth year with Texas Southern in the twenty seventeen eighteen season, and he had led them to a winning record every year previously, and Mike Davis had a way of wanting to get his team to play top competition so they would be ready for postseason play, which is a good idea and something we've seen a lot of teams do playing non conference schedule teams that are in higher conferences or were just really good, mostly ranked teams, and so he tried to do that. They started out facing number eighteen Gonzaga for the first game, where they lost by twenty eight points, and they would go on to play Washington State, Ohio State, Syracuse, Kansas who was number three at the time, who they lost by over forty points, and that didn't stop there. They played Clemson in Oregon and number twenty one Baylor, who beat them by thirty points, and they would go on to play TCU, ranked number fifteen at the time and lose by nineteen points. They would struggle throughout the whole non conference season and would not win a game to start their season and until the year flipped over into January and they lost every single non conference game a total of thirteen games. And not only do they lose all their non conference games, they did not play a home game their entire non conference season for over two months. They started in November, they didn't play a home game until their first conference game on January first. That's tough for any team. If you look at any basketball team, when they play away, they lose more. It's just how often it happens. You're more likely to lose away than you are home. You have support at home, you have the home bed. There's just so much more about home. That's why when basketball we talked about home court advantage in the NBA being so important because it is it has decided who ended up winning the championship multiple times. Being home can change things and not being home for two months, but coach Mike Davis was able to keep his team's head up high. It would be so easy for them to dip their head into the ground and just forget about the season and let it go. But know what they did is they held their heads up high and learned from every single thing. They were battle tested and they were sharp to enter their conference play and their swack conference games started on January first, twenty eighteen, when things started to turn around versus Southern University, where they actually won seventy eight to sixty six at their home stadium in Houston, and they would go on to win three straight times, and then they go on the road again and lose two in a row. So mind you, they have a great record at home, and they come back and play Mississippi Valley State and win by fourteen points. After this, they would go on to lose their first home game after going four and oh at home. They would lose to Arkansas Pine Bluff by two points. But then they would do something they hadn't done all season. They would go on the road and beat Alabama A and M and then go be Alabama State, and then they would look like an average basketball team in their conference. And then starting on February twenty fourth that year, they would be Alabama A and M by over thirty points and go on a four game win streak to finish the season of fourteen with an overall record of fourteen and nineteen. But their conference record was twelve and six, finishing third that year in their conference, behind Grambling State and Prairie View A and M, who they tied. And in the SWACK Conference that year, there was only one team one with a winning record. That's ten teams that all had losing records overall. That's crazy, and it's because they were all kind of doing what Texas Southern did, playing bigger schools, going out to face these schools, and then they did a lot better in their conference. But that just shows like these schools needed to go face these tougher competitions outside of the conference because if they didn't, the other schools would they come into the SWAG Tournament. And how they had success was they had great size and defense even though they were a smaller school. Demontre Jefferson led the team with twenty three point four points a game, and he did this as a five to seven point guard. Now you see these a lot at small schools where a point guard is small but very good because a lot of times there's great basketball players that just don't meet the NBA standards for height. It's just how it goes. He was a great scorer despite his size, and then you had Derek Bruce, who also almost averaged fifteen points a game, shooting thirty eight percent from three, and tray Von Reid, the seven to two cinner, was averaging ten points, eight rebounds, and over three blocks a game. And this trio of upperclassmen continued their success going into the tournament, where they took down Alabama State by fourteen points, and then a day later they took They faced off against Prairie View A and M, beating them eighty eight to seventy four, where Derek Bruce and Demontrey Jefferson each scored almost twenty points, leading the way offensively, and tray Von Reid held the defense down with seven blocks, punching their ticket to the SWAG Championship, which was played in Houston, where Texas Southern is from. So they packed the arena against Arkansas Pine Bluff and in the first half it was a tight battle where TCU led at the half by two points thirty eight to thirty six, but Jefferson took control in the second half, sparking their offense with a steal and hitting a tough layup on the fast break, and on the next possession hit Derek Bruce for three, which sparked a twelve to two run, giving them the lead, and they would go on to win by fifteen points eighty four to sixty nine, punching their ticket to the NCAA tournament, giving them the Swag title, where Demontree Jefferson was voted the tournament MVP, averaging twenty one points in seven assists, and they cut down their nets and waited for selection Sunday where they would see who they would face off in the tournament. Now, the tournament is actually sixty eight teams, which is not the normal sixty four bracket that we fill out, but there are four games that's called the first four, that are played before the major tournament, before the first round is played as a play in type game, and they were awarded one of those games where they would face off against North Carolina Central in Dayton, Ohio. Now there is motivation for this because no SWACK team had ever won a game in the NC DOUBLEA tournament, so they weren't only fighting for themselves for pride, they were fighting for their conference as well. And this was also a major moment as it was two historic black colleges and whoever won would get their first NC doublea tournament victory in their team's history, so each wanted this and on Mare fourteenth, where again Demontree Jefferson took over. The game started out as a defensive struggle, but Demontre Jefferson quickly got into rhythm, scoring ten of the first fifteen points for his team, and by how half time, they had a ten point lead, thirty six to twenty six, shooting forty six percent from the field while holding in C Central to only thirty percent from the field. But coming out in the second half, in C Central made a run and cut the lead to within five points with only twelve minutes left, but then Jefferson hit a three to silence their opponents, and later on in the half, Derrek Bruce hit back to back threes, increasing their lead to double digits, and with three minutes left in the game, Drayvon Reid, the seven to two center, caught an alley up dunk, bringing the crowd to its feed, essentially sealing the game for the t SU Tigers, where they won the game sixty four to forty six, becoming the first SWAG team to ever win an NCAA tournament. The game MVP went to Demontre Jefferson, who scored twenty five points, had eight assists and five rebounds, with Trevon Reid having ten points, eight rebounds, and six blocks. They advanced to the round of sixty four, where they faced number one seed Xavier in Nashville, Tennessee. Now, Xavier was the Big East champion that year and had won the number one seed in the Western Region, and they were massive underdogs as they had a losing record throughout the season and they struggled against opponents in makers or conferences, as everyone they played in a major conference previously they had lost to. Xavier had size and depth, and by halftime they were winning by nineteen points. Despite Demontrey Jefferson putting all he could on the floor, scoring twenty five points, it wasn't enough for them to come back, and they ended up losing by nineteen points, one oh two to eighty three. Their cinderella run was over. But this team had done something they had never done before. It didn't matter that they started zero to thirteen, it didn't matter that they didn't play a game at home until the new year. They made history. But unfortunately, what happens a lot in these March Madness successes for these small schools is the coach has success and they leave after the season. Mike Davis left to go coach at Detroit Mercy, leaving a legacy as one of the most winning coaches that Texas Southern had ever had. As Trayvon Reid would go on to play another season and he would attempt to pro career playing for a couple of teams overseas and currently is playing for the Srida club based in bab Rand based in Bahrain. And as for the MVP of the team, de Montrey Jefferson, he had some attitudes issues and was suspended from the team and really left basketball behind. I've looked everywhere I can. I can't find any record of him playing anywhere else. But he was a great player for what he was. For his size, he was able to dominate and unfortunately that happens sometimes with players. Their head doesn't lead their talent to success. But for a moment that him and the team had a great time taking the basketball world by storm. I want to thank you for listening to today's Daily Sports History. If you want more college basketball content, check out the Iconic Basketball Season's podcast, where host Aaron takes you back to the greatest college basketball seasons of all time. You get to hear from players, coaches, and journalists and relive all the excitements. We'll put a link in the description below for you to check them out. If you enjoyed today's podcasts, please follow us on our socials, Twitter, Instagram, threads, blue Sky, YouTube, wherever you would like check us out. You can see pictures and videos from our episodes and come back tomorrow for more daily sports history. And did you catch the answer to today's trivia question? How many non conference home games did Texas Southern play and the twenty seventeen twenty eighteen season and the answer is zero. They played thirteen non conference games and all of them were away. They didn't play their first home game until January first, twenty eighteen.