Feisty Texas Southern Tweaks Another Big-Brand Nose

Published on 28-Dec-2014 by Alan Adamsson

Basketball - NCAA Mens    NCAA Basketball Daily Update

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Feisty Texas Southern Tweaks Another Big-Brand Nose

The Texas Southern Tigers make a decent non-con living renting themselves out as glorified scrimmage drones.

Except this season, they've found a bit of glory for themselves.

These dudes are 3-9, getting their lunch on the road handed to them by the likes of Gonzaga, Indiana, Tennessee, SMU, and even Eastern Washington at 8.00am pdt in the first game on the NCAA's Division I calendar.

No wonder the SWAC stalwart is only 3-9.

But wait! Here's one of their wins:

And with that, Sparty joined occasional Big Dance participant Lamar as a Tigers' conquest. After another brush with upset at Auburn --  they led until the final 1:25 before falling, 61-60 -- Texas Southern strolled into The Other Manhattan, where Kansas State really needed a pick-me-up.

7-4 isn't where the Wildcats expected their record to be at this point.

And now, it's not. It's 7-5.

The Tigers needed to can six points in 3.8 seconds to ring this one up, but this is college hoops, where time stands still if a game's in the final minute or two. That's lotsa time to:

  • Watch K-State -- 8-20 from the line in this one -- hit only one of two free throws, and then
  • Watch the Wildcats' Jevon Thomas foul Tonnie Collier behind the arc with 0:02 left and who
  • Nails the first two free throws and intentionally misses the third, whereupon
  • The Tigers get the o-board and putback with 0:01 left, after which
  • Thomas throws away the in-bounds pass without it touching a soul,
  • and here's the play that got the job done just ahead of the buzzer:

Yowza!

And with that, there's not much else to say, except that Lamar is in pretty good company.