Bryan Hodgson Bears the Weight of Sudden Expectations

With a handful of clicks left on the clock, Bryan Hodgson pulled senior forward Dyondre Dominguez from the floor as the Troy Trojans closed out its victory over the Arkansas State Red Wolves. Dominguez, who lead the team with 19 points, greeted his rugged head coach with a long embrace, his face wet with exertion and emotion. After devoting much of his basketball career at the University of Massachusetts, the Sun Belt finals was the closest Dominguez would come to playing in an NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. The disappointment was difficult to bear.

It was a difficult pill for fans to swallow as well. After all, the Red Wolves were the Sun Belt’s preseason favorite and odds-on Vegas favorite to win the tournament. Head coach Bryan Hodgson and his staff had assembled the most talented roster seen in Jonesboro in modern times. The Red Wolves had defeated Memphis on the road, had overcome a 20+ point deficit to upend UAB, went toe-to-toe with Alabama, won a share of the SBC regular title and enjoyed the conference’s only sub-100 net ranking only to fall in the Troy in the conference tournament finals.

Two years ago, fans might have begged to feel a disappointment as sweet as missing the NCAA Tournament. In that particular season, the Red Wolves finished 13-20 and (ironically) lost to Troy in the second round of the SBC Tournament. The year prior, with a lineup that featured Norchad Omier and Desi Sills, the Red Wolves were again bounced early from the Tournament, this time to Georgia State. Even the heralded Grant McCasland Year ended prematurely with a first round loss to ULM. By comparison, the last two seasons have seen two SBC Tournament Finals for the Red Wolves, a Torture of Tantalus that many find difficult to endure, yet preferable to the alternative seen in previous seasons.

Even in Arkansas State’s darkest seasons, winning the conference is the state goal. Rarely was the program put in that position. Coach Hodgson has proven to the Jonesboro skeptics that a quality team can be recruited, signed and put into play. The blueprint has finally forged its third dimension. All that is left is to execute.

Destinee Rogers Brilliantly Overcomes the Sting of Underachieved Brilliance

If the Red Wolves men underperformed with Omier and Sills, it can be said that the women underwhelmed with Lauryn Pendleton and Izzy Higginbottom, the latter perhaps the most talented scorer in the program’s history. After turning in a lackluster 13-17 season, which included a SBC Tournament first round lost to the Cajuns, both Pendleton and Higginbottom unceremoniously portal-bailed, leaving many fans to question the leadership of head coach Destinee Rogers.

The criticism wasn’t entirely unfair. Rogers had devoted much of the off season promising great things, clearly enamored by the talent at her disposal. Rather than retract inside the tortoise shell, Rogers and her staff remade the team, replacing her departing superstars with a cadre of virtual unknowns and solid hands. She also modified her public approach, choosing to take an “under promise, over perform” tactic with the media. As a result, the Red Wolves entered the season without any expectations, picked to finish 13th out of 14 in the conference.

Rogers and the Red Wolves opened the season with a road loss to Western Michigan, then delivered an eyebrow-raising 100-96 victory over Arizona State. After trouncing poor Mississippi Valley State by 60 points, Arkansas State suffered three consecutive losses – Arkansas (to Higginbottom!), Xavier (who would finish last in the Big East) and UA Little Rock, which is never excusable. When the Red Wolves opened conference play with a loss to Appalachian State, many of us (myself included) had long given up on the program and on Rogers, who seemed overmatched by the role.

Rogers and Arkansas State responded by winning 13 straight conference games, finishing second in the regular season to mighty James Madison. Unknown by too many of us, the Red Wolves were actually a very talented team fortified by a bevy of three-point specialists, led by the tenacious sophomore Crislyn Rose, and managed by a relatively unique Five In/Five Out rotation that bespoke of the team’s quality of depth. By tournament time, the Red Wolves were battle hardened. They first dispatched Troy with overwhelming firepower, then outlasted the much bigger Dukes in overtime to deliver the first ever women’s Sun Belt basketball championship.

If Rogers felt any kind of righteous vindication for achieving such a remarkable feat, she wasn’t making it public. Instead, she credited the grit of her team and the blessings of God. The Red Wolves will play in their first ever NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament. Devine Intervention may have payed a role, but more credit is due to Rogers’ inability to surrender.

PHOTO CREDIT to SBC Media