Excerpt from the Dayton Daily News
Scott Nagy has spent almost all of his career in mid-major conferences. No matter what his team did in November, December, January and February, he knew its NCAA tournament fate would always be decided over three games in March.
Having coached the last three years at Wright State and 21 before that at South Dakota State, he’s experienced both the excruciating and exhilarating nature of those win-or-else league tournaments.
“If you’re at the Big Ten, and you’re the one, two, three or four seed, you know you’re going to the NCAA tournament. There’s less desperation because you know you’re already in and you’re going to get a good seed. There probably are more chances of upsets. Here (at the mid-major level), everyone is desperate. Everyone knows you get one shot,” he said.
Nagy, who took the Raiders to the NCAA tourney last season, can remember in vivid detail the four times his South Dakota State teams were 40 minutes away from being part of March Madness after reaching the Summit League title game.
Two stand out because the outcome hinged on a single possession.
2012: SDSU 52, Western Illinois 50, OT.
“Western Illinois had us down 12 in that game, and they’re one of the slowest-paced teams in the country,” Nagy said. “Being down 12 to them was like being down 20. But we worked our way back and tied it.”
Regulation ended at 44-all. And the Jackrabbits made a 3-pointer with 1:27 left in OT to take a two-point lead.
Neither team scored after that, sending SDSU to its first NCAA tourney just seven years after becoming a Division-I program.
2015: North Dakota State 57, South Dakota State 56.
In a game between league co-champs, the Jackrabbits ripped off seven straight points to cut an eight-point deficit to one. NDSU missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with 7.9 seconds left, but a potential game-winning 3-pointer bounced off the rim at the buzzer.
“That was hard. That was one of the toughest losses I’ve ever had to face with a group of kids in trying to help them get through it and get ready for the NIT,” Nagy said.
