Texas Southern ready for its best-case scenario

Play-in game victory would put Tigers against No. 1 Xavier

Texas Southern players sat staring up at the television screen as the final region of the NCAA Tournament was announced Sunday. The Tigers already knew they’d have a playin game against North Carolina Central (19-15), but they wanted to know who awaited them in the first round if they won. Xavier. Players smiled and nodded, dispersing into the locker room for pizza and wings before the rest of the West region teams were announced.

In his sixth year, Tigers coach Mike Davis’s approach is wellknown to fans and followers of Texas Southern. He schedules stiff non-conference competition in an effort to challenge his teams early in the season, to score potential upsets, and perhaps to add to the athletic department’s coffers a bit.

Davis expected his team (1519) to be ready for March, but he didn’t anticipate such a rocky road.

The Tigers were winless through their first 13 games and lost players (including two starters for the season) to injuries and suspensions up until their final regular-season game.

But now, with players and coaches seemingly on the same page, the team has adjusted to the absences and elevated its play into the postseason. The Tigers are on a seven-game winning streak heading into Wednesday’s First Four game in Dayton and are scoring 13 points more than their SWACleading season average (close to 91 points per game in their last seven).

“Coach told us from the beginning that we had the toughest non-conference schedule in the country, so by March 7 we always wanted to be playing our

best basketball,” guard Demontrae Jefferson said. “I think the play-in game will help us have the mind-set where we see we can get a good win in the NCAA Tournament. If we get that win, it’ll help us mentally going into the game at Xavier.”

The sense is that everything is still going according to plan, even if that plan now includes dispatching of a friend.

“I met him here in the Final Four when they had it here in Houston,” Davis said of North Carolina Central coach LeVelle Moton. “We’ve been communicating with each other ever since. We talked going into the (SWAC) tournament and after they’d won theirs and we won ours on Saturday night … we weren’t expecting to draw each other.”

Still, the opponent doesn’t shift Davis’ overall approach.

“There’s no difference,” he said. “It’s just that time of year that you have to play relaxed but you have to give great effort.”

Davis emphasized that his team needs to give that effort for 40 minute instead of in sporadic bursts. After allowing opponents back into games thanks to lapses in defense and discipline, his Tigers have matured, turning away comeback efforts by Prairie View A&M and Arkansas-Pine Bluff to win the SWAC tournament title.

“They’re a MEAC team, so they’re kind of similar to teams in the SWAC,” guard Cainan McClelland said of Wednesday’s opponent. “They’re good, they have a good four and five man. … We’ll do our best to try to capitalize on offense and get stops on defense to win the game.”

The matchup suits the Tigers well.

Their leading scorers excelled in their non-conference games. Center Trayvon Reed anchors the defense and looks to neutralize North Carolina Central’s front court, which is led by junior center Raasean Davis.

“We’ve played so many good bigs this year, I think I’m ready to face anything right now,” Reed said.

Late in the season, McClelland and his teammates see their early struggles as proof of their coach’s foresight. Theoretically, the Tigers could meet any of five early-season opponents if they reached the Final Four.

“I think the first 13 games got us prepared for the ones we have coming,” McClelland said. “We played some big schools, so all of us will be prepared. Hopefully we can win some games and maybe get a rematch.