Dreams of glory are big in Bethany

Micah Speight will never forget the excitement of Selection Sunday.

Even though he knew his team was in the field — they’d won the league title and an automatic bid — he still got a jolt out of seeing their name pop up during the selection show. It validated all the hard work. It made everything real.

“It was unbelievable,” Speight said. “It was a blessing.”

Southern Nazarene had made the NCAA Tournament.

As all attention turns this week to the Big Dance, Speight and his Southern Nazarene teammates are a reminder that dreams aren’t limited to college basketball’s highest level. The madness extends to the NCAA’s lower divisions where hundreds of teams and thousands of players chase glory, too.

So it was this season with Southern Nazarene. Yes, was. Unfortunate spoiler alert: Southern Nazarene lost Saturday in the first round of the NCAA

Division-II tournament, upset by Minnesota’s St. Cloud State, 81-68.

And in case you’re wondering, losing in the D-II tournament hurts every bit as much as losing in the D-I one. There was sadness. Anger. Regret.

But for Southern Nazarene, there should also be pride — the men’s basketball team made history.

This was the program’s first trip to the tournament since the Christian liberal arts college in Bethany became a full member of NCAA Division II in 2014.

In those early days, it would’ve been difficult to see such a milestone happening so quickly. Even though SNU had stout basketball tradition in the NAIA ranks, it struggled in its first few Division-II seasons.

First year: 13-14 overall. Second: 13-16.

Third: 18-11.

But despite losing four seniors off last season’s squad, this year’s team felt good about its chances of turning a corner. Jhonathan Dunn, a rangy guard from San Antonio, would be the star. The Starkey brothers from Hutchinson, Kansas, 6-foot-11 Noah and 6-10 Jared, would be the big bodies.

And Speight, the point guard from PC North High, would be the engine. It wouldn’t be the first time.

When Speight first arrived at PC North, the Panthers were in the midst of a state tournament drought that had stretched the better part of decade. But when Ryan Wagner became the head coach in 2014, Speight was one of the players he built around.

The next season, PC North went to state.

By the end of that season, Speight had a scholarship offer from Oral Roberts and had piqued the interest of several other Division-I teams. They knew he was a bit undersized at 5-9, but his energy was hard to ignore.

Against Ponca City, for example, he not only set a single-game school record with 50 points but also had a triple double with 11 assists and 13 steals.

Speight could’ve gone Division-I.

But after he visited Southern Nazarene, he knew where he wanted to be. He loved the positive atmosphere around the team and welcoming vibe on campus. It felt like home.

Didn’t hurt either that Speight’s actual home was only 15 minutes away.

“My family’s so important to me,” he said. “For them to be able to come watch me play was big.”

What they got to see this season was pretty big, too.

Southern Nazarene posted a 27-2 record during the regular season, and at one point, it went more than two months without losing a game. The winning streak eventually reached 18 games.

As the win total rose and the national ranking did likewise, Speight couldn’t help but marvel.

“All the accomplishments that we had,” he said, “it was like, ‘Wow, we’re really doing this.’ “It was just an amazing feeling.” The season culminated with that first-ever trip to the NCAA Division-II Tournament. The fun of Selection Sunday. The excitement of being in the dance.

But now that SNU has been there, it wants more.

“Our main goal,” he said as he sat inside Southern Nazarene’s gym Monday afternoon, “is to bring a national championship here.”

Speight helped lay the ground work for a championship at PC North — the Panthers won their first ever state title this past weekend, an accomplishment for which Speight is extremely proud — but at Southern Nazarene, he wants more.

He wants to be part of a team that wins it all. He wants to hang a championship banner.

“It’s time to do it,” he said as he glanced across the court at the banners from past champions.

Then he went off to meet with his coaches, to start planning and working and figuring out how to march back to the madness next season.