Low-major programs faced with slim margin for error

Sacramento State’s best hope of reaching its first NCAA Tournament came in 2015-16.

The Hornets were coming off a 21-win season, had a strong returning nucleus and momentum on their side. Sac State opened the season by winning at Arizona State and beat Seattle University, on the road two days later.

The Hornets went through a tough nonconference schedule 7-4 and had their sights on a Big Sky Conference title.

One misplaced knee changed their season.

Cody Demps, the team’s senior floor leader and goto player, was injured in early December when a teammate’s knee struck his thigh. In Sac State’s conference opener against Portland State, Demps was hit in the exact same spot with, yes, another knee.

The second blow caused swelling so bad it needed to drained. He missed the next nine games, draining the life out of Sac State’s season.

The Hornets went into a tailspin without Demps and finished the season 14-17.

The hope of an NCAA Tournament gone in one blow.

“When he finally got back — it took him a while because it was pretty severe injury — we rebounded a little bit, but we were so different without him,” Sac State coach Brian Katz said. “He was our leading scorer, leading rebounder and leading assist guy. That’s tough to overcome.”

The schools in Division I college basketball lower tier already have slim margins for error the larger schools don’t have to worry about, facing disadvantages of finances and facilities to recruiting and often-brutal travel.

Hoping to compete against those larger schools without a key player is about like trying to chop down an oak tree with a butter knife.

Low-majors can’t recruit the same types of players as the high-, even mid-majors, so a key loss means sending an even less-skilled player onto the court. The injury also can have a trickle-down effect, forcing a young, inexperienced player who may not be ready for the spotlight or know the system enough to be effective.

High-major schools still take a hit when a top player goes down, yet can usually replace them with another McDonald’s All-American or five-star recruit off the bench. Huge difference. “Losing your best player can be devastating at this level,” Northern Arizona coach Jack Murphy said.

He should know. The Lumberjacks are in their third straight season of suffering.

Murphy had Northern Arizona tracking upward by his third season, leading the Lumberjacks to the 2015 CollegeInsiders.com tournament title game. The next year, two of NAU’s best players suffered seasonending injuries by the 10th game of the season. The Lumberjacks went 5-25.

In 2016-17, the Lumberjacks lost their starting shooting guard during the preseason and starting point guard before conference started. They finished 9-23.

Murphy hoped this would be the year the injuries would finally cease and the Lumberjacks would get back on track.