Another chance at the Big Dance

There’s nothing like postseason college basketball to amp up the adrenaline level.

Seeing the Demons two just steps from a return to the Big Dance, the NCAA Tournament, has people in purple buzzing – and bonding together at the Campbell Center in suburban Houston.

We had lots of familiar faces in the stands Thursday afternoon to see the exciting first-round win over SFA. How about All-Americans? What a roll call – newly hired assistant AD Will Broussard (1998, 1999 in football), Houston resident and new restauranteur Marcus Spears (1992, 1993 in football, and an 11-year NFL career), and Houston resident Terrence Bean (1998, 1999, 2000 as a high jumper in track and field).

Also in the house -- our greatest women’s distance runner ever, Houston attorney Maryalyce Walsh Cox, and her hubby, Erik Cox. Both have two degrees from NSU. Erik, what I call a “recovering SID (sports information director),” is running the computer stats program for all of the tournament games but as he told Demon seniors Kennan Jones, Jermaine Spencer and Luke Rogers as they walked to the postgame interview room, “I’m a very proud alum today, guys!”

Lady Demon basketball standout Becca Hayes, a nurse in Houston, was there Thursday afternoon. She was surprised to see one of the all-time Demon basketball greats, Roman Banks, who played for the men when Becca was playing for the women. Roman is the associate head coach for Southeastern, which gave top-seeded Texas A&M-Corpus Christi a good run for its postseason life before falling in a first-round tournament game.

A large group from NSU came back to the Campbell Center Thursday night for the last quarterfinal game to cheer on former Demon assistant coach Dave Simmons, in his first year as head coach of the McNeese Cowboys. His team held off UTA 77-76 and will take a shot at Corpus Christi tonight at 8:30. Wouldn’t that be something – Coach Mike and the Demons against Dave and the Cowboys in the Sunday afternoon championship game?

First things first. Lamar played a brilliant game to beat Sam Houston yesterday, and the Demons have a big hurdle to clear tonight in the semis. Hope you can make it down to see in person the intensity of March Madness on a neutral court. It’s neutral until the fans get there, and having people in purple in the house makes a huge difference for Coach Mike and the Demons.

BTW – a huge high-5 to the Purple Haze Pep Band and the cheerleaders. They rocked the house yesterday afternoon and Wednesday night for the Lady Demons’ gallant game in the tournament. Surprising to notice how some of the other pep bands and cheer squads were MIA for the biggest games of the year. Too bad. One opposing coach made a point to tell NSU AD Greg Burke – paraphrasing here – “I just want you to know, Northwestern State does it the right way. We notice that.”

We’re all part of the team effort. Pep band, cheerleaders, fans, coaches and players – and it’s never more fun than it is in March Madness!