Dance partners

The NSU Demon basketball team is in this year’s NCAA Tournament even though they’re not playing.

Northwestern State is definitely on the radar of the media previewing the first-round matchups this week. You can count on seeing “The Shot” a few times this month.

While watching CBS’s NCAA Tournament Selection Show Sunday afternoon, there it was – Jermaine Wallace nailing the 3-pointer to beat Iowa last March 17. Last year’s Pontiac Game Changing Performance of the Tournament was shown (although not verbally acknowledged) in a promo for this year’s contest.

Monday evening, the ESPN SportsCenter crew, with college basketball experts Andy Katz and Doug Gottlieb, was breaking down the Field of 65 by region. When the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi-Wisconsin matchup was discussed, Katz chimed in with the observation that TAMCC beat Northwestern State to win the Southland title – yes, that Northwestern State, the team that beat Iowa in 2006 on a buzzer-beater.

Several media around the country have already called Demons coach Mike McConathy to talk about NSU’s NCAA Tournament experience – both last year and in the 2001 Opening Round Game win over Winthrop.

Just a few minutes ago, this Tuesday afternoon, if you were watching ESPN’s “PTI (Pardon the Interruption)” roundtable talk show, you heard this:

Sportswriter Woody Paige in a discussion of the pros and cons of the Opening Round Game:

"I remember the first play-in game. Little Northwestern State got the win. It's a great way to get attention on the national level." (as heard by ESPN watcher Brian Seiler)

I'm not a fan of NSU being described as "little" (is Duke “little”? We’re bigger, as far as enrollment) but I'll take it if we're being talked about on ESPN any place, any time.

The obvious parallel between TAMCC’s pairing against Wisconsin has generated interest already – the Demons were matched against a nationally-ranked Big Ten foe, too. Note today’s story in the Madison (Wis.) newspaper, the Wisconsin State Journal:

http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/sports/index.php?ntid=123105&ntpid=1


That’s just the few I’ve seen or heard.

… Congrats to former Demon baseball assistant coach Travis Janssen and wife Christy. Big sister Avery has welcomed little brother Tate Alan, over in Jacksonville, Ala., where Travis is an assistant coach for the Gamecocks baseball team. Dad was the Demons’ third base coach from 2002-04.

Doug Ireland, SID