DENIS POROY, DENIS POROY AP
SAN DIEGO – Stephen Fuller Austin was a Virginian who relocated to Arkansas and later founded the first successful colony in Texas.
The state capital, a county and two universities are named after him, which means he is held indirectly responsible for the Cowboys, Shiner Bock, Willie Nelson, Bonnie Parker and the heart transplant.
Being known as “the father of Texas” is the very definition of a mixed emotion.
The original Stephen F. had nothing to do with basketball. Few Texans did, until recently. In 1977, Baylor coach Jim Haller was so delighted that a reporter actually wanted to see his practice that he had each player, Vinnie Johnson included, shake hands with the guy on the way back to the layup line.
That, too, has changed.
Today, Stephen F. Austin University takes on UCLA in the NCAA Tournament, and the winner sits at one of 16 tables in a very exclusive room.
The Lumberjacks have won 29 games consecutively. They have not lost since Nov. 23 at East Tennessee State. “That wasn’t us, that night,” said Tanner Clayton, a former USC volleyball player who found his way to SFA.
They seemed doomed for a long time Friday night, trailing Virginia Commonwealth, 60-50, with 3:38 left, and 67-63 with 21 seconds left.
But VCU began missing foul shots, and Desmond Haymon got to the right wing for a 3-point try. He made it, and for some reason VCU’s JeQuan Lewis fouled him, although Haymon went down like a celluloid cowboy.
“I saw that go in and I said, ‘There it is, we lucked out. That’s March Madness right there,’’’ forward Thomas Walkup said.
“It’s incredible what positive mental attitude can do,” Coach Brad Underwood said. “It’s an emotionless team for the most part, except for their head ball coach.’’
Haymon’s go-ahead 3-pointer, and a 5-for-6 foul shooting performance, won this overtime for SFA.
The 77-75 victory continued the saga of the team that came from everywhere and nowhere, specifically Nagodoches, population 33,000, and the oldest town in Texas.
“I took a visit there and I thought it was beautiful,” said Clayton, who, it should be noted, is from San Diego.
Underwood came from South Carolina, where he was on Frank Martin’s staff. He had coached for 27 years, doing the team’s laundry while coaching at two junior colleges.
He came to SFA on a Saturday morning for an interview, he was stunned at how well-groomed the campus was.
SFA had won at least 20 games in five of the previous six seasons under Danny Kaspar, who left, after 13 years, to coach Texas State.
When Kaspar took over, the Lumberjacks had won 10 games in two years and were 306th in the RPI.
“I told my assistants if you couldn’t trust a kid with the keys to your house when you were going out of the town, we shouldn’t recruit him,” Kaspar said. “Those guys at SFA are tough, cerebral and coachable. They were a pleasure to coach.”
The players are from Bosnia and Mississippi and South Carolina and Texas.
Walkup broke his foot twice and had to have a pin inserted, then taken out, and thus lost his freshman year. Haymon’s only other offer was Jackson State. Kaspar only spotted Parker, in Oklahoma City, because the officials were late to the game he wanted to watch, so he went to the next court.
Clayton wasn’t ready for USC’s social and academic whirl, left school, went to JC for one year without sports, and then played basketball at Arizona Western JC in Yuma. “It’s 250 miles away from San Diego and Phoenix, a good place to focus,” he said.
They defend the rim well, for their size, and they ran back-door plays against VCU. They made only five turnovers in the first half.
“I was doing backflips in the hallway,” said Underwood, who had the Lumberjacks practicing five-on-seven last week. “But we’re skilled, we have a lot of guys who can handle the ball.”
SFA played Stanford in the NIT last season, in front of Bill Walton, who told his audience this:
“They are changing the game of basketball.. You look at the defensive footwork. They work together. They close out. They play with heart and their brain. They have passion, a tremendous vision and a plan. They’ve got a brilliant leader (Kaspar). This is a very interesting team.”
Walkup looked at his phone, 30 minutes after the final horn. He already had 266 texts.
“Niko (Gajic, the 6-foot-5 forward) said today that he’s forgotten what it feels like to lose,” Walkup said. “If we play like we play, we’ll be a difficult team to beat.”
Very interesting team. To win, UCLA needs to be very interested.
Contact the writer: mwhicker@ocregister.com
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