East Texas Baptist's Mallory Stephens and Trine's Nick Bowman might look like a blur as their teams streak their way to 19 and 12 wins, respectively. ETBU, Trine athletics photos

By Ryan Scott
D3hoops.com

In a very abnormal year, some teams are managing a sense of normalcy, a few are doing it and winning. After weeks of focus on how COVID is changing everything, it’s nice to see some teams just playing – and winning – basketball games.

“There’s nothing special we’re doing to get these opportunities,” says first-year East Texas Baptist women’s coach, Blake Arbogast. “We’re following protocols and testing and social distancing like everyone else, but the Lord has blessed us with this chance to see what a full season looks like.”

ETBU might be the only team in the country with a good chance to play 25 games. They’re already 19-0, with a total of 23 games on the schedule, plus the ASC tournament and, given their success thus far, a real chance to make something happen in March, despite the lack of an NCAA Tournament.

“We’d love to use that last game,” says Arbogast. “But we’ll be very close to our 114 days, so we’ll have to see what happens.”

That’s become the Catch-22 for teams who chose to play in the fall. While the NCAA has shown flexibility, extending the season through the academic year and measuring contact time in days, rather than weeks, without an NCAA Tournament, teams will have to use 25-game and 114-day limits for March play.

“I felt like we had to use our days,” says Trine men’s coach, Brooks Miller, whose team is currently 12-0, and will have 10 participation days available after the MIAA tournament. “You just don’t know if you’ll get the opportunity later. If we’re deserving, I’m pretty sure our administration will enable us to compete against the best teams that are available to compete.”

While it might not be an NCAA Tournament, the potential for an undefeated (or close to it) ETBU squad to match up with, say, Hope, somewhere in the middle, would present a bright spot in an otherwise difficult season. Whether that end result is possible given the distance and the obstacles in the way, who knows. D3hoops.com is working with schools, conferences and organizations to attempt to assemble a postseason tournament where none currently exists.

In the meantime, though, a COVID season has provided an extra layer of importance and incentive on the old cliché about taking each season one day at a time. “We have to play hard every night,” says Trine junior, Nick Bowman, who’s the leading scorer on a team replacing their entire starting lineup from a year ago. “Every game could literally be the last game of our season, so we have to give it our all.”

“We want to be 1-0 every day,” echoes Arbogast. He echoes it often. His senior guard, Mallory Stephens embodies that philosophy, which runs throughout the roster. “We love each other,” she says. “We would do anything for each other, whether that’s quarantining three weeks, as some of the girls have done, to diving for loose balls, we give maximum effort, even in warmups, teams know if they want to have a chance to beat us, they have to give 100%, because we do every day.”

Stephens is nominally the leading scorer for ETBU, but nine players average between five and nine points per game and no one is playing more than 20 minutes. That depth is always helpful, but more so in a season where playing status is always a question, right up until game time.

“We’ve had days where our assistant AD was sitting by the computer just refreshing the page over and over, waiting for test results,” says Miller. Once tests are finished, though, he has full confidence in the team on the floor. “Our guys didn’t have a lot of game experience, but they had a ton of practice experience. These guys were often beating our starters last year, they just weren’t physically ready and now they are – they put in the time.”

It’s not surprising to find Trine and ETBU in leading positions – both are strong programs in good conferences, but undefeated records in February, even in this year, are surprising accomplishments. While it’s disappointing they won’t get to prove themselves the traditional way, both squads are setting themselves up for runs next season, as well.

Arbogast was an assistant for Rusty Rainbolt last season and took over under less than ideal circumstances. He jokes, “I’m getting all my stress out at once; I can’t imagine any other season being more difficult than this one.” He’ll have Stephens, who’s planning on grad school to take advantage of her extra eligibility, as well as most of the roster back next year. Trine doesn’t have a single senior on the roster, so there’s no doubt they’ll be locked and loaded in the fall.

What’s providing a sense of familiarity, though, is the focus of both squads on the here and now. Unlike some programs who are missing players, getting few (if any) games in, or are just taking the entire year off, ETBU and Trine are making the most of what they have, even if it comes at the minute.

“We had Manchester coming for our opener,” says Miller. “4 p.m. the day before, they said they couldn’t come. By 5:30, Adrian said they’d come if we bought them some pizza, so we threw out all the plans and turned it around for Adrian.”

From having to practice without knowing the next opponent, to last minute changes and cancellations, the wins just keep coming. “We had two cancellations one week,” recalls Arbogast, “McNeese State had an opening in their schedule. We didn’t have time to watch film; we just jumped in and did our best.”

It’s an exhibition on the schedule, a common occurrence for Division III teams playing Division I opponents, but ETBU might regret that decision, since they won the game 68-67, thanks to a clutch free throws from Stephens and 80 seconds of lockdown defense at the end.

In a year of surprises and disappointments, where the next game is never guaranteed and no one really knows who’s playing tonight, there are precious few, tangible things for players and teams to hold on to. Wins is one of them – getting onto the court, playing basketball, and scoring at least one more point that the other team.

We may never have a good idea of who the “best” teams are this season, but we will know who are the best on any given night. The Trine men and ETBU women continue to go out and prove themselves and they’ll keep doing it as long as they’re able.