Photo by David Malamut, d3photography.com

By Greg Thomas
D3sports.com

Crawfordsville, Indiana. The Cradle of Basketball. No, really. There’s a sign downtown and everything. 

In 1892, as the sign says, Nicholas McCay imported James Naismith’s newly invented game from Massachusetts to Crawfordsville. Local teams, including Wabash College, helped grow the game’s popularity in the state that is now synonymous with basketball. One hundred and thirty years later, with a roster built exclusively with native Hoosiers, Wabash College will play for a chance to win the school’s second national championship in their home state. 

Wabash takes on Elmhurst on Friday, March 18, at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, Indiana, with a berth in the national title game at stake. But that possibility seemed remote a few months ago. The 28-3 Little Giants sputtered in the early weeks of the season. A home loss to Oberlin on Dec. 4 left Wabash with a 4-3 record and doing a little bit of soul searching. 

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“We thought we could just outscore people and use our talent to run people out of the gym. We thought we wouldn’t have to guard or do the little things,” said D3hoops.com Region 7 Player of the Year, Jack Davidson. “But that 4-3 start was definitely humbling for us. It made us refocus and say ‘We’re not as good as we think we are. We can be, but the way we’re going about our business isn’t going to get the job done.’ That start was the best thing that could have happened to us.”

Senior forward Kellen Schreiber echoed the importance of that moment for reflection. “Coach (Kyle) Brummett always talked about the little things that we needed to do right if we were going to be a championship level team. We had the pieces, but we weren’t doing the little things right.” After 24 consecutive wins, the Little Giants figured out the little things. 

Senior leadership from players like Davidson and Schreiber, along with their housemates All-Region honoree Tyler Watson, senior Jack Hegwood, and junior forward Ahmoni Jones have helped crystallize a closeness and chemistry that is a hallmark of championship-level teams. 

The team’s leadership comes from the housemates. “These four guys around me are some of the hardest workers I know,” Hegwood said. “Seeing Davidson and Watson put up 900 shots before practice starts, you expect them to reap the benefits of their hard work and it’s nice to see them get recognition and everything coming to fruition.”

Living with four teammates “made us all really close,” Davidson said. “I’ve gotten really close with Ahmoni who I wasn’t as close with before this year. These other guys I’ve been close with before but this year it's made us even closer and it carries over to the court.”

The house isn’t exclusive to this group of five, however. It acts as a hub for the whole team to come together and build trust. “The whole team comes over a lot,” Davidson continued. We’re close with everyone on the team and that chemistry carries over. Everyone is unselfish. Nobody cares who is scoring, everyone just cares about winning and losing and that’s a big part of our success.”

Wabash has set school records this season for single season wins and consecutive wins. Davidson has reset nearly all of Wabash’s career offensive records this season. A basketball team doing historic things at a college that has such a proud basketball history in a state where basketball is so deeply embedded in the culture has galvanized the Wabash community behind their basketball team. 

Wabash has enjoyed strong support throughout the tournament, but the level of support went up a notch or two on Tuesday. “We gave a Chapel Talk in front of a big part of the student body,” Hegwood noted. “That’s the moment where it kind of hit me that everybody is on board and we have the whole school supporting us and want to see us go and get two wins.”

Jack Hegwood, left, and Jack Davidson celebrate Wabash's Elite Eight win. Photo by David Malamut, d3photography.com

Chapel Talks at Wabash are part of a long standing tradition where speakers from the Wabash community are invited to talk to the campus community about just about anything. When Chapel Talks are convened for Wabash’s athletics teams, the events are usually a mix of pep rally and mutual support — the campus community coming together to celebrate the success of a team, and the team speaking to their classmates and professors and administrators that have supported them throughout seasons and careers. Being invited to give a Chapel Talk is an honor for any member of the Wabash community. 

“I really enjoyed the Chapel Talk,” Watson said. “You hear about people (on campus) being excited about the Chapel Talk, but to step into it it’s like, wow. We’re ready to go, people are excited for this.”

“I was really nervous!” Davidson quipped about his turn to speak at the Chapel Talk. “There was a great turnout and you can just feel the excitement on campus. It’s just cool to be around a student body that cares so much about our success.”

Wabash’s journey to the Final Four has been a long one. Starting in Atlanta, then to Bloomington, Illinois, methodically working their way round by round back to the Cradle where Wabash can compete for a national championship in front of their basketball-crazed fans in their basketball-crazed state.

The opportunity is not lost on the Little Giants.

“Growing up in Indiana, everybody wants to play basketball. Every basketball player’s dream is to play in the Final Four,” Schreiber said. “We’re finally able to live out that dream. The Final Four being in Indiana makes it even more special.” 

“It’s pretty poetic that it ends in Fort Wayne, Indiana,” Watson said. “We thought we should have been hosts for the first round, but as Coach Brum likes to tell us, we’re hosts now so we need to take advantage of it.”

With nearly 5,000 tickets sold for the semifinals, one can expect a lot of red in the seats when the Little Giants take on Elmhurst.

It would be hard to script a better final act according to Jones. “It’s surreal to me. I don’t think I’ve processed everything yet. Just to see Fort Wayne, Indiana on our schedule going to the Final Four kind of amazes me. I’ll have a lot of family and friends coming from out of state, too to watch. It means a lot and I’m excited about the opportunity.” 

“I’m looking forward to seeing all of the Wabash red in the stands,” Davidson said before finishing with thoughts surely shared by the Wabash community everywhere. 

“I can’t wait. It’s a dream come true.”