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| Schreiner athletics photo |
By Riley Zayas
Special to D3hoops.com
Two weeks ago, the NCAA Tournament was a distant thought in the minds of people in and around the Schreiner men’s basketball program. The focus was simply on qualifying for the SCAC Tournament. Without a win over Texas Lutheran on Saturday, the Mountaineers’ season would effectively be over.
Now, preparations for the NCAA Tournament have been made in Kerrville, Texas, over the past four days. The Mountaineers’ return trip to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2018 is a day away. A matchup with No. 17 Mary Hardin-Baylor awaits Marwan Elrakabawy’s team in Belton.
What a difference two weeks can make.
If there is a so-called “cinderella” in this year’s tournament, Schreiner fits the slipper. After all, it is rare that a team finds its way into the conference tournament with a win on the final day of the regular season, runs the table by taking down three opponents who had already beaten them twice in the year, and makes it to the 64-team tournament with a 6-10 conference record.
But that is exactly what Schreiner did in San Antonio this past weekend.
“You wake up the next morning, and think ‘Did that happen?’” Elrakabawy said in an interview with D3hoops.com on Wednesday.
Yes it did. The Mountaineers improbable run to the NCAA Tournament and a SCAC championship began on Friday, with a 57-55 win over Colorado College in the quarterfinal round. Beau Cervantes’ jumper with four seconds left broke a 55-55 tie, giving Schreiner the narrow victory.
One hurdle cleared. Two to go.
Less than 24 hours later, it was a matchup against St. Thomas (Texas), the undisputed No. 1 ranked team in Region 10, in the semifinal round. Leading scorer Kamden Ross was on the bench for the final three minutes, nine seconds, forcing others, such as fifth-year Alex Dehoyos to step up. Dehoyos put Schreiner back in front with one minute, 47 seconds to go, and the Mountaineers never surrendered the lead, winning 65-64.
“Looking back at the first time we played St. Thomas [during the regular season], we had actually done a really good job of guarding them. The problem was we had what was probably the worst offensive game of college basketball I’ve ever been a part of, and shot something like 18 percent.
“Then they came to our place and we put 87 points on them. We knew we could score on them, and we knew we could defend them. We just had to figure out how to do it in the same game.”
That performance, a blend of the first two meetings against the Celts, came on Saturday evening, promptly shocking the D-III world. St. Thomas had won 10 straight entering that one. Few saw another champion coming out of the SCAC. But Schreiner had cleared a second hurdle. Trinity (Texas) was the only one standing in its way.
By midafternoon Sunday, the SCAC title game was decided, in yet another victory for Schreiner that left the large crowd on hand on the edge of its seats for most of the second half. Trinity, even on its home floor, with a seven-point lead and just 12 minutes left, failed in preventing Schreiner’s late-game surge. The 69-67 victory was sealed with two free throws from Dehoyos with three seconds left.
Schreiner earned a spot in the NCAA Tournament, thus completing the unbelievable run. The Mountaineers became the first No. 5 seed champion in the history of the SCAC tournament, which dates back to the 2002-03 season.
“Trinity in particular has really had our number the last couple of years,” Elrakabawy said. “They knocked us out of the tournament and swept us the last two years. We didn’t need a ton of prep. Our guys knew their guys. It was just a matter of trying to continue to play together and play consistently.”
The Schreiner team that took the floor in San Antonio last weekend appears almost 180 degrees different than the team that opened its SCAC schedule by meddling through the first four games — all losses — and was hampered by internal conflict that made consistency and togetherness a tall task.
“We had a difficult season internally,” Elrakabawy said, not shying away from the adversity his team encountered, especially in the season’s first two months. “We lost a starter [Jalen Ned] to a torn achilles and there was some conflict of ‘How are we supposed to play?’ ‘Who are we supposed to play?’
After a 5-0 start to the year, six straight losses followed. One local news outlet described the Mountaineers’ situation as being in a “freefall.” Schreiner did not win once in the month of December.
“As a coaching staff, we tried different things. And when you make those kinds of changes, sometimes it is unsettling. But it was all part of the journey.”
Fast forward to the scene on the court in San Antonio on Sunday, as Elrakabawy and his team cut down the nets.
It was difficult to see how the same team could have gone from struggling to win a single game two months prior to winning three straight over top-level opponents in a 72-hour span.
“I didn’t make any sense what we were doing [to those on the outside] but it made sense on the sideline,” Elrakabawy said. “We had found something that was always there and had put it together in bits and pieces. We started playing with a little bit extra.”
While the wins and losses did not reflect it, especially early on, the mentality of the group remained consistent. There were plenty of times when they could have backed down, Elrakabawy said, but his players never did.
“It’s kind of a cliche thing to say, but our guys literally didn’t quit,” Elrakabawy said. “They didn’t quit when we were 0-4 in conference. They didn’t quit when we were down 10 with our season on the line. They didn’t quit when a player and I had a conflict. The guys just kept coming back, and getting better. They didn’t give up on this team.”
Perhaps that is what makes this story so notable. While uncommon, conference tournament upsets to Schreiner’s caliber have come to be anticipated, even if not expected.
It never fails that someone, somewhere, will come out of nowhere and make a run to the NCAA Tournament. But to go from where Schreiner was in December, to where they are in the early days of March is nothing short of a dramatic flip in the script.
“I don’t know what, as a coach, you could be prouder of than that,” Elrakabawy continued. “It means you have built something and are a part of something that they want to be a part of. Especially in the here and now, where there is such a prevalence of transfers and teams easily breaking apart, I’m proud that our guys stuck together.”
Riley Zayas is co-founder of the website True to the Cru, which covers Mary Hardin-Baylor athletics.