A Championship a Year in the Making
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – This is what Austin Peay has been shooting for over the last year. It didn’t begin with the start of practice – it began a year ago.
The Governors were the regular season champions in the Ohio Valley Conference last season with a 16-4 mark in OVC games. They won by three games in the standings and were a clear favorite to take the conference’s NCAA Tournament bid. But Eastern Kentucky spoiled that in the title game with a 63-62 win and left the Governors to the NIT, where Air Force blew them out in the first round.
On Saturday, the feeling was different. Just over a year later, the Governors left no doubt in beating Tennessee State 82-64 to win the Ohio Valley Conference Championship after finishing with an identical 16-4 mark in the regular season.
While the Governors needed to stage a second-half rally to even have a chance in last year’s final, there was none necessary this time around. With 11:27 left in the first half, tournament MVP Todd Babington buried his fourth three-pointer of the half to give the Governors a 21-18 lead. They never relinquished it from there, getting it up to 15 at halftime and never leading by less than 11 for the entire second half.
“It’s like they weren’t going to be denied, they were so focused,” said head coach Dave Loos. “They really put the stamp on this thing today.”
The Governors were clearly a team on a mission after coming so close last season and after winning the regular season title. That was readily apparent to anyone who saw the game and how much they dominated Tennessee State.
“Austin Peay played like champions,” said Tennessee State head coach Cy Alexander. “They played like a team that had not had the opportunity to go last year to the NCAA Tournament. They came into this game on a mission, and they out-played us.”
Babington, who was also a standout quarterback on the gridiron in high school, led the charge with his three-point shooting. Challenged in Friday’s semifinal, he got going in the second half of that game for a spell, and on Saturday he was hot all along. When he got the ball, the defense may as well have just started heading back up the court.
While his shooting will be talked about the most, as he was 6-8 from long range, he did much more than that and more than his five rebounds. During the first half, he deflected an outlet pass to break up a fast break opportunity, then later tipped a rebound out to a teammate that led to a fast break. Later, he pump-faked a defender, stepped in and hit a leaner off the glass.
For all his efforts, he can be excused for a little comedy when asked if he had his dancing shoes for the NCAA Tournament. It turns out, he literally did have them – well, almost.
“I just haven’t put them on yet,” said Babington, noting that he got the red and white shoes from his brother and leading to laugher in the press room. “They’re brand new, pearly whites.”
But while Babington got the big honor on the strength of his play Saturday, the team’s floor leader was perhaps the biggest reason they got there. Derek Wright, a Los Angeles native who somehow got away from the California schools and came across much of the country, is closing out a fine career that has seen him become the school’s all-time leader in steals and place third in assists. He and Babington have played in an OVC record 130 career games. The three-year starter makes this team go and came up big in the conference tournament.
On Saturday, Wright had 13 points and four assists, but as is often the case with a point guard, the numbers don’t show his value. At the end of the first half, he helped bury Tennessee State with two back-breaking jumpers. The first was a three-pointer from near the top of the key with the shot clock running down and a defender in his face, then he did it again with a short jumper near the end of the half as they turned a 35-25 lead into a 15-point halftime advantage.
This came after he handed out seven assists with just one turnover as one of the unsung heroes in Friday night’s close win. It’s nothing he hasn’t done before.
“I hand him the ball, he knows the game plan, he knows how our coaching staff thinks, and I’ve gotten to where I absolutely trust him with our team,” said Loos. “He’s in charge, he is the guy.”
The Governors have reached this point with five double-figure scorers and several reserves who could probably do that if they played the kind of minutes starters do. This team returned all but two letterwinners from last season’s team, and the balance is a big reason they have been able to duplicate the success and take the next step. Three players made the all-tournament team. There’s also plenty of unselfishness that lends itself to the balance; all five starters average at least one assist per game.
A great example of this is junior Drake Reed, last season’s OVC Player of the Year. He didn’t put up the same numbers as last season, but led the balanced attack and plays so well within the team concept like everyone else. He’s second on the team in assists as a combo forward, which also shows his feel for the game.
With everyone back, the Governors didn’t just have the kind of team that could get back to this point and then win the title. They also had a team that was going to have a big target on their back from being picked to win. They were picked to win the conference by a wide margin by the conference’s coaches and sports information directors, as well as basically every prognosticator out there.
“I think that’s really significant. I don’t think a lot of people understand the pressure that’s involved there and the fact that you get everybody’s best shot night-in and night-out,” said Loos, who doubles as the school’s athletic director. “Being able to withstand and respond to all those punches is really something that you have to experience to understand. It’s a real tribute to these guys that they were able to deal with that almost from start to finish.”
The Governors certainly did that – in fact, they led the OVC wire-to-wire. They also accomplished something that only Murray State did about a decade ago, which is post two straight 16-win seasons in conference play. While last season might look impressive because the team was quite young, this season is just as impressive, if not more, because they had a big target on their back the entire time.
But the Governors also had a long time to get ready for this one. They started right away last year, because they remember the feeling when they lost the heart-breaker and didn’t want it to happen again.
“Ever since last year, ever since we lost on that heart-breaker, we’ve worked harder than we’ve ever worked this summer,” said Babington. “We kind of took it to heart. We knew the target was going to be on our back all year, and we played together all year.”
This was the goal all along, starting a year ago. Next Sunday, Austin Peay will enjoy the moment when their name is called – a much better feeling than they had a year ago when it was the NIT that called their name.
