If you’re not Australian, a speedskating fan, or a Wikipedia rabbit hole partaker, you might not know what “doing a Bradbury” refers to.
I am neither of the former two, but I am the latter, so I’ll tell a little secondhand story. (Seriously, my Wikipedia rabbit holing is debilitating to my productivity. Someone help my ADHD self find a path to moderation.)
Flashback to the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah. Nineteen-year-old American short-track speedskater Apolo Anton Ohno is bursting onto
the scene as a young face of American speedskating, and really of Team USA overall. I actually remember being a five-year-old, a world away in warm Southern California, rhythmically chanting “Apolo Anton Ohno” every time his face would come on the screen.
Despite it being his first-ever Olympic final, Ohno came into the 1000-meter final as a contender to win it all. In fact, all of the racers in the event had reason to believe there was a good shot they’d be walking away with a gold medal – all of them, except Steven Bradbury from Australia.
Until this point, shockingly, the famously icy and snowy Australia had no Winter Olympic gold medals, and only two bronze medals overall, one of which was won by Bradbury – one of Australia’s first great speedskaters – as part of a relay eight years prior. But that was before two debilitating accidents: one where his leg was sliced open, and he nearly died, and needed 18 months to recover, and another where he broke two vertebrae and was told he’d never skate again. Just getting back to the ice again was an accomplishment; then, at age 30, he qualified for the 2002 Olympics, which was a truly remarkable achievement on its own. But he wasn’t expected to win medals there.
In his quarterfinal heat of the 1000 meters – his last individual Olympic event ever – he finished behind the favored Ohno and defending world champion Marc Gagnon, with the top two advancing to the next round. It appeared he was done, but Gagnon was disqualified for obstruction. Advancing to the semifinal round, he noticed that his heat was filled with stronger competitors, and felt he couldn’t keep pace with them, so he adopted a now-famous strategy: sit back and let the racers in front of him crash. Lo and behold, after staying behind the pack all race, three of the four skaters in front of him crashed out on the final lap, and his second-place finish sent him through to the final.
Entering the finals now, there was an even stronger field around him: Ohno of the host nation; multiple Olympic medalist (but not yet gold) Li Jiajun of China; Ahn Hyun-soo of South Korea, who had been having a great Games to that point; and Mathieu Turcotte of Canada, skating in his only individual event. Seeing that none would likely settle for less than a gold medal, he decided to use the same strategy, just trying to get any kind of medal, which would be his first individual medal, later saying, “I saw no reason to change my tactics.”
So there went Bradbury, retreating behind the pack almost immediately. He tried to keep pace, but by the final laps of the race, he had fallen way behind. Entering the last turn of the last lap, there were four skaters jostling for position, and then Bradbury, who was nearly a quarter-lap behind. Then, all of a sudden:
Bradbury had done it, and not just any medal, the gold medal. The strategy worked. He hung behind the chaos, but not too far behind, waiting to pounce. And he glided into history.
And so we find ourselves on the starting block of a final race in a different sport. Our sport. American Division I college basketball. We’ve had some 30 games for each team to get to this point. And many teams are going for their first-ever gold medal.
Some teams were very good. And we’ll highlight those teams. They’ve put themselves in the best position to win. Just like Ohno did. And by the way, it wasn’t all bad for him: he won his first gold medal in the 1500 meters in those Olympics. So that’s one path. Try to be the best all year, and set yourself up to take home the gold in the final race.
Or, you could go a different path. You could “do a Bradbury”. Know that you aren’t the strongest in the field, but let the game come to you. Hope for maybe a bit of good luck. Being in the right spot when the opportunity presents itself.
The marathon of the season is over. The sprint is all that’s left. It’s all that matters. It’s all that separates our NMTC brethren from glory.
It’s Merrimack’s Time
New England native Lindsey Jacobellis was a truly dominant snowboard cross competitor her entire career. She burst onto the scene as a teenager in the early 2000s and became the most decorated female snowboard cross athlete of all time, winning 10 individual gold medals in the World Championships and 5 more in the X-Games across the span of nearly two decades.
But the Big One eluded her: the Olympic gold medal. Often, she was in a great position, but caught an unfortunate break before the end. She most famously was cruising into victory in her very first Olympics in 2006 when she tried a tail grab on the last jump, fell, and got the silver. But her other losses were also heartbreaking. She went off the course in her 2010 semifinal heat after an awkward landing and got disqualified. She was leading her semifinal heat in 2014 when she crashed and did not advance. She led most of the medal race in 2018 before coming fourth.
Finally, at the tender age of 36 in the 2022 Olympics – in what was going to be certainly her last games – she achieved glory. She took home a wire-to-wire win to cap off a heck of a career.
The comparison of Jacobellis to the Merrimack men’s basketball program has one rather large incongruency – that when Jacobellis won her gold, she was at the end of her career, while Merrimack is still a baby at the Division I level.
But the rest of it is analogous. Merrimack has accomplished so much since it moved up to Division I. In their very first year in 2020, they won the NEC outright. Three years later, they did again, and they won the NEC tournament. The next year, they repeated as NEC regular-season champs. That offseason, they decided they were getting bored with winning the NEC too much, so they jumped to the more crowded MAAC. They finished second in their first season in the tougher league. And this year they won it.
But, they still haven’t gotten The Big One. The NCAA Tournament bid.
“What about 2023, the year they won their conference tournament?” you might be asking.
Well, they were in the final year of the NCAA’s re-classification rule, something we like to call The Dumbest Rule in Sports. It keeps teams moving up a division from competing in the postseason for their first three years (formerly four years, and Merrimack got screwed in their fourth and final year.)
The next year, they had a shot, but shockingly lost to an inferior Wagner team at home in the Final. Last year, their first in the MAAC, they saw top-seed Quinnipiac get shocked by Iona, and knew they were the highest seed left. They proceeded to lose to 6-seeded Mount St. Mary’s, another frequent disruptor of NMTC good vibes, in an agonizing, low-scoring game, and MSM from there showed Merrimack what could have been by dismantling Iona the next day.
It seems like it’s a matter of time. But you never know. Coach Joe Gallo is a rising star who knows how long he’ll be around. Bellarmine also won their conference tourney during their transition period, but has fallen off since becoming eligible and had their coach retire. Sustained success isn’t guaranteed.
So, this is your time, Merrimack. Get on your board, go out there, and get it done this time.
Mounting the Summit, featuring St. Thomas
Despite its name, the “Summit League” doesn’t sponsor skiing. In fact, its geographical footprint features little mountainous terrain at all; most of its universities are in notoriously flat places (save for Denver, which is remote relative to the rest of the conference’s footprint).
However, most years, it is the site of a rapid downhill emotional journey for most NMTC fans in a phenomenon we have unofficially dubbed the “Summit Plummet”. Despite having featured many NMTC teams in recent years, in some years, NMTC teams have made up a majority of the field – there has been very little success for them.
After Oakland qualified for its first NCAA tournament in 2005, the next 18 tournaments featured 11 different NMTC teams. Just two left the club: North Dakota State in 2009, and South Dakota State in 2012. And those two have been bullies to the rest of the group. Since SDSU’s 2012 graduation (which came, by the way, in a victory over a longer-tenured NMTC member, Western Illinois), the Summit League featured five different eligible members almost every year, and none escaped. And, as this column has oft described, some excellent NMTC teams have tried to escape the club, only to be foiled in some of the most painful ways possible by South Dakota State feat. Mike Daum, North Dakota State and Oral Roberts.
Until last year, that is. Omaha, seemingly out of nowhere, rose up to snatch the league regular season crown, then completed the impossible step by converting that into a tournament win and an NCAA Tournament berth.
The “Summit League Curse” was broken, and the momentum from that may be continuing. South Dakota State, often the primary actor of misfortune to the NMTC, tallied a losing conference record for just the second time and first since 2009. (Not going to revel in others’ pain, but, ha ha.)
But more importantly, we have a true bona fide contender this year. St. Thomas, eligible for the Big Dance for the very first time this year after a rare transition/expulsion from Division III, entered this year as the league favorites after advancing to the title game as an ineligible member last year. They didn’t win the league, coming in second at 12-4. But they have the highest metrics of any Summit League team in Bart Torvik and KenPom. Their four losses were by 10 points combined, and they beat the league regular-season champion by 22 points just a week ago.
About that regular-season champion. It’s North Dakota State. They haven’t tormented NMTC teams quite as much as their rival Dakota State counterparts, but they’ve done plenty of damage. Last year, we ranked the 12 years of heartbreak after South Dakota State left the club in 2012 in anticipation of the breaking of the curse (which did happen, thank god). North Dakota State had a hand in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th-worst heartbreaks.
So, we’ll see. But the curse is broken now, and we don’t have to look at the Summit League in the same depressing lens anymore. St. Thomas is playing its best ball at the right time. (If you haven’t seen them play, they’re a great watch. Nolan Minnesale and Nick Janowski are a sweet duo.)
One more thing: if St. Thomas does escape, we may need to treat the Summit League – a league that’s been a depressing focal point of just about every NMTC year – a bit differently moving forward. With Denver moving to the WCC, there will be just two NMTC members left: Kansas City and South Dakota. Plus, there would be two graduates in two years, which is more than most conferences have ever given us.
A Family Affair
2026 was a good year for family members in the Olympics. A Slovenian brother and sister won gold in the ski jumping mixed team event. A Swedish brother and sister duo won gold in the mixed doubles curling competition. Jack and Quinn Hughes, brothers on the American hockey team, each scored a game-winning overtime goal on the way to Team USA’s long-awaited gold medal triumph.
The NMTC has a story building in that regard, too. Two members of the same family are trying to lead two different NMTC teams to surprise NCAA Tournament appearances.
America, meet John and Jeremy Shulman. The Tennessee natives are not siblings, like the gold medal winners we just mentioned, but they are uncle and nephew, and they’re having success all the same.
Let’s start with John, the uncle. He got his first head coaching job in 2004-05, when he took over a Chattanooga program that was left in a good spot by his predecessor, Jeff Lebo. Success came immediately, with the Mocs making the Big Dance in his very first year. A more mediocre Mocs team qualified as well four years later, but John couldn’t sustain his early success after that, and was let go in 2013.
He had to work for his second Division I chance after that. He coached prep ball for four years, then Division II Alabama-Huntsville for five more, leading them to the Division II tourney all five years. Before last season, at the age of 57, the call came to lead a different D-I program, but unlike Chattanooga, it was one where success would require some trailblazing.
Central Arkansas, Scottie Pippen’s alma mater, had just one winning season in its nearly two-decade Division I history, both in league and overall – an 18-17 season in 2018 with a 10-8 record in the Southland. They had avoided double-digit losses in league play just one other time – 7-9 in 2022 after moving to the ASUN. John’s first year at the helm last year was injury-riddled, but in the end similar to the others – 9-24 overall, 4-14 in league, good enough for a 10th-place tie.
Then, something magical happened this year: they started to win. The Bears, not unexpectedly, struggled initially in a tough nonconference slate that featured multiple games against ranked power teams. But they closed out their non-con with much more competitive games against Vanderbilt and SMU, both teams in the tournament field right now. After a 2-2 start in the ASUN, they romped their way to a Division I-era record 11 consecutive wins – more wins than most entire seasons for the Bears.
Even with the gaudy record, it looked like the regular-season title had slipped away after dropping a heartbreaker to FGCU in a wild finish, as Austin Peay had pulled two games in front. But the Bears had an opportunity to respond in the next game, their only game against APU. Falling behind by 17 in the first half and as much as 10 in the second, UCA rallied for a 93-88 win. Then, against the 3rd-best team in the league, Queens, they held the Royals at bay for an 84-79 win, and a 15-3 conference record – truly hard to believe for a team picked to finish eighth in the preseason. When Austin Peay was upset by Bellarmine later that day, it was official – the Central Arkansas Bears had claimed a share of the A-Sun title, and the top seed in the tournament.
In years past, the A-Sun was a campus-site tournament. Unfortunately, the top-seed Bears don’t get home-court advantage, as the organizers moved all games to a single city – Jacksonville, Florida – for this year’s tournament. Even so, it will be hard to bet against the Bears and all their momentum down in the River City.
Now, Jeremy, the younger. (Not younger by a whole lot, just 13 years.) He’s in just his second year at his current school as well. Before that, he coached 14 years at a community college in Florida, winning more than 75% of his games.
Then came the call to lead a UT Martin program that, unlike Central Arkansas, had some momentum after Ryan Ridder led them to a three-way tie for first place in 2024, before leaving for Mercer. But in today’s era, Jeremy, like many others, had to deal with roster turnover – 16 newcomers to be exact. Still, despite the 14-19 record, they were very competitive, with eight losses coming by one or in overtime
This year, Jeremy’s Skyhawks got our attention right away, winning at UNLV. Two games later, they handled Bradley on the road. In OVC play, they lost their first game but rattled off the next seven. Not bad, not bad at all. After a win over Southern Indiana on February 5, they were sitting in first place in the league.
Things aren’t always bright and sunny, though, and UT Martin faded a bit down the stretch, finishing 13-7 and with the 4-seed in a crowded OVC tournament. This team is more than capable of winning three games, though, and you should keep your eye on them.
Other Notables
How about the Queens Royals? Don’t sleep on coach Grant Leonard’s bunch, who finished just two games behind the ASUN leaders at 13-5. They’ve got the highest effective field goal shooting percentage in the league. They made it out of the transition era in the best way possible: playing better than they were at the start of the transition. Anais Futrell, Jadis Jones, and co. will be a battle for Austin Peay should each win their first game. We’ll keep our eyes on them.
There’s also NJIT, who’s been a tremendous story this year. Grant Billmeier has taken a program that had about as little to show for its time at the Division I level as just about any program out there, and turned it into an America East-leading team midway through the season. The Highlanders, equipped with a solid defense if not a potent offense, struggled a bit down the stretch and will be the 3-seed heading into Saturday’s tournament opener. But truly, this is a feat of getting something from absolutely nothing. They host last year’s NMTC Cinderella, Maine, at home on Saturday, with the winner likely heading to Vermont.
Bethune-Cookman is back on the national stage, friends. The SWAC preseason favorite Wildcats – the only NMTC team left in the SWAC – started the season with a near shocking upset over Auburn (hey Bruce Pearl, remember that?) and continued that momentum to secure an outright league title with two weeks to spare in the regular season. Former NBA star and veteran coach Reggie Theus has a great chance to dance, having built the league’s top defense, but anyone who’s watching knows the chaos that awaits in the SWAC tournament. The regular season champ has only won the tournament two of the last seven years. Johnny Jones’ Texas Southern seems to always be a threat from any seed line. (Plus, what even is this bracket? Six teams get double byes, and the 8-seed gets the winner of 10 vs. 11, while the 7 seed gets the 9 vs. 12 winner?)
Shout out to the other teams who had good seasons.
- Lindenwood had its first winning season in its four years of Division I hoops and gets started from the 6-seed spot, at the bottom of the OVC ladder.
- UMass Lowell, hanging near the top for the last two years, lost 10 of its first 12 Division I games and looked like they might be AWFUL, but they rebounded for an 11-9 conference mark and will host at least one game in the America East tournament, against Albany on Saturday.
- Quinnipiac couldn’t complete its third straight share of a league title, but it still battled its way to a top-four league finish. After getting upset for the last couple of years, perhaps they can start doing the upsetting.
- UT Rio Grande Valley finished outright third in a competitive Southland Conference. That’s the great news. The less good news is that they were still well behind the quality of the top two teams, SFA and McNeese, who are widely expected to contest the title game. But they did pick off McNeese once this year, so who knows? The former Texas-Pan American Broncs turned UTRGV Vaqueros are BACK.
- Finally, William & Mary got off to such a good start. SUCH a good start. Like, had us dreaming for a second. One of just three remaining Founding Fathers – that is, teams that have been eligible for every Division I tournament and still not yet appeared – they cracked the Other Top 25 multiple times, something I have to imagine is rare. Romping wins over expected-to-be-good Towson and Stony Brook will do that, I guess. Well, they just kinda meh’d their way over the finish line. They’re the 6-seed in the CAA tournament.
And, the WAC is going to be wild in its final year. Four out of seven teams are NMTC. The top three spots in the tournament will be occupied in some order by Utah Valley, Cal Baptist, and Utah Tech. And Utah Valley – the only double-digit NMTC team in KenPom and NET – is in hot water with the league and may not get to compete at all. We’ll devote a whole other article to them later on in Champ Week, so stay tuned.
NMTC Women’s Edition
Like the athletes at the Winter Olympics this year, the women’s NMTC squads tend to do a lot better than the men. Part of this is, of course, the fact that the NCAA excluded women from competing until 1982, so the Club is still pretty large and depletes at a quicker rate each year.
I suppose I’m in for a fair amount of criticism here for not covering them enough. I love women’s basketball, I really do. However, the men’s NMTC teams are burned into the back of my brain, having covered them religiously for six years running in a way that the women’s squads are not yet. Also, I’ve had like 12 free minutes per day during the year this year to catch up on any hoops, men’s or women’s. But if I do get time in the near future, I’m adding a women’s tab to the spreadsheet. 🙂
For now, let’s highlight a few squads that are having standout years.
- We’ve got to start with North Dakota State. They are 29-AND-THREE. That’s good enough for a conference regular-season title and to at least warrant consideration for a rare, though less rare on the women’s side, first-ever tourney appearance in at-large fashion. Seems they might just be on the wrong side of the bubble should they fall in the conference tournament to someone like a powerhouse South Dakota State, who’s also in the at-large discussion, but how about going after that first bid in STYLE? Read more about them in a Summit League women’s tournament preview I wrote.
- Davidson, in the Atlantic 10, may surprise you that they’re still members. This is a very competitive conference, shooting for up to three bids. Davidson would be a bid stealer, but they got a double bye with the 4-seed after putting together another good year. Looking through their history, they’ve had some great years in the SoCon and A-10, but just haven’t had the luck of winning a tournament. William and Mary, anyone?
- Charleston is well on their way to winning the CAA at 14-2, 22-5 overall. Again, pretty shocking that they’re still on here, but we are rooting the heck out of them, because nothing’s better than getting a bid you deserve.
- Alabama A&M is currently 16-1 (!!!) in the SWAC, and has already secured the outright regular season title! They start their journey next week.
- Wofford, the SoCon’s only NMTC member, finished in a three-way tie for first, though the tiebreakers jobbed them down to third. They get their journey going on Friday.
- Seeds 2, 3, and 4 in the OVC are all NMTC. Lindenwood tied with Western Illinois for first and got the 2-seed. Southern Indiana, also robbed by The Dumbest Rule in Sports in 2024, is the 3-seed, and Morehead State just behind them.
- Merrimack’s women also did extremely well on the women’s side at 15-5. A solid 3-seed, they’re a touch behind the two 19-1 juggernauts Quinnipiac and Fairfield, but a more than respectable year nonetheless.
- Gotta give some love to UMES. They’ve never qualified for the tournament in men’s or women’s basketball, baseball, or softball. But this year’s women’s squad has a chance; they’re tracking towards a top-3 MEAC seed.
- UTRGV finishes tied for third in the Southland at 16-6 and gets the 4-seed. (22 conference games are a LOT.)
Go get ‘em, ladies!
The Bradburys
Do we think anyone is going to pull a Bradbury-esque upset this year? Let’s start with the rest of the ASUN took to the floor today. North Alabama, thought to be a true contender for graduation this year, somehow finished LAST in the league, and their season was mercifully ended by FGCU. West Georgia, though ineligible, secured an impressive sixth place this year. And then there’s Bellarmine, which hung on to beat Jacksonville in Jacksonville on Wednesday afternoon. Though seeded eighth, they played two games each against the top three teams in the league, and split with all of them. Now, that’s a wild card if I’ve ever seen one. Unfortunately for the Knights, they won all those games at home, and they will get no further games at home. They get Central Arkansas in an all-NMTC battle next.
The Northeast Conference tournament also got good on Wednesday. As of writing, these have yet to tip. Four of the eight participants are Club members. Two of those four are ineligible. That leaves eighth-seeded Chicago State and fifth-seeded Stonehill to start out with road games. This feels like it’s going to be a final between the top two teams, LIU and Central Connecticut, but IF somehow the two ineligible teams (Le Moyne and Mercyhurst) make the final, there will be a separate bronze medal game for the automatic bid. The best possible outcome would be that chaos leads to a Chicago State bronze medal victory and a tournament berth. A man can hope.
Then there’s the rest of them. Let me see, uh *opens notebook*…Sacred Heart, Youngstown State, New Hampshire, the Big South, The Citadel, Sac St– WOOF! Sac State, remember when we thought they were gonna be the new Memphis? Eek. Uh, ok, uh UMES, Elon, the non-St. Thomas Summit schools…alright I think that’s everyone.
The bad news is, you are not nearly as good as the elites in your league. The good news is, it’s just one sprint to the end. Stay loose, don’t over-extend into someone you’re not, play within yourself, and, I guess, hope that everyone in front of you crashes into each other. Or something. It’s worked before!
Disqualified Before the Sprint Began
UC Riverside watchers were spoiled by Mike Magpayo. Magpayo coached the Highlanders for five years before leaving to coach Fordham this past offseason. Four of those five years were winning seasons, both in Big West play and overall. The other, his worst season, ended two games below .500 overall, and .500 in league. They won at least 10 conference games each year.
In the other 20 seasons as a Division I team, including this year, UC Riverside finished better than two games below .500 – Magpayo’s worst mark – just twice, 17-15 in 2020, and 17-13 in 2009. In 2009, they finished 8-8 in Big West play; they finished with a losing conference record EVERY OTHER YEAR.
Really miss ya, @coachsonic. Hoping life in the big city is treating you well.
Elsewhere, East Texas A&M and Southern Indiana, each in their first year of full eligibility, didn’t make their respective conference tournaments. Western Illinois’ transition from the summit to what we thought was a more winnable OVC has gone south, with the Leathernecks going just 1-19 in league play this year, and also not making the OVC tournament.
Last night, Army, another of our Founding Fathers, dropped its opening round game to Bucknell and will have to wait yet another year. Purdue Fort Wayne had to hit the road for the classic “5 vs. 6” first-round matchup and fell to Doug Gottlieb’s Green Bay Phoenix.
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Okay, they’re saying I’m reaching my word limit in this article. Just one more sentence?
SCREW ‘EM. I don’t care how many sentences they tell me I can have. This is your time, NMTC. Tonight, you are the greatest basketball team in the world. I’m sick and tired of hearing how great basketball teams the non-NMTC teams are. Their time is done, it’s over. This is YOUR TIME. Now go out there and take it!
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Thanks for following the Never Made the Tournament Club. We should have a couple more articles throughout Champ Week, so stay tuned, but for constant coverage, keep tuned into our Twitter account (@NMTC_Hoops), Bluesky account (@nmtchoops.bsky.social) and our famous NMTC Spreadsheet, which tracks every NMTC team’s progress. See you at the next article!
