Regardless of how Georgia State fares in this week’s Sun Belt Conference basketball tournament, the Panthers can look back on two critical moments that prevented the season from completely going off the rails.
One incident took place on a dark, lonely state highway in rural Alabama, the other in the most remote spot in the locker room at the GSU Sports Arena.
Take away what happened in those disparate locations and the Panthers likely would not be the No. 3 seeds entering the tournament, which begins Thursday in Pensacola, Fla. Those pivotal moments helped preserve the dream of returning to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2019, a goal that is three wins away.
Georgia State (15-10) earned a first-round bye and will play the winner of the game between No. 11-seed Louisiana-Monroe and No. 6-seed Arkansas State at 6 p.m. Saturday (TV: ESPN+; Local radio: WRAS 88.5-FM) Georgia State swept its two games against Louisiana-Monroe and had its lone game against Arkansas State canceled because of COVID-19.
“We're just playing better basketball and we've been winning, but we're not hot. We're not on a roll."
The first important moment came Dec. 14 while the team was returning from a game against Mississippi State in Starkville. It had not gone well. Georgia State shot 32.8% from the floor and suffered a 79-50 loss. But that was only the beginning of a long night. GSU’s chartered bus broke down in little Reform, Ala. – that’s about a half-hour from Gordo – in the western portion of the state.
It was midnight. The bus company was closed, and there was no one available to repair the bus. Assistant coach Chris Kreider, the team’s personal Rolodex, called a friend of a friend who wound up calling another friend who was the basketball coach at Tuscaloosa County High School. Curt Weeks got out of bed, went to the high school, procured a bus and drove 40 minutes to Reform to pick up everyone and take them to a hotel in Tuscaloosa.
“That act of kindness was a great experience for all of us because we were so wrapped up in our woes as a team,” coach Rob Lanier said.
It also gave Lanier a chance to evaluate each of the players and the state of the team, information he put in an email that was sent to the coaching staff. That quiet time in the country gave him a much-needed opportunity for introspection.
“The convergence of the things that happened around that were really the springboard for us to improve,” Lanier said. “It forced us to look in the mirror, and that time together gave me some clarity. When we got back, I had some hard decisions to make as far as conversations with our guys, and I thought that created a path forward for us. We didn’t reap any immediate fruit from that, but for me, personally, it gave me some clarity of like, ‘All right, here’s the way I need to do things going forward for us to get right.”
The other incident occurred after the Panthers lost an overtime game to Coastal Carolina on Jan. 22, leaving them 0-4 in the conference. Eliel Nsoseme was playing in only his fifth game since returning from a knee injury that kept him sidelined all season. That night he produced 19 points and 15 rebounds, but was disconsolate about missing a pair of free throws in the second half and had taken refuge in the locker room’s inner sanctum.
“Everyone’s seated in their chairs, and I’m getting ready to speak, but Eliel can’t come out because he’s so emotional about missing free throws,” Lanier said. “You can hear him and his emotions in the back. So instead of giving a speech, we all go back there with him. It was a sad moment, because I felt bad for him, but in that moment we all forgot about the game and we’re all worried about Ellie.
“The guys were doing all the talking, how we’re in this together, and I felt like after that we were going to be OK. We were going to find a way to get through this stuff.”
That’s exactly what happened. Roles were redefined, the starting lineup changed and senior Kane Williams took over as the leader. That’s when the team began to win, starting the next week with two crucial road victories in Louisiana. Georgia State has lost only once since. The Panthers have won seven consecutive and nine of their past 10, but Lanier cautioned about reading too much into that success on the eve of the conference tournament.
“Everyone’s going to be telling them how good they are and how we’re getting hot at the right time,” Lanier said. “We’re just playing better basketball and we’ve been winning, but we’re not hot. We’re not on a roll. The reality is we’ve got some catching up to do, and if our mindset is that we’re on a roll, we’re going to be coming home really quickly. But if our mindset is that we’ve got to continue to improve, we’ve got a real chance, and I believe that’s where we are right now.”
Georgia State reached the conference championship game last year but lost to Appalachian State. The two rivals, who split the two regular-season games, could meet in the semifinals Sunday.
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