Time to Dance, Samford Is NCAA Tournament Bound
What a time to be alive, Samford is heading to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2000. Bucky Ball couldn’t win three games in three days, they said. Well they were mistaken as Samford beat ETSU 76-69. Achor Achor and Jermaine Marshall combined for 47 points along with 18 rebounds to lead this team to a title.
What a special group of players this version of Bucky Ball is. They have a special coach, who recruited special players, to accomplish what they did. One player Bucky McMillan did recruit and go on a two-seater plane to see was Achor Achor. Achor was named the Southern Conference Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player in which he played his best basketball of the season in the semifinals and finals.
Achor finished with 25 points along with nine rebounds in the final after a double-double in the semifinal. He said he definitely got his sleep last night. The improvement that Achor made from last season has been absolutely remarkable. He said it’s been a lot of long hours and a great teammate pushing him to get better.
“I’m not gonna lie, this man right here, Jermaine Marshall, he picked me up every day in the summer to go and work out. Literally every day. We went to work every day. No, real stuff, if it wasn’t for him (Marshall) and Coach Neb (Exantus), and Coach Bucky for believing in me, I don’t think I would be here right now.”
Achor also mentioned that Marshall is from here (Birmingham) and he has not gone home since 2018.
Another player that stepped up huge was Samford’s senior, emotional leader Jermaine Marshall. Marshall finished with a near double-double of his own with 25 points and eight rebounds. He had to fight through two different injuries this year and finished the SoCon season as a champion. When asked by Samford Scoop what this means to him, well, he deflected to what his teammates mean to him.
“To do it with this group of guys, we work so hard, we put so much time into this. It means so much, I’m so proud of these guys. I’m so proud of this coach, our AD (Athletic Director Martin Newton) , our President (Dr. Beck Taylor), everybody. It is not just one person, it really is everybody coming together and coming together to just win. Everybody has the same mindset, to do better.”
Marshall also shouted out every other program on Samford’s campus knowing that everyone just wants one thing and that is to win.
Back to the game, Samford kept trying to knock out ETSU and ETSU kept fighting back. They never wavered. This was evident early on in the game when Samford jumped out to a 11-2 scoring run. A thunderous breakaway dunk by Achor Achor forced ETSU head coach Brooks Savage to call an early timeout. ETSU responded with an 11-2 run of their own.
In the second half, Samford could not put the Bucs away. Samford had a nine point lead with over 12 minutes left and it looked like they were going to take charge. That was not the case. ETSU cut the Samford lead down to one. On the broadcast they mentioned that Samford was 28-0 when leading with five minutes remaining in the game.
Well, they are now 29-0.
You just knew that Samford would not be denied. This team did not get all the way here to lose in the title game, you could feel it. That’s what happens when you have a steady point guard like Rylan Jones who knows what it takes.
When the clock hit 0:00 the jubilation and relief was on full display. AJ Staton-McCray just sat down on the court to soak it all in, then went to celebrate with his teammates. Samford finally did it.
The emotion came over the players and especially with Jermaine Marshall. Marshall embraced Bucky McMillan as they had words for each other.
We did get to hear one thing Marshall said, “We did it, Coach.”
That epitomizes the special relationship that Marshall and McMillan have. The hometown kid came back home, transferring from Akron and delivered what he set out to do.
“I talked this guy into coming home, McMillan said. He could have gone to different spots. I told him bro, you come here, me and you together. We’ll put it on the map, we will do it for Birmingham.”
You know who else did it for his hometown, that is Bucky McMillan. He and his team delivered on his promises of getting Samford to the NCAA Tournament. When asked by Samford Scoop what it means to accomplish this in his hometown, he thanked everyone else.
“It’s unbelievable because there are so many people here that had such a big part in us accomplishing this. They may have not been a Samford fan before but the city jumped behind this program and this university. We would not have done it without everybody’s support. We had so many people flying up here, wearing red, that they are Samford supporters now.”
It is a movement and that is becoming more evident by the day. This team is just special, no other way to say it. Whether it’s Garrett Hicks who started 103 out of 104 games at Alabama A&M, to accept a bench role. Nathan Johnson started a good number of games last season, did not start any this season. It did not matter to those guys, they know their role and do it well, for the betterment of the team.
This is a special group of players and guys who like to be around each other. They all help each other like Marshall did with Achor this past summer. It is a collective group of players that all have one common goal, that is to win and win for each other.
Walking to the media room, I was walking behind McMillan, Achor, Marshall, and Rylan Jones. They were reminiscing over their hard practices and knowing that is why they won this championship. It is how they prepare that is the key. The phrase, “We worked so hard for this,” was said repeatedly.
Marshall even said in the postgame presser, “Other teams if they saw our practices, they would quit.” Achor chimed in and said, “The first day.”
This special group accomplished what they set out to do. However, they are not done. In five days, Samford will hear CBS Sports’s Greg Gumbel say their name on Selection Sunday. What a change in this program from where in the COVID-19 season, Samford won six games.
Who knows what opponent Samford will have in the NCAA Tournament but we do know one thing, this team is ready for the challenge.
