Two more mid-major college basketball teams—Troy and Wofford—secured spots in the NCAA tournament on Monday, ending tournament droughts.
The Troy Trojans (23–10) took the Sun Belt Conference title 94–81 with a win over Arkansas State to end an eight-year tournament drought. And the Wofford Terriers (19–15) ended a six-year tourney drought with a 92–85 victory over Furman (25–9) for the Southern Conference title.
It’s Perry’s first trip to the Big Dance since 2008. He played for Kentucky from 2006 to 2009, and none of those Wildcats teams ever made it past the second round.
The Terriers coach since 2022, Perry’s opponent was a little close to home. He served as an assistant with Furman from 2014 to 2019 before joining Wofford as an assistant the following season in 2019.
Troy head coach Scott Cross also hasn’t made the Big Dance since 2008 when he was with Texas-Arlington. Cross lost his lone NCAA tournament game with UT Arlington, a program he left in 2018 for an assistant job with TCU, followed by head coach of the Trojans in 2019.
“It’s just surreal. I mean, it’s been 17 years since I’ve been to the NCAA tournament [and] don’t take it for granted,” Cross told The Field of 68 podcast on Monday night.
Troy finished in a four-way tie for the Sun Belt Conference regular-season title, and senior guard Tayton Conerway stepped up in the tournament with an MVP-winning performance. Conerway came up big in the title game against Arkansas State with 21 points and six rebounds.
“I mean, I had a feeling for a long time that this team was special—that they could do it,” Cross said.
For Troy, it’s a third trip to the tournament, which hasn’t been overly kind to the Trojans. In 2017, Troy drew a No. 15 seed and fell to No. 2 seed Duke 87–65. Troy’s first trip didn’t go much better as a No. 14 seed in 2003 when No. 3 seed Xavier rolled 71–59.
For Wofford, it took a late rally to oust Furman as Terriers senior guard Jackson Sivills’s three-pointer put his team ahead to stay. He finished 20 points to lead the Terriers, and junior guard Justin Bailey had 19 points.
Wofford will join the Big Dance for the sixth time in school history. The Terriers have a 1–5 record all-time in the tournament amid 12th, 13th, 14th, and 15th seeds in four of those trips.
Wofford had a No. 7 seed the last time in the Big Dance but bowed out against No. 2 seed Kentucky 62–56. The Terriers’ first-ever appearance in 2010 as a No. 13 seed ended in a 53–49 loss to No. 4 seed Wisconsin. Perry can see his squad making more noise this time.
“We have a great group, and we have a great group of people. Our guys have been through a lot. We’ve dealt with a lot of adversity,” Perry said. “A big part of it is we’re not really relying on just one player.”
“We have a group of guys that are willing to step up when it’s their night, and, you know, whether it’s scoring or rebounding, playmaking, screening, [and] defending,” he said. “I just think we do it by committee, and so it’s really hard to key in just one particular guy or even kind of take away on [a] particular aspect of the game whether it’s threes, whether it’s twos … [and] layups.”
Wofford has three players averaging double figures and another three averaging 7.9 or more points per game. The Terriers shoot .453 for field goals and .341 from three-point range.
Troy prides itself on defense, with 65.4 points per game allowed. The Trojans out-rebound opponents by 5.6 boards per game and collect 9.4 steals per game.
“We do a weeklong defensive boot camp … and we’re starting at like 5:45 in the morning,” Cross said. “Two hours of just grind. I mean … it’s a boot camp.”
The NCAA tournament has five other entrants from conference championships already with Lipscomb (Atlantic Sun), High Point (Big South), Drake (Missouri Valley), SIUE (Ohio Valley), and Omaha (Summit League). Four more teams will punch dance cards on Tuesday night with the Horizon League, CAA, Northeast, and West Coast championship games.
