Column by Bret Strelow, App State Athletics
An emotional
Dustin Kerns paused for more than 15 seconds and fought back tears before answering one final question.
How does it feel to have App State back on the national stage?
"Take The Stairs" is a Kerns-driven mantra about hard work and commitment, about avoiding shortcuts and appreciating the process that will ultimately lead to the desired destination.
It's not about quick fixes, not that those aren't possible or don't happen.
Sure, App State is heading back to the NCAA Tournament in just Kerns' second year as the Mountaineers' head coach. And do-everything standout
Donovan Gregory made the 10-foot ascension to the rim look awfully smooth and easy with his exclamation point of a game-ending dunk to punctuate an 80-73 victory against Georgia State on Monday in the Sun Belt Championship Game.
More fitting, though, were the slow, steady steps up a courtside ladder to cut down the nets — or what was left of them following tournament MVP
Michael Almonacy's red-hot shooting during an incredible four days in Pensacola, Fla.
For loyal App State fans, this has been a long time coming. For veteran college players such as Almonacy, who made stops at three other schools before arriving in Boone, their faith was finally rewarded. During a pandemic, there are no easy paths.
This group of Give My All Apps has already given so many people a March run to remember, with a Selection Sunday bracket reveal and NCAA Tournament opener still ahead.
"With my experience and my journey, there's been so many ups and downs to the point I didn't even want to play basketball any more in college, and it kind of comes full-circle," Almonacy said late Monday night. "My mom told me today, 'You're destined to win one because you've just been through so much and you stayed 10 toes down and you kept working. You were in the gym late nights and you were in the gym early mornings. You were rooting on your teammates even though it wasn't going your way.' I just kept working."
When the Mountaineers clinched their first NCAA berth in 1979, young coach Bobby Cremins wore a lucky "Irish" green suit in the Southern Conference final against Furman in hopes that his attire would contribute to a long-awaited breakthrough. It took 21 years for App State to return to the Big Dance, as a team still playing its home games in Varsity Gym won another SoCon title in 2000 behind guard Tyson Patterson's 21 points in a championship game victory against the College of Charleston.
Less than three months later, tragedy struck with the death of leading scorer Rufus Leach, a beloved member of the 2000 championship run, and the start of the next season coincided with the opening of the Holmes Center. Despite some close calls and encouraging steps, two decades of March Madness came and went without an appearance from the Mountaineers, who endured eight straight sub-.500 seasons before Kerns' staff took over.
The drought ends now, after another 21-year stretch, highlighted by another stirring performance by an App State guard.
Almonacy's 32 points in Monday's final are tied for the second-highest total by a Mountaineer in March. From 2001 to 2020, App State reached its conference final just one time, sparked by Kellen Brand's 37 points in a 2010 semifinal victory, but Wofford claimed a 56-51 win in that title game.
When the Mountaineers (17-11) beat higher-seeded Coastal Carolina in Sunday's semifinal round, they had produced the program's biggest victory in more than a decade. But there was still more to work to do and one more game to win.
Starting with an opening-round victory against preseason Sun Belt favorite Little Rock on Friday and continuing with an overtime upset of top-seeded Texas State on Saturday, the excitement and anticipation began to build with each passing day.
Once another overtime victory against Coastal Carolina was secured, you weren't the only App State fan who looked up the time it would take to make the long drive to Pensacola for Monday's title game, even though you knew you didn't have a ticket and couldn't get into the building because of COVID protocols.
If you were following every step in the exhilarating run to a title, there's a good chance you have lost your voice or worn a hole in the rug or carpet in front of your TV by this point.
App State, which tied for seventh place in the complete Sun Belt standings, trailed at halftime in each of its last three tournament games against the league's top three finishers and won all three games, erasing double-digit deficits in both overtime victories leading up to the final.
The potential was clear earlier this season, thanks to a 6-2 start in league play, but the Mountaineers closed the regular season with six losses in their last seven games, with a COVID pause playing at least some role in the struggles. Count Georgia State coach Rob Lanier, whose team was swept in Boone during the 6-2 run, among those who understood how dangerous App State could be.
He praised Kern's club after Monday's title game, saying the Mountaineers "checked the most boxes" of any team in the Sun Belt. That's hard to argue after they took down Little Rock, Texas State, Coastal Carolina and Georgia State in consecutive days.
The Mountaineers led 61-53 with 30 seconds left in regulation against Texas State, but the Bobcats went an unthinkable 4-for-4 from 3-point range to force overtime.
No worries.
Justin Forrest hit a go-ahead 3-pointer, Almonacy pushed the lead to four on a 3-pointer with 56 seconds left and App State prevailed 76-73.
When the Mountaineers led by three points in the final 15 seconds of regulation against Coastal Carolina, there was no way another opponent could rally, right? Well, following a controversial foul call that was deemed to have occurred during a 3-point attempt, the Chanticleers forced overtime by sinking all three free throws.
No worries.
Adrian Delph drilled a huge 3-pointer, Forrest fed
RJ Duhart for a tiebreaking layup and Gregory clinched the 64-61 win with a steal that capped a 14-rebound, eight-steal, six-assist night from the blue-chip recruit with a blue-collar mentality.
Could this really happen?
When the 6-foot-9 Duhart nonchalantly flipped a pass behind his back to Almonacy for a 3-pointer that increased App State's lead to 67-53 with 4:43 remaining Monday, it indeed felt like it was actually going to happen.
Naturally, none of it came easy, as Georgia State cut an 11-point deficit with 1:45 left to four points with more than a minute still remaining, but the Mountaineers hit enough of their free throws to wrap up a win in a tidy 40 minutes.
Just like he had in the semifinal victory, Gregory ended up with the ball in his hands after a last-second App State steal, and this time he had a clear path to the basket. The Mountaineers could begin to celebrate as Gregory soared for a poster-worthy slam, and Almonacy sprinted toward the App State bench looking for someone to embrace.
The guard at his fourth college, a player who had begun his Division I career at a small program in his home state of New York and bounced around between two Division II schools before transferring to App State, had realized the dream his mother believed he would accomplish.
Forrest gets his March moment 29 years after his father, James, lifted Georgia Tech past Southern Cal with a 3-pointer that remains one of the most replayed shots in NCAA Tournament history.
Part of a group hug with his staff as the buzzer sounded, Kerns quickly found his wife, Brittany, in the crowd and gave her a kiss. Appropriate to the times, he looked at his son, Riggs, lowered the mask covering the young boy's face and kissed him, too, before greeting his daughter, Emory.
After 21 years, how does it feel to have App State back on the national stage?
Kerns tried to compose himself, but the weight of the achievement stood out on his face, in his voice and with his body language.
"It's been a lot of work by a lot of people," the choked-up coach said. "I've got a great coaching staff. I've got a great administration. I've got a great chancellor. We've got great support. We've got a great fan base. It's a lot of people, and I'm just a small part of it."
"It's been a long time," Kerns continued before pausing once more to collect his thoughts and end his press conference with four words as powerful as Gregory's slam.
"And we did it."
