SWAC's Texas Southern Shocks Patriot's Cousy, Holy Cross 1950

In what was supposed to be a NIT blowout game to warm up for our Michigan State vs. UCLA All-Time NCAA great, Fred Sturdivant rejected Matt Forman's attempted game-winning shot and grabbed the rebound to let SWAC champ Texas Southern pull off perhaps the biggest upset in the history of the Value Add Basketball Game.

The stunning 72-71 final eliminated Hall of Famer Bob Cousy, with our best team ever from the current Patriot teams Holy Cross, from our all-time great NIT tournament of the 20 all-time champs from non-power conference.

Mike Davis inherited the team heading into probation, leading to a 1-13 start and Texas Southern ranked as the 234th best team in the country at www.kenpom.com. The rest of the way they were 16-1 and were one of the best 100 teams in the country and believe this would have been the SWAC team who would have entered the tournament so hot I believe would have been the most likely SWAC team to pull a couple of upsets. Norfolk State 2012, also in our game, is the last HBCU team to win a game not counting the 1st Four in Dayton.

While it was the guard play of Ray Penn and incredible 3-point shooter Omar Strong who usually put up the big points that season, Sturdivant was in the top 1% of all shot blockers in the nation (more than 10% of all opponents' 2-point shots blocked) and field goal percentage (61.5% and 67% during the 16-1 finish) and in the last five games he blocked 30 shots for an incredible end to his career.

In our game this team already pulled an opening round upset against another all-time great - Calvin Murphy and Niagara, and our guess is they would have been quite a challenge opening weekend but for the probation. Davis did follow with incredible 16-2 SWAC seasons, and in the last few years Texas Southern teams have won Opening Four games in Dayton, but our money is that this was the perfect combo that would have given the SWAC its best show at 1st or even 2nd round upsets.

Texas Southern is likely the best HBCU basketball program again today.
 

Pos	Texas Southern 2013 (SWAC)	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Ht	Actual Season
1-PG	Ray Penn	10	2	2	0	0	1	1	0	1	5'9	12.2 Pts, 2.4 Reb
2-SG	Omar Strong	17	2	3	5	5	3	1	0	1	5'9	17.0 Pts, 3.4 Reb
3-SF	Madarious Gibbs	2	0	1	0	0	3	0	0	3	6'1	6.5 Pts, 3.7 Reb
4-PF	Fred Sturdivant	23	0	11	1	3	13	3	2	3	6'7	11.1 Pts, 8.2 Reb
5-C	Aaron Clayborn	8	0	3	2	4	7	0	1	2	6'6	7.6 Pts, 5.4 Reb
1-PG	Dexter Ellington	2	0	1	0	2	1	0	0	2	6'1	2.3 Pts, 1.8 Reb
2-SG	Lawrence Johnson-Danner	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	6'4	8.5 Pts, 3.0 Reb
3-SF	Kyrie Sutton	8	0	4	0	0	5	0	0	1	6'9	5.1 Pts, 4.3 Reb
4-PF	Billy Rosenberg (no card)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	6'5	1.5 Pts, 0.9 Reb
5-C	Ethan Blackwell (no card)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	5'7	0.2 Pts, 0.6 Reb
	Turnovers 11	72	4	26	8	14	34	5	3	14
Pos	Holy Cross 1050 (Patriot)	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Ht	Actual Season
1-PG	Andy Laska	11	1	4	0	0	2	2	0	1	5'10	8.2 Pts
2-SG	Bob McMullen	2	0	1	0	0	1	1	0	3	6'3	6.5 Pts
3-SF	Bob Cousy	20	2	5	4	4	9	1	0	1	6'1	19.4 Pts
4-PF	Matty Forman	9	0	4	1	2	2	0	0	1	6'4	10.1 Pts
5-C	Frank Oftring	10	0	5	0	0	5	0	1	3	6'2	8.4 Pts
1-PG	Jim Dilling	6	0	3	0	0	1	1	0	1	6'5	5.5 Pts
2-SG	Bob McLarnon	5	0	2	1	2	1	1	0	2	6'0	4.4 Pts
3-SF	Gene Mann	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	1	1	6'1	2.6 Pts
4-PF	Bob McDonough	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	2	5'11	2.4 Pts
5-C	Dennis O'Shea	4	0	2	0	0	2	1	0	2	6'2	1.9 Pts
	Turnovers 12	71	3	28	6	8	25	7	2	17

Here is the all-time NIT Tournament with seven of the Elite 8 teams settled.