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Troy pulls a rabbit out of a hat to win tourney opener
With the season one loss away from being over, Troy coaches Don Maestri and David Felix decided to turn the clock back a few years.
In 1999, the Trojans lost to Samford by a wide margin, but changed their whole game plan just for the rematch a couple of games later. The run-and-gun Trojans became slow, small and dull, playing five guards and draining every possible second off the shot clock before forcing up a shot.
That time, Samford won in the last minute.
So Maestri and Felix decided after a 23-point loss at Middle Tennessee to end the regular season that they would bring that style back.
The intent was to play five guards — Brandon Hazzard, Jerome Odem, Justin Jonus, O’Darien Bassett and Mike Vogler — and play them the whole game.
“We had done it once in 26 years,” Maestri said. “We got them back into practice Sunday and told them this was what we were going to do. It meant some guys who had played a lot would not play.”
<center><p><a href="http://www.dothaneagle.com/content/gulfcoasteast/dea/sports.apx.-content-articles-DEA-2008-03-07-0001.html" target="_blank">The rest of the story</a>
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And it worked. Troy, the No. 12 seed in the Sun Belt Tournament, won its quarterfinal game on the road at fifth-seeded Louisiana-Lafayette 70-60 and will play Middle Tennessee Sunday at 3 p.m. at the Mitchell Center in Mobile.
The plan was kept secret until the game started. Troy coaches turned in the starting lineup of five guards, and when a ULL assistant saw that, he ran to the locker room and ran right back out to try to change the lineup to get 6-foot-9 center Abray Milson out, but couldn’t.
Milson started, played two minutes, and didn’t play again.
Even Barry McKnight, the radio voice of the Trojans, didn’t know anything about it until the Wednesday afternoon shootaround.
“When they told me, I thought I was going to have to _____ my finger and we would become blood brothers,” McKnight said. “It was critical that it was kept secret.”
Jarvis Acker, Tom Jervis and Trayce Macon had played in almost every game this season, but not against ULL. Soon after the game started, the boos came out since the pace was so slow.
“We had prepared for that,” Maestri said. “I had my wife and son and the guys on the bench sitting in the stands during practice booing.”
Maestri found tape from that 1999 game with Samford and showed the team eight successful plays from each half to show how the offense could work.
It did, as Troy erased a 9-point halftime deficit while still playing the same style of game. Vogler, Jonus and Odem played all 40 minutes. Bassett played 39 and Mario Telfair, a 6-foot-6, 190-pound forward, played the final 22 minutes after Hazzard twisted his ankle.
Telfair wasn’t even in the game plan, but scored six points with five rebounds. Odem and Bassett led the way with 16 points, Jonus scored 14 and Vogler 13.
“The players really believed that it would work,” Maestri said. “Without them, it wouldn’t have happened. The coaches shouldn’t have the credit because this is a very difficult way to win a game.”
Maestri told Acker, who has been with the program longer than any current player, that he likely wouldn’t play in what could have been his final game.
“I told Jarvis the day before the game that we may be able to give you the thrill of a lifetime,” Maestri said. “He told the team before the game, ‘I want that thrill. I want to go to Mobile.’”
Now, the Trojans are on their way.
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