INDIANAPOLIS — It had been a comeback for the ages.
Wright State had overcome a 16-point deficit in the late stages of the game and gotten an ice water-in-the-veins winning shot from point guard Trey Calvin to edge Northern Kentucky, 72-71, in the Horizon League Championship on Tuesday.
That won WSU a trip to the NCAA Tournament and now Raiders' fans of all ages and stripes were pouring onto the court at Indiana Farmers Coliseum to celebrate.
There were hugs and kisses, cheers and photos and dancing and confetti. Soon the players would don black caps and gray T-shirts proclaiming them Horizon League champs and there would be a big trophy and net cuttings at both baskets.
Tanner Holden, the Raiders' all-league guard, said when the game ended, he was in the "adrenaline stage" and the scenes were "just flying by" him:
"It still hadn't sunk in yet. When fans started rushing the court, I was celebrating with them. Then I found my mom and she was bawling her eyes out and that kind of hit home with me."
In the middle of the jubilant crowd Tammy Holden was thinking about the person who was not there.
Her dad — Tanner's beloved "Papaw," Delmas Conley — used to be at every game.
A hard-working, hard-driving man — in his spare time he was a stock car driver who was enshrined in the National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame — he died of pancreatic cancer in early January.
The loss devastated Tanner, who needed coaxing to come out of the dressing room for a game right after. He found the strength in his teammates and coaches, several of whom went through similar losses this season.
And that explained the deep sentiment that washed over many of the other Raiders.
Not far from the Holdens, head coach Scott Nagy — who'll be taking his second WSU team to the tournament in five years and who'll be making his fifth trip overall — worked his way through the crush of people until he found his wife Jamie near the sideline.
He kissed and hugged her and as he did, the emotions began to well up. He melted into her and as she wrapped her arms around him, he wept quietly into her shoulder.
When he recovered, his eyes were red, and his thoughts were on one man.
"This is a hard one not to have my dad here," he said quietly.
His father, Dick Nagy — a longtime college basketball coach, gruff and loving Raiders basketball fan, a grandfather figure to many Raiders players and the man who introduced the game, sometimes in storybook-like fashion, to his son — died in early October after a 15-month battle with leukemia.
That same month Mike Basile — the grandfather of Raiders' big man Grant Basile, the MVP of the Horizon League Tournament, who scored 63 points in WSU's three tournament games — died at age 77.
And so, when Tuesday's game ended, the 6-foot-9 Basile and his 6-5 dad, also named Mike, sought each other out for a towering hug they held for a long time.
Around the Coliseum floor, similar family scenes played out for reserve guard James Manns, who lost his grandmother this season and freshman forward AJ Braun, whose dad died of COVID-19 complications in January, and T.J. Nagy, the coach's son and a Raider walk-on, who lost his grandpa.
Teams go through all kids of adversity in a season but for Wright State it wasn't sprained ankles, an ineligible player or a last-second loss.
They lost loved ones who were close to them. There were COVID issues after Braun was forced into protocol, as were several other players in contact with him. That left five scholarship players and two walk-ons for one road trip.
There was the 2-7 start to the season. There was a January swoon when the Raiders lost three of five games and a February slip where they lost three of four.
And then came Tuesday night's 16-point deficit — 57-41 with 11:41 left to play — against a team that already had beaten them twice this season.
But Wright State had made its bones this season coming back from double-digit shortfalls in several games. And it all went back to one thing, said Jamie Nagy:
"I feel like they were playing for each other to a level they couldn't have if they hadn't been through what they'd been through. It was a tough year. They saw each other go low and they were able to pull each other up."
Holden, who finished with 19 points against NKU, had similar thoughts:
"We never wilted all year. We've been tested on and off the court, but we just believed in each other and never quit."
Calvin, who carried WSU single-handedly in the first half, hit the game winner with 10.5 seconds left and ended up with a team-high 21 points, said a season-long mantra fueled them:
"We have a saying: 'Brotherhood over basketball. No matter what we're facing, no matter if we're 30 points down, we're going to keep chipping away.
"We could have folded so many times tonight, but we stayed together as a team and we kept encouraging each other and playing together as a family. You feed off that and look where it got us.
"We're champions because of it."
'A great, great moment for Wright State University'
As the first half ended, it looked as if NKU was taking control of the game.
The Raiders two marquee players — Basile and Holden — mostly had been non-factors. Basile was in foul trouble and spent considerable time on the bench and Holden, the team's leading scorer, had just four points.
Only the gritty play of Calvin kept WSU from being run over in the first 20 minutes. He was fearless and scored 15 of the team's 32 points on 3-point shots, pull-up jumpers and a last-second drive against a double team that beat the halftime horn.
"We all know it. If it wasn't for him in the first half we'd be toast," Nagy said. "Grant had gotten two fouls and we were struggling. Really, for the first 30 minutes it was almost like we weren't even on the floor."
At the start of the second half, NKU guard Marques Warrick began to exert himself and scored 12 of his 28 points in 7 1/2 minutes to give the Norse that 16-point advantage.
That's when the lessons of the season kicked in for the Raiders. They had made other rousing comebacks this season on the court and the most significant one off of it.
"I think it went back to the beginning of the year and the tragedies they suffered, the losses they suffered," said WSU Athletics Director Bob Grant. "When they went down 16 with 11 minutes to go, there was a trust factor between them, a bond.
"You saw it galvanize our season and it certainly did it again tonight."
Calvin agreed: "We never panicked. Grant and Tanner had a slow first half but (coming down the stretch) they just turned it on and that was a big lift for us."
Trailing by 16, WSU went on a torrid 14-0 run and eventually went ahead, 63-61 on a Holden drive with 5:39 left.
With 22 seconds remaining, NKU retook the lead when Warrick hit a 3-pointer.
"I was guarding Warrick when he hit the three, so it was my fault," Calvin said. "So I knew I had to come down and make a play for my team. And fortunately, I got an open, mid-range shot and I made it."
NKU had one last possession and Holden said it came down to a scene he often envisioned:
"You dream of moments like that, of it being the final possession and being ready to go to the NCAA Tournament.
"I thought about this for years and years and years. I thought about that situation. And we all stepped up and held onto our principles and at the very last moment we stayed down (and didn't foul, Nagy said.)
"They took the last shot, and it didn't go in and we just started celebrating. It was an awesome moment I'll never forget."
It means WSU is going to the NCAA Tournament for just the fourth time. Coach Ralph Underhill took them in 1993 and Brad Brownell was at the helm in 2007.
Nagy took them in 2018, his second season at WSU after spending 21 years at South Dakota State where he guided the Jackrabbits to the tournament three times once the program moved up to Division I status.
"This is why Scott is here," Grant said. "This is why he's like gold for us. He guided the team though all this this year. You can't fake culture.
"This is a beautiful thing. It really is a great, great moment for Wright State University."
'There's just a lot of emotion'
At the postgame press conference, Nagy sat next to Holden and Basile, both with a piece of the net tucked in their championship caps. Basile wore one of the nets around his neck. Holden wore a T-shirt with his grandfather's picture on it. The championship trophy was on the table in front of them.
Asked how he felt, Nagy was subdued:
"Grateful and proud of not quitting because obviously it didn't look good."
He paused, as the emotions began to surface, cleared his throat and then admitted:
"There's some sadness to be honest. My dad not being here. Grant's grandpa. Tanner's grandpa. People like that. ... A.J.'s dad. My son's grandpa. James' grandmother. These are people who were so instrumental in our lives that we didn't get to share this with in the physical sense. There's just a lot of emotion."
His dad had been a longtime coach at Illinois and UIC, but before that he coached junior colleges and at a small Texas college. When Scott was little kid, his dad would take him along through western Kansas as he gave two and three-day basketball clinics. They slept on air mattresses in the gyms.
Later in life. Dick Nagy was often a fixture right behind the WSU bench. He'd grumble about bone-headed plays, disagree with the refs and always give the players his full support once the game ended.
And through it all you could tell how proud he was of his son.
That's what Nagy was feeling Tuesday night and his players knew it.
"Sometimes coach gets emotional. We all do," Calvin said. "We know he loves us like we were his own sons. He tells us that every day.
"I know coach misses his dad. He looks at us as his family. When he's feeling down about his dad, he comes to us about it."
When the Raiders began cutting down the nets, the players and assistant coaches all took their turns, but Nagy hung back. For a while he stood on the baseline and talked to Loudon Love, who was the Raiders' two-time Horizon League Player of the Year before leaving for the pros this season.
When the second net hung by only a single cord, Nagy was finally enticed to crawl up the ladder and make the ceremonial cut.
Before he did, Holden approached him and said they spoke quietly about their losses and the way the team found a way through them to get to this moment.
"We did great job just kinda loving on each other," Holden said. "We all went through tough times, and we did a great job bearing with each other.
"Everyone has a grieving process that's different. My papaw always said 'you got to get back to work' and that's what we did."
When Nagy cut down the net, he waved it to the cheering crowd and finally his face was lit with a smile.
With a wavering voice, he explained later:
"The way I feel God gives you what you want and sometimes he doesn't give you what you want. But he gives you what you need."
The Raiders needed this.
They earned it.
And they celebrated it.
