LSC, NCAA tournament runs
It took 26 years for Johnny Estelle to return to the Lone Star Conference (LSC) championship game, but this time it was as a coach for the Javelinas instead of a player.
On March 6, the Men’s Javelina Basketball team fell against West Texas A&M University in the LSC championship game in Frisco, Texas. There was a silver lining for the history making Javelinas, as they advanced to the 2022 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Tournament for the third time in six years.
“It feels very good and very gratifying, our team is a collection of young men that work hard…we have family values, they come from great families,” Estelle said. “They work, battle, and play with Javelina spirit and pride every day…to see them reap the benefits of that it means the world to me because that’s what life should be about. You work hard, you stay together, you should be able to experience the good things in life. This is one of the great things this sport has to offer, the national tournament.”
Even though the Javelinas fell short in the LSC Championship, their performance in beating top four teams to advance to the finals helped them be ranked the No. 5 team in the South-Central Region playoff bracket for the NCAA Tournament.
“The preparation doesn’t change you know,” Assistant Coach Omar Gonzalez said about competing in the tournaments. “Our league is a really good league, and it shows with having six of the eight teams of the region be represented in our South-Central Region.”
Players like Ja Robertson and Dayante McClellan are more than grateful and excited for the opportunities they earned as a team.
“I was excited of course,” Robertson said. “I knew that we belonged in the national tournament, we weren’t an average team. We haven’t done anything but grow over the years. Usually, teams around this time are going downhill but we keep moving forward. I was excited but I knew at the end of the day we belonged on that platform…people are going to know who we are now.”
The Javelinas are in full game mode ready to ball out at the NCAA Tournament and bring a win back home to South Texas.
“We’re playing for the National title so that holds a lot of weight…also with that we need to enjoy the moment,” McClellan said before the start of the NCAA tournament. “Two years ago, we made it to the national tournament, but it was canceled due to COVID so no one on our current roster has ever played in the national tournament so it’ll be good to kind of slow down and enjoy the moment with our brothers and acknowledge that we are making history.”