Yesterday Colgate beat Loyola MD by 13 PTS in the Patriot tourney title game to earn an automatic bid to this week’s NCAA tournament. The Raiders had a 2-PT loss to Army in their 2nd game of the year and won 13 in a row since then to claim the school’s 2nd NCAA tourney bid in 3 years. Earlier today HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to speak with Colgate SR G Jack Ferguson about almost going undefeated and making the NCAA tourney for the 2nd time in his career.
You were born/raised in Indiana: what made you choose Colgate? Colgate was my best option as far as both academics and athletics so it was a pretty easy decision for me.
You play for Coach Matt Langel: what makes him such a great coach, and what is the most important thing that you have learned from him so far? He is a really smart guy who knows the game really well. He is able to build a relationship with his players/staff and really cares about us, which makes it easy for us to trust him.
You played in 30 games as a freshman: how were you able to come in and contribute right from the start? I was not expecting to do that but I guess they liked the way I could shoot the ball. I was even skinnier back then, if you can believe that!
In the 2019 NCAA tourney you scored 7 PTS in a 7-PT loss to Tennessee: how close did you come to pulling off the upset, and what did you learn from that game that will help you this time around? We were really close: Tennessee was a really good team but in the final minute they had some guys step up and make some big shots. We learned that we can compete with anyone in the country so we will use it as a learning experience.
In January you scored 8 PTS in a 2-PT loss to Army: it is a meaningless loss (because it did not prevent you from making the postseason) or a devastating loss (because you were literally a few points away from being undefeated), or other? It really does not affect us at all in the grand scheme of things…but it would have been nice to be undefeated.
What is it like to be a college basketball player during a pandemic? When we have a normal practice schedule and 2 games each weekend it is okay, but wearing masks has been weird. Whatever challenge presents itself we will just try to take advantage of the opportunity.
Last Sunday in the Patriot tourney title game you scored 16 PTS/3-4 3PM in a 13-PT win over Loyola MD: what did it mean to you to win a title, and what was the feeling like in your locker room afterward? It meant a lot. We won it 2 years ago but last year we did not come out on top, so this entire year we kept that loss in the back of our minds and used it as motivation. It is both exciting/relieving: we knew that we were the best team in the league. The locker room was a blast, but we did not have a lot of time to celebrate because we had to head to the airport.
Your team is #1 in the nation with 26.1 3P% allowed: what is the key to guarding the 3-PT line? It helps that we were able to play Patriot league teams that are historically good shooters, so we placed an emphasis on making them drive the ball toward our big men inside.
I believe you are the 1st NCAA tourney team ever to have not played a single non-conference game: is it weird? I am not sure if it will matter. We do not know exactly how good we are so it will be interesting to see how we match up this Friday. It is really hard to compare us to other teams like Arkansas.
What do you think about getting a #14-seed, and what do you know about Arkansas? I do not know if I expected anything better or worse. I have not done much research about Arkansas but we both have fast-paced offenses and it will be a tough challenge.