Last Monday Troy beat Arkansas State 94-81 in the Sun Belt tourney title game to earn an automatic bid to next week’s NCAA tournament. The Trojans have now had 4 straight seasons of 20+ wins as they claimed the school’s 1st NCAA tourney bid in 8 years. Earlier today HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to speak with Troy coach Scott Cross about his star player Tayton Conerway and making the NCAA tourney.
You played basketball at UT-Arlington and shot 37.9 3P% during your career: what is the secret to making shots from behind the arc? Repetition. During my final 2 years I would make 100 shots each day from 1-PT/2-PT/3-PT land. Even when my family and I went on vacation or when I visited my then-girlfriend/now-wife I had to make time each day to shoot: when she would come and rebound for me that would save me about 30 minutes! There are a million different ways to shoot the ball…but you must see it go in to be a good shooter.
You were a 2-time Academic All-American and graduated with a 4.0 GPA: how were you able to balance your work on the court with your work in the classroom? My older brother was the 1st to make a 4.0: we were both competitive, so I was just trying to keep up with him. I am the kind of guy who would eat his vegetables 1st and that is also how I played on the court. I remember as a kid getting a test score of 43 in some class, and after that my mom would not let me go to the rec center until my homework was done. I would come home after school, get my studying done, and it just became a habit. I would take notes/study/read so the biggest reason was that I never procrastinated. I was also pretty good at my reconnaissance…so I asked around to find the best professors/easiest classes.
After graduating in 1998 you became an assistant to your college coach Eddie McCarter: was it weird to be an assistant while coaching guys who had been your teammates just months earlier? My roommate was the hard 1: Jared Hiple. Imagine living with a guy…and then telling him to run faster/lift weights! It was a bit of a challenge at 1st, but became easier over the years as I got more separation.
You were hired as head coach at your alma mater in 2006 and the following season you made the NCAA tourney before losing to eventual national-runner-up Memphis: what is it like to face Coach John Calipari in the postseason? I knew that he was a great coach, but after being in the business for so long and seeing all of his players who have became NBA superstars I have a different appreciation for him. They were a #1 seed and it seemed like they had an NBA team. I think he is a great coach/human being and I would be fired up to play for him if I had the chance. We played Arkansas back in November. I STILL do not know how he could have 8 McDonald’s All-Americans on 1 roster and keep them all happy. I do not think he got enough appreciation, and I am sure that Arkansas will see the dividends of having him as head coach.
After being hired at Troy in 2019 you had back-to-back losing seasons but have now won 20+ games for 4 years in a row: is it harder to become a winner or remain a winner? It is much harder to become 1: without a doubt. After I got spoiled during my 3-year run in Arlington I thought I had everything figured out, but it was extremely tough.
You faced several tourney-caliber teams in non-conference play (Arkansas/Houston/Oregon): which of them impressed you the most? Houston’s defense is probably the best that I have seen in my entire life. I felt really good about what we did even though we only scored 42 PTS because watching them defend is life-changing. I would probably pick them to win the national title: it would take a LOT to beat that team.
Last Monday in the Sun Belt tourney title game your team beat Arkansas State to clinch the title: what did it mean to you to win a title, and what was the reaction like after you got back to campus? It was amazing. I felt in my soul for a long time that it would happen, but this is the 1st time that it actually did. In my 2nd year as a young hotshot coach I thought that it would happen again…but I had to wait 17 years. I did not want that night to end: my wife and I went back to the hotel, sat out on our balcony, and just lived in the moment before we had to come back to school and get back to the grind.
Earlier this month SR SG Tayton Conerway was named conference POY/conference tourney MVP: what makes him such a great player? Teams simply cannot defend him 1-on-1 because he is too fast and can handle the ball. He is 3rd in the country in SPG and shoots a high percentage at every level, but what really separates him is his passing ability. He just has that special ability that NBA players have but average college players do not. You can show players things and hope they see it but he has the processing speed of a super-computer. He is not Luka Doncic/Magic Johnson, but he has that ability to make the right reads even when the game is moving fast.
Your wife Jennifer played volleyball at UT-Arlington: who is the best athlete in the family? Depends who you ask! If you ask her then she will say her: she had a good vertical jump. My boys might agree with her, but I feel pretty good about my own college accomplishments. I am hopeful that all 3 of our boys will take both of our genes and become much better athletes then I was.
What kind of seed do you think you deserve, and what kind of seed do you think you will get? The way it looks right now I think we should be a 13 seed for sure. There are several teams with a lower NET score than us, so in my mind I wish it was black and white. If you look at the SOS of the teams hovering around 13/14, you will see that we have the strongest schedule of any of them. There could be some bid thieves out there but I think it is a no-brainer. If we get a 14-seed then I will be VERY disappointed.
