Last Sunday Longwood beat UNC-Asheville 85-59 in the Big South tourney title game to earn an automatic bid to next week’s NCAA tournament. The Lancers now have 3 straight 20+ win seasons and made the NCAA tourney for the 2nd time in the past 3 years. Earlier today HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to speak with Longwood Blue Heat dancer Caroline Gyory about her team’s storybook season.
You are from Richmond, VA: what made you choose Longwood? I chose Longwood because I fell in love with Farmville and its small-town/school vibe. I am a future teacher and Longwood has one of the best education programs too: I love it here and could not imagine going anywhere else!
You are majoring in elementary education: why did you choose that subject? I have wanted to be a teacher ever since I was a little kid. I am so lucky to go to a school with such a great education program!
You are a senior: what is the post-graduation plan? After graduation I plan on teaching back home near Richmond!
How long have you been dancing for, and what is the best part of being on the dance team? I have been dancing for 18 years (since I was 3 years old)! I was a competitive dancer for a while and have done tap, jazz, ballet, pointe, hip-hop, modern, contemporary, lyrical, and musical theatre. When I decided to come to Longwood, one of the first things I did was look up their dance team. I love being on the team because I can continue my passion for dance while also cheering on the Lancers!
You made the Dean’s List in the past: how do you balance your work in the classroom with your work on the dance team? Being the captain of a college dance team, on the executive board of a sorority, student teaching, and taking classes all at the same time is hard work, but it all comes down to time management. I have learned to get all of my homework assignments done before dance practice (which is from 8-10PM on Mondays/Tuesdays/Thursdays and before games on Wednesdays/Saturdays. I try to get all of my schoolwork done on the weekdays before practice and I usually use the weekends to work on dance choreography. Since we do not have a coach, I am constantly in correspondence with my teammates/others.
Your basketball team started this season 12-1 and then lost 10 of its next 12: what the heck happened, and how did they turn things around over the past 4 weeks? These past 4 weeks have been so exciting as we have watched the basketball team have a major comeback! Since we are on the sideline at every home game, it has been amazing seeing the team’s bond throughout the season grow stronger as they headed toward the end of the season. I believe they were able to turn their season around by becoming closer with one another and growing their friendships: you can see how much they support/care about each other both on and off the court.
In the 2023 Big South tourney title game you had a win over UNC-Asheville: how excited was everyone after the final buzzer, and what was the reaction like when you got back to campus? I was SO excited!!! My teammates and I immediately ran around and hugged each other. After watching every home game and seeing how the team has changed over the season, I was incredibly excited for them because we had been there for them at every home game with them.
How does your school decide who gets to go to the NCAA tourney, and what will it mean to you to see your group doing its thing in front of a national TV audience? We are not sure how the school with handle who goes to the tournament. In 2022 the dance team was not allowed to go to March Madness but the cheer team was. This year we are hoping they allow Blue Heat to go and support the Lancer men…since that is what we are there for at every other home game! We would love more than anything to go to March Madness to support the men’s basketball team, and there are no NCAA rules against dance teams being in attendance, so it will all come down to our athletic department.
Does your squad have anything extra-special planned for the NCAA tourney? If we are able to go to the NCAA tournament then we will definitely learn some super-fun new dances/cheers to support our Lancers!
Any predictions for next week? Nope: just hoping for the best!
The Hoops HD Selection Committee – Initial Selection Board
We are now less than 72 hours from Selection Sunday when we will learn who will be selected for the 2024 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. Above is our initial Selection Board of teams that our own panel believes should qualify for the tournament. The 14 teams listed in blue have already won their automatic bids and are guaranteed entry into the tournament. There will be 18 other teams that eventually win their respective automatic bids in the other conference tournaments being played through the weekend.
You may have also noticed that we only have 20 teams listed in green – this is because the Selection Committee made a change to the selection process this year. Instead of a maximum of 36 first-ballot at-large teams (which would match the 36 at-large spots available) being selected, the maximum number of at-large teams selected on the first ballot was reduced to 24 teams. Each member of the Hoops HD Committee submitted two lists to our chairman Chad Sherwood – the first list contained up to 24 teams that were “locks” to make the tournament. The second list was teams listed Under Consideration; these were teams that would not be selected on the initial ballot but would be considered after the initial round of balloting.
Since our Committee has over 10 voting members; teams needed all but 3 votes (i.e. 9 out of 12, 10 out of 13, etc.) to be placed on the at-large board. There were 20 teams that received the prerequisite number of votes to make the field. There were 42 teams that received at least 4 votes for Under Consideration; this was a larger number compared to years past because of the smaller initial at-large field. There were 13 other teams that were automatically added to Under Consideration by virtue of winning the regular season titles in their respective conferences, but it is likely that they will be voted off the Selection Board when our committee begins our meetings tonight.
Our agenda for our first night of meetings will have two parts: the first will be to name our annual Centenary Award and Stallings Award winners as the worst team in Division 1 and worst major conference team, respectively. Both teams will remain on the Selection Board for the duration of the committee meetings. The second part will be to add up to 16 at-large spots to the Selection Board; for each round of voting, there will be a discussion of the teams Under Consideration and each committee member will rank their top eight teams in no particular order. After the votes are tallied, the top eight vote-getters will be ranked 1 through 8 by each individual panelist. The top four vote getters will be added to the At-Large board.
For each subsequent round of voting, there will be more discussion about the remaining Under Consideration teams and each panelist will once again name their top 8 teams to be added to the at-large pool. The top four teams plus the four carryover teams from the previous round of voting will then be ranked 1 through 8 by each individual panelist. The top four teams will also be added to the at-large board. (Should a team be forced to carry over twice, they will be added back to the Under Consideration board). Our goal will be to add 16 teams to the at-large board, but it is possible we may stop at 12 teams depending on how long the process takes.
Stay tuned later tonight/tomorrow morning to see which teams we add to our tournament field!