Last Wednesday McNeese beat Nicholls State 92-76 in the Southland tourney title game to earn an automatic bid to next week’s NCAA tournament. The Cowboys have finished with a losing record every single year since 2013 but are now 30-3 and heading to their 1st NCAA tourney since 2002. Yesterday HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to speak with McNeese Cowgirl Kicker Maci Quayhagen about her team’s storybook season.
You are from Leesville, LA: what made you choose McNeese? Ever since I was little I have been coming here for games because my brother played football here. I knew that I always wanted to be a Kicker after watching them on the sideline.
You are majoring in business management: why did you choose that subject? I did not know what I wanted to do at 1st, like most college kids, but I have seen my mom help run a dance studio and my brother owns a gym. They have been very inspiring to me.
You are a senior: what is the post-graduation plan? I am still not ready to let go of dance so I might try out for some other teams. I also started coaching a local AFL team so I will see where dance takes me.
You are the Assistant Director/Choreographer for the AFL Louisiana Voodoo Dolls: how do the pro dancers compare to the college dancers? We are just starting our 1st year but there does not seem to be much of a difference yet: you just cheer on your team.
You have been dancing for most of your life: what is the best part of being on the dance team? Just having that bond between the girls: people say it is “more than dance”…but it is true. We learn/grow together and you will always have your team behind you.
You were a co-captain last year and are captain this year: what is the key to being a good leader? There are some bumps in the road but our coaches make it so easy because they are so welcoming. We are the bridge between the director and the team: it just comes naturally and is a lot of fun.
You have won 5 national dance titles: did you have to build a new trophy room to display all your hardware?! My room at home/closet are full of trophies so that is up to my mom!
You played basketball for 8 years: as someone who understands the sport what has impressed you the most about this year’s Southland tourney champs? Just seeing how the team works together: even during our small glimpses of practice they always cheer each other on without any drama. As someone who loves the sport I think it is awesome.
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 were told that 12 members of the spirit squad get to attend: 6 Kickers and 6 cheerleaders. Our 4 seniors will be attending and 1 of our 3 juniors could not make it so the other 2 will go.
Any predictions for next week? I hope that we can win a couple of games and see where that takes us. I am just going to be excited to be there cheering on the Cowboys: it is a dream come true and I cannot wait for the opportunity.
The Hoops HD Selection Committee – Friday, March 15th
Tonight was the second night of our Hoops HD Selection Committee meetings via Zoom conference call; we were able to vote more teams into the field in tonight’s voting as well as to begin seeding the top 6 seed lines in the tournament field. The first order of business was to nominate 8 more teams to add to the field (along with carryovers TCU, Colorado State and St. John’s); in this round of voting we added five more teams – Mississippi State, Seton Hall, New Mexico, Indiana State and Florida Atlantic. After each committee member ranked these teams one through eight, we added Colorado State, TCU, St. John’s and Mississippi State to the field. Seton Hall, New Mexico, Indiana State and Florida Atlantic all carried over to the next round of voting.
While we waited for more results to go final, we began the process of seeding the top 6 seed lines in the process. For the first round of voting, we debated and each individual member would nominate their top 12 teams on the Auto-Bid/At-Large board. We then took the top 12 teams and then ranked the teams 1 through 12. As you can see in the board above, our 1-line included UConn, Houston, Purdue and North Carolina; our 2-line included North Carolina, Arizona, Marquette and Iowa State.
The next step was to again have each person nominate their top 12 teams not yet seeded or carried over (the initial round of carryovers included Baylor, Creighton, Illinois and Duke); the top 8 teams would be added to the four carryover teams and we would rank this group of teams 1 through 12. Our 3-line included Baylor, Creighton, Kentucky and Duke; our 4-line included Illinois, Alabama, Kansas and Auburn. (The four carryovers were South Carolina, BYU, Texas Tech, and Saint Mary’s).
We repeated the process one more time to fill out the 5-line and 6-line; the 5-line had BYU, Texas Tech, Utah State and South Carolina; the 6-line had Saint Mary’s, San Diego State, Nevada and Gonzaga. The four teams that will carry over to the next round of seeding will be Florida, Clemson, Boise State and Texas.
After this, we took a break to watch other games go final; as a result of tonight’s games, we were assured of bids opening up in the Big East and Big 10. There is a possibility of bids being stolen out of the ACC thanks to NC State advancing to the ACC Championship as well as the Pac-12 thanks to Colorado and Oregon advancing to the Pac-12 Championship (even a stronger possibility considering both the Buffs and the Ducks remained Under Consideration at the end of the night). At the time this article was posted, New Mexico was leading Colorado State in the Mountain West semifinals – the Lobos could also steal the automatic bid here. Also remember that a bid will likely be stolen out of the Atlantic 10; there is a remote possibility that they could be a 1-bid league if Dayton is voted off the at-large board.
Therefore, we decided to only add two more teams to the at-large board tonight and vote in any remaining teams tomorrow night after more results go final. Each committee member nominated six teams to add for this round of voting; there was a three-way tie between Texas A&M, Oklahoma and Colorado that was broken when Texas A&M and Oklahoma advanced via roll-call vote. Both teams were ranked along with the four carryover teams one through six; Florida Atlantic was finally added to the field on their fourth attempt and Seton Hall was also added to the field. Texas A&M and Oklahoma will carry over to the next round of at-large voting; New Mexico and Indiana State moved back to Under Consideration after failing ot advance on back-to-back votes. There was also a motion to add Oregon to the Under Consideration board that successfully passed, but it was more of a procedural move since the Ducks are basically playing the role of bid thief tomorrow night.
Tomorrow night will be the busiest night for our Committee; we will do a further scrub of the Under Consideration board and entertain any potential motions to move teams off of the At-Large board (for example, Dayton’s at-large spot could potentially be moved back to Under Consideration if there are enough votes to do so). We will do a final round of voting in teams along with any contingency spots (SEC, ACC, Pac-12, Mountain West, American) that can open along the way. We will also finish seeding the rest of the field and do an initial scrub of the seed list to account for game results and debate from our Committee to make any changes that we feel are necessary.
Stay tuned to the website tomorrow to see how our initial seed list plays out!