Scott Cross coined his coaching mantra early in his career at UT-Arlington: “Take the stairs.” It was fitting for being hired at his alma mater. The Mavericks compete in the bottom third of Division I. It’s a “grind” job. While the school is part of the University of Texas system and located in a huge “suburb” (population over 400,000) between Dallas and Fort Worth and is home to the Dallas Cowboys and Texas Rangers.
A prime example of UTA’s location in the Division I pecking order: Before moving into the $78 million College Park Center in February of 2012, UTA played its games on a stage. A stage. Like where plays and concerts are performed. Texas Hall was the Mavericks homecourt and explaining the oddity to visiting recruits was often a deal breaker.
Cross, who earned his marketing degree while playing at UTA, decided “taking the stairs” was a fitting analogy for how his program, his staff and his players would work to succeed. When he became Troy’s coach in the spring of 2019, the motto came along. The Trojans have been climbing steadily and are now in the school’s third NCAA Tournament. Troy plays third-seeded Kentucky Friday (7:10 p.m. ET on CBS) in the first round of the Midwest Regional.
“Scott has really built this program brick by brick, year by year,” Troy athletic director Brent Jones told the Troy Messenger after the team won the Sun Belt automatic bid. “The first two years, looking at the wins, and then year three you could see it flip. I knew the work he was putting in those first two years. To be able to flip the roster and the culture and to be able to have four straight seasons of 20 wins is incredible. The standard is to win championships and to be able to be in the NCAA Tournament to play Kentucky is even more exciting.”
Troy is led by Sun Belt Conference player of the year Tayton Conerway, a 6-foot-3 senior guard who averages 14.3 points, 4.3 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game. The only senior in the starting lineup, he’s third in Division I with 97 steals. The Trojans have finished strong, winning eight of their last nine on their way to winning a share of the Sun Belt Conference regular-season title. In Troy’s three victories in the conference tourney, it had an average winning margin of 16 points.
“We always say the toughest and most aggressive team wins. We want to be the hunters, not the hunted,” Cross said during Thursday’s news conference in Milwaukee, noting that his team is 11th in the country in offensive rebounding.
“I just want to be one of those teams that’s so tough that nobody wants to play,” Conerway said during the news conference. “Every time they hear they got to play Troy, I want them to put their head down and dread the whole night. As long as we can be the toughest team, that’s what we’re going for.”
Revenge might be best as a dish served cold. So is having success at your “bounce back job” after your alma mater does you dirty.
After 12 seasons winning 58 percent of his games, Cross was fired by UTA in late March of 2018. Jim Baker, then the school’s athletic director, told Cross that school administrators thought UTA should be more like Gonzaga — a school with a basketball budget at least five times higher than UTA’s Cross’ dismissal was widely criticized. Two ESPN analysts were blunt. Fran Fraschilla, who at that time lived in Dallas, tweeted, “LAST TIME I will ever step in that arena.” Seth Greenberg Tweeted, “Just plain stupid. Sad.”
The numbers illustrate the mistake. UTA has had three coaches in seven seasons since firing Cross and they have a combined record of 99-118. After spending one season as an assistant coach at TCU, Cross was hired at Troy. In six seasons, the Trojans are 189-103. This is the school’s first NCAA since 2017.
Under Cross, UTA often played road non-conference games against big-name schools. The Mavericks won at Texas, Saint Mary’s, Ohio State and Memphis. This season, Troy lost road non-conference games at NCAA Tournament teams Arkansas, Oregon and Houston by an average of 19 points. The Trojans will be big underdogs against Kentucky, but don’t expect them to cower from the challenge.
“Our guys have played against some top teams,” Cross said. “This won’t be our first rodeo. “We know it’s gonna be a tough game but I don’t’ think our guys will be intimidated. Typically, every year there will be a 14 seed that wins and I think we’re the best of the 14 seeds. So, let’s go out there and shock the world. They’re all good teams but when we’re playing our best basketball we can play at that level, no doubt.”
It’s just another step to climb.
