This year's edition of March Madness is going to feature a brand-new dancer, as Longwood clinched an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament by crushing Winthrop in the Big South championship on Sunday. The Lancers, which were elevated to the Division I level back in 2004, went 26-6 in this regular season, after producing just one winning campaign over their first 17 years.
Longwood's surprising run wouldn't have been possible without head coach Griff Aldrich, and his basketball journey is anything but conventional. Prior to joining the program in 2018, he was a partner at a Houston-based law firm, a founder of an oil and gas company in Texas, and CFO of a private equity firm. Aldrich's college basketball experience came as a player for Division III team Hampton-Sydney, from 1992-96.
"This journey is really more about what I felt called to do, back in 2015-2016," Aldrich told The DA Show on Tuesday. "But even then, I thought it was just to coach more AAU basketball. I never envisioned that I'd be college coaching, much less Division I and being a head coach. When I was back practicing law and then oil and gas, I was involved with a Christian ministry that was working with urban youth in Houston, and it was so rewarding.
"It just kept on becoming a bigger part of my life. And I really think that god was pushing me to be more involved with youth basketball and help mentor young men. And one thing led to another. And it's really my wife who got us into college coaching. I was exploring whether I should go to my bosses at the private equity firm and ask if I can somehow figure out a hybrid, where I could do a little bit more with the AAU program and work a little bit less..."
CBS Sports bracketologist Jerry Palm shared his latest bracket on Monday, and Longwood is currently projected as the No. 15 seed in the West Region, facing No. 2 seed Duke. ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi has Longwood as the No. 14 seed in the East Region, opposing No. 3 seed Villanova. The 68-team March Madness field will officially be revealed on Sunday afternoon.
The entire college basketball conversation between Aldrich and DA can be accessed in the audio player above.
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