In the final game of Louisiana Tech’s foreign trip to the Bahamas, head coach Michael White could sense his team had had enough of paradise. It was the third game in four days with the scheduled tip against the PJ Stringers set for 8 p.m., giving the team little time to rest before waking up at 4 a.m. the next morning to catch a flight home.
The game came down to the wire with senior guard Raheem Appleby stepping up, and making several clutch plays down the stretch to come away with a 100-94 overtime victory.
“Our guys were kind of halfway mentally checked out. Got off to a rough start. We started five freshmen, and we just really weren’t playing really well,” White said. “It was nice to see late in that game Raheem Appleby step up and make winning plays, which is something hadn’t seen Raheem do in a long time.”
Appleby had missed 12 games during the 2013-2014 season to an ankle injury. The trip showed the senior guard was back to full strength, averaging 16.6 over the three games. Appleby, like Kenneth ‘Speedy’ Smith and center Michale Kyser, have been part of with White from the start of his coaching tenure. In that time, the group have compiled a record a 74-31 record going from the Western Athletic Conference to the new-look Conference USA along the way.
White, 37, one of the nation’s top rising head coaches, has built an NCAA tournament caliber team in Ruston, Louisiana, and he has no plans on leaving for what some would consider “greener pastures” anytime soon.
“I’ve said this 100 times, I got by the motto, ‘If it ain’t breoke don’t fix it,’” White told NBCSports.com last month
“I’m just very thankful to be a coach here. I love my job and Ruston and Louisiana Tech. Maybe most importantly I love our roster. The group of young men I get to work with is special. We’ve enjoyed building something and I’m going to continue to enjoy building this program. At the same time my wife and kids are very comfortable here. We came here with the idea of laying roots, and that’s still our plan.”
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Originally Posted by dawg80
