By Robert Lastella
The unfortunate side of March Madness is that in each game there is a loser whose season comes to an end and in the first game of round one in Providence, it was 13 seed High Point who succumbed to defeat, falling to 4th seed Purdue 75-63. The Panthers gave it their best effort, briefly leading in the first half and after they fell behind by double figures in the second half, they cut their deficit to 3, 59-56 with 7:47 to go, however, they were unable to complete the comeback as Purdue closed the game on a 16-7 run.
For High Point, their magical season came to a close with a final record of 29-6 and in only his second season, Coach Alan Huss led the school to their first March Madness birth and although it ended in defeat, the process to get there was truly something special. The Panthers finished their season ranked 85th in Ken Pom and top 100 in every major offensive statistic and sometimes it’s just not your night and in the first round of the NCAAT, that was the case.
Hindsight is 20-20, however, Coach Huss mentioned after the game his team would have flowed more if they had played a P5 team during the regular season, and heading into next year, scheduling a power opponent will be a goal of his.
“I’ll be on the record to every high major coach out there, we would love to play you next season. I’m guessing that won’t help, but we’d like to play a couple of Power Five for conference teams. You know, we’re open to any and all. I think the ironic thing is, you know, they were one of the only ones that had a little bit of interest, but by the time we talked to them, they already had their schedule full, except for one day. It didn’t work for us. You know, everyone else, except a couple of schools, said, No, you know, it’s probably a combination of a number of things. We had the last five before the regular season or before the conference tournament. So we were off for the better part of a week. Played three games, not to the best of our ability. We lost our rhythm a little bit. Then we got another whatever it was, eight or nine days off, you know, and not to make excuses, I just don’t think we’ve ever really found the rhythm we had late in the season, whether kind of, even when you look past the step up in class, I’m not certain, you know, especially our just, we just didn’t have great offensive flow today. And I’m not certain it was really anything they did so much as it was just us just kind of being out of sync a bit.
It is a big stage. With all due respect to the Big South, because we’ve got a great conference. It was unbelievably competitive. It had us prepared, I think, to play at a high level.
You know, this is a big stage for a lot of our guys, and we’ve got some high major transfer downs that, for whatever reason, didn’t necessarily have the best experience at the highest level. And for those guys that have a little bit of a chip on their shoulder and want to prove that they can play at this level. You know, they came out here, and maybe they pressed a little bit too. But like I said, I think our plan was good enough defensively, and we just, we just kind of
lacked flow. And if we can’t run, the best thing we do is play in transition. We couldn’t offensive rebound today, or defensive rebound today, and that really kept us out of transition. And when we get the ball off the backboard and play fast break basketball and play unselfishly, we’re difficult to defend,” Huss said.
High Point was led tonight by D’Maurion Williams, who finished with 12 points in the final game of his collegiate career and he was joined in double figures by Trae Brenham who scored 11, another senior who opted to return to HPU for his final season. Things got away from the Panthers early in the second half, but not once did High Point quit and the grit they displayed with it all on the line is an example of the culture that has been built over the past two seasons under Coach Huss.
Outcome aside, the work that Huss and his staff put into building this team led to the best team in school history and it started with his ability to retain multiple players from the previous season, something that is difficult to do at the mid-major level. Out of players who played at least 10 games, 7 out of 11 were on the team last season and this team’s connectivity led them to be able to keep up with Purdue’s elite offense in this one.
According to Trae Benham, the decision to come back this year was based on a conversation he had with Coach Huss where they discussed the chance to do something special this season and it came to fruition through belief in the Lord.
“We met in the summer, he told me that we had an opportunity to make history. And, you know, we had a lot of guys that came out of the transfer portal and were super deep. You know, it was hard at first just to see, you know, my moment, my own minutes, my own ego, my own desires, get in the way. But you know, as time went on, I realized, and coach has helped me realize, that there’s something so much deeper than your own selfish desires, and that’s to get a part of something bigger than yourself. You know, we talk about it all the time, but that’s called sacrifice, and sacrificial love runs deep, and that’s why this brotherhood is unlike anything I’ve ever been a part of. But I want to give glory to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, because he’s the one that sacrificed for us, and he’s a leader, and it’s him that’s the reason why we were able to do that, and it’s him that’s the reason why we’re able to sacrifice and get a part of something bigger than ourselves and to crucify our own egos and our own desires every single day,” Benham said.
The 2025 season has come to a close for High Point and the next step will be to build on the success they had this season and find a way to win their first tournament game in school history in 2026. The good news for Panther fans is that Coach Huss has found the formula to success at High Point and if he is able to replicate that and build on it, the best is yet to come for this program.
Huss hopes to be able to replicate the success he had this season, but that will start with retaining talent like he did last season and if you ask Huss, one of his biggest assets in doing that is the school itself.
“We certainly hope so (to retain talent). We’ve got a number of guys that have got additional eligibility. We hope they use it with us. I would tell you that for the rest of the country, this is probably a little bit unique to hear, but unless you can come to experience High Point, you probably don’t understand how good these kids have it. And there’s been some things on social media that show the things at High Point, but the things are just that. They’re just things. We actually every time we have a student-athlete make an official visit or unofficial visit, we show them our campus. We’re careful. We take them directly to our account, to our conference room and our basketball office, and say, All right, you know, I know you have sensory overload right now. You’ve seen the nicest campus you’ll ever be on. What we need you to know right now is that if you choose High Point for those reasons, prepare to be disappointed. Right? Those aren’t good reasons to choose a college. You need to choose them based on the people in this building right here, the people you’ll meet in the athletic department, the people you’ll meet in just the university as a whole. You need to be prepared to be something or be a part of something that’s bigger than just High Point basketball if you come to High Point, you know?
And so we were, we’re really careful to make sure we get guys that appreciate how good they have it there. And, you know, it’s, I think that’s one of the reasons why we’ve been successful with high major transfers. You come to High Point. A lot of people think if you go to the mid-major level, it’s maybe not quite as nice, and it’s quite the opposite. Doesn’t matter where you come from. If you come to High Point, you’re going to have an experience that’s better than where you came from,” Huss said.