The routine at the Elite Eight was pretty set last week for both the Minnesota State men’s and women’s basketball teams.
Off-court prep, practice, win and watch your counterparts do the same.
Both teams did each of those things three times and by Saturday night, nobody else was left.
Just the two MSU teams at the top of the college basketball mountain — together. The women’s team beat Texas Woman’s University 89-73 to win its second national championship Friday, and the men’s team topped Nova Southeastern 88-85 to claim the program’s first title the following day.
MSU men’s basketball coach Matt Margenthaler put it best: “Basketball capital of the world? Mankato, Minnesota.”
Both teams celebrated their national titles with a welcome home event Monday at Bresnan Arena. The two teams walked onto the court to a massive ovation from MSU fans and were seated with their respective trophies at either side of the stage. A highlight reel of each team’s season was played on the video board, culminating with the moment each team clinched the title.
The program included speeches from MSU Director of Athletics Kevin Buisman, MSU President Edward Inch, Glen Taylor, owner of the Timberwolves and MSU benefactor, Mankato Mayor Najwa Massad, coaches and players.
There was a big crowd on-hand for the program, and two massive lines wrapped around the entire concourse following the speeches to get autographs from each team. Longtime MSU fan Gary Gavin had no problem waiting in the autograph line with his grandkids.
“I’ve always said it’s a shame we don’t have more people at the basketball games,” Gavin said. “I think this will build momentum.”
A men’s and women’s basketball program from a single institution winning a title in the same year is extremely rare. In Division I, Connecticut did it in 2004 and 2014, while Central Missouri State won both Division II championships in 1984. The 2023-24 MSU teams now join that club.
“It’s just hard to comprehend right now,” MSU coach Emilee Thiesse said of both teams winning. “Obviously the national attention that this has garnered is so special for both these teams.”
Thiesse said that this is the closest the men’s and women’s teams have been during her 12 seasons as coach, and that watching the men’s games last week was the highlight of their off days.
The two teams had alternating game days Monday through Saturday, so they were always able to watch each other.
“That was our entertainment,” Thiesse said. “It was like, ‘What are we going to do on our off day?’ We’re going to practice, and then we’re going to watch the men’s game. It was like our team-building.”
Since the women played their national quarterfinal first, they were always a round and day ahead of the men.
Margenthaler said that seeing the women win each game gave his team confidence and felt that the two teams were feeding off each other. Buisman, who was one of the only people to witness all six games last week, agreed.
“The women win, get to the Elite Eight. You think, we’ve got to do the same thing, get to the Elite Eight,” Margenthaler said. “When they won the national championship we were all in a ballroom with our families and our team having a watch party. I know they were doing the same thing.”
Buisman joked: “It was a little bit of ‘anything you can do, I can do better.’ They just kept volleying it back and forth between the two programs.”
For the players, the bond goes beyond basketball.
Men’s All-American Malik Willingham and women’s All-American Joey Batt said the teams have grown close away from Taylor Center this winter.
The bond started to form when the teams were around campus together for summer workouts, and they now routinely have group hangouts.
“We’re so tight, that’s like our best friends over there,” Willingham said. “We hangout with them every weekend or whenever we can really. I’m just so happy for them.”
Added Batt: “We are each other’s biggest fans.”
For Batt and Willingham, the journey to this point has been long and not always easy. Both players chose to come to MSU from area high schools, with Willingham graduating from Waseca in 2019 and Batt from New Ulm the same year.
They each fought through some adversity early in their careers and both decided to use their extra COVID year of eligibility to return for a fifth season at MSU this year. In the transfer-portal era, five years at one school doesn’t happen too often, especially in basketball.
“I came in with him, we’re both fifth-years. We’ve been through a lot of things throughout these five years,” Batt said. “For both of us to have this success our last year playing college basketball — it’s everything.”
Added Willingham: “Joey’s really close to me, she’s been my friend since I got here. Winning national championships to end our career, getting our banners up on the wall next to each other … it’s special.”
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