RALEIGH, N.C. — Every March Madness begins with the search for Cinderella. Even though 14th-seeded Mercer might qualify after upsetting third-seeded Duke on Friday, the Bears insist they’re no Cinderella team.
The term implies beating a traditional power such as Duke was a stunning surprise. Maybe it was to everyone else, but not to the Bears, who face 11th-seeded Tennessee on Sunday at the PNC Arena for the right to advance to the Midwest Regional semifinals next weekend in Indianapolis.
“I don’t think we’re really a Cinderella because I believed we could do this all year,” senior forward Daniel Coursey said Saturday. “For the past four years we’ve been an unbelievable team. We’ve beaten great teams before.”
The Bears (27-8) aren’t trying to sound cocky and unappreciative of the national attention they’ve received by beating Duke. But Mercer is a confident team bolstered by a senior class that has won 78 games over the last three seasons.
“Every time there’s an upset in March people tend to call it a Cinderella story,” senior forward Jakob Gollon said. “But we know how good we are. In the past couple years we’ve beaten a lot of higher major teams. We expect to win a lot of these games.”
To Mercer, beating Duke is poetic justice after losing to Florida Gulf Coast in the Atlantic Sun tournament finals last year then watching FGCU become the so-called Cinderella team of last year’s NCAA Tournament by advancing to the Sweet 16. The driving force for Mercer this season was to win the conference tournament and reach the NCAAs for the first time since 1985.
That’s why Mercer coach Bob Hoffman was more emotional about beating FGCU two weeks ago than he was in beating Duke.
“I was trying to get those guys to the finish line because I wanted them to win,” Hoffman said after pausing to compose himself.
The finish line for the NCAA Tournament is in Texas in two weeks. The team from a small school in Macon, Ga., believes they can make it. They’re loaded with experience, starting five seniors, and they have a special type of chemistry and passion that stems from their head coach.
Hoffman began his career coaching in high school in 1981 before guiding the women’s basketball team at Southern Nazarene to a national NAIA championship. He also made stops at Oklahoma Baptist, Texas Pan American and at Oklahoma under Kelvin Sampson. He has been at Mercer since 2008.
“He’s the most passionate guy I’ve ever met,” Gollon said. “Coach Hoffman doesn’t eat on game day. He’s so nervous and anxious. He’s so passionate about the game. He’s constantly excited about playing. He wishes he could be out there playing with us.”
Hoffman says that goes both ways.
“A lot of players say they want to be good, but a lot of them won’t give the time and effort to get to that point,” he said. “I think that’s probably what characterizes these guys is how hard they’ve worked and their desire to be the best.”
Hoffman, 56, doesn’t disagree.
“I’m a psycho,” he said. “Whatever I do I’m all in. Whether is at church worshipping, if it’s on the floor coaching, if it’s eating fried chicken, getting my iced tea, I’m all in. I’m going to give it all I got and it’s important to me to get guys that want to be coached that way.”
Hoffman doesn’t care much for RPI, the rating index which contributed his team to being seeded 14th. He calls it “flawed” and outdated because it was established when lower level teams in power conferences were still better than mid-major schools.
“That’s not the case anymore,” he said.
After beating Duke, Hoffman scouted Tennessee’s 86-67 victory over UMass on Friday while sitting in the stands at the PNC Arena eating popcorn and a hot dog.
“That’s as good as it gets,” he said. “That’s what you really like about hoops.”
The anxiety will return Sunday when he sends his dancing Bears to play the Vols. It will be a rematch of the first round of last year’s NIT when Mercer beat the Vols, 75-67, in Knoxville before losing to BYU in the second round.
“That is strange,” Hoffman said. “A year later and we’re hooping it up again. It should be a great game.”
Just don’t call Mercer Cinderella if the Bears win.