FRISCO, Texas – BR-1 Augustana’s run to the D2 men’s basketball national championship had their fair share of big-time players.
There was Daniel Jansen, whose foot injury during Tuesday’s practice session kept him out of Wednesday’s hard-fought 86-79 win over BR-17 Tarleton State in the national quarterfinals. Yet, he came off the bench to score 13 points in Augie’s 74-55 win over BR-6 Western Oregon in the national semifinals Thursday night, then capped off his collegiate career with 25 points, including an 11-for-12 effort from the foul line, in Saturday’s championship game win over BR-2 Lincoln Memorial.
Then, there was Casey Schilling, who recorded double-doubles in two of the Vikings’ three Elite Eight wins (he narrowly missed a third with 17 points and nine rebounds against Western Oregon).
And, there was the Elite Eight’s Most Outstanding Player Alex Richter, who scored a career-high 32 points against Tarleton State, 16 against Western Oregon and a game-high 26 against Lincoln Memorial.
But, perhaps the most unsung hero of Augie’s road to the title was point guard Jordan Spencer.
Spencer scored 10 points and dished out three of the Vikings’ 11 assists against Tarleton State. Yet, the sophomore from Milton Keynes, England, followed that up with eight assists against Western Oregon and seven helpers against Lincoln Memorial.
“He’s as unselfish a point guard as you’d ever want to play for,” said Augustana head coach Tom Billeter. “He’ll give up, in my opinion, a 98 percent sure layup and he’ll lay it off to the big coming through or he’ll kick it out. He just love to give assists. He facilitates, he’s really comfortable in his role and he’s incredibly important part of our team.”
We caught up with Spencer after the national championship game:
What was it that brought you to Sioux Falls to play for Augustana?
I really wanted to play college basketball, that was my main thing and hopefully gain a scholarship from it. Everything works out for a reason. I didn’t have any scholarship offers when I came out of high school. Augustana came over to England and offered me a scholarship and I wouldn’t change it for the world. Now, two years later, I’m here with a national championship.
What is the biggest defense between playing in the U.K. and playing college basketball in the U.S.?
The biggest difference was defense. The energy and the need to play every possession is critical. Everyone’s a great player here, whereas in England you might have one or two good players on a team. Here, you have to play defense for 30 seconds and the pace of the game is a lot faster. It was a culture shock at first so I’m glad I redshirted for the first few months.
What was it like being part of a team with three senior stars in Daniel Jansen, Alex Richter and Casey Schilling?
They make my job a lot easier. The stat sheet says a lot of assists, but when you’ve got a guy like Dan who can pick and pop and hit a three or Al who can knock one down in the corner, it makes my job a lot easier. Or when Casey catches and finishes – they make it look a lot easier for myself and I’m really going to miss them next season.
Now that the Vikings have won a national championship, what does the future hold for Augustana basketball?
We lose three great seniors and about 50 points a game for us, so we’re going lose some scoring, but people are going to have to step up and take the opportunity. We’ve got guys like Marcus Asmus who’ve been working out for the whole year behind Casey and looking to fill their shoes. We’re going to aim the national championship until we don’t have that opportunity anymore.
