Lamar Wilbern was caught off guard earlier this week in the drive-through line at McDonalds.
As Wilbern sat in his car waiting for his food, the manager came out to shake his hand, talk about the four-overtime win at Pittsburg State, and to offer one piece of advice: “Beat those Ichabods.”
On Wednesday, Wilbern was at Walmart, and once again, people yelled at him across the store: “Beat those Ichabods.”
The Hornets haven’t played a game this week, but with a Southwest Baptist loss on Wednesday, they moved into a tie for first place. And with rival Washburn coming to town Saturday, there’s suddenly a buzz around town — fewer than 25 reserved seats remained as of Friday morning.
The rock star-like attention is all new to the ESU players — especially the six newcomers — because to this point, the Hornets have gone relatively unnoticed.
They were picked to finish eighth in the MIAA by the coaches in the preseason. They didn’t have any eye-opening non-conference wins, and even though they’ve been near the top of the standings all conference season and have a win over a ranked opponent — a 71-66 win over then-No. 12 Missouri Southern — they have yet to receive a vote in the D-2 Top 25.
“We had a chance to beat Baptist for first place, they beat us by 35. ‘ESU sucks,’” coach David Moe said. “You go to Central Missouri and get your (butt) kicked, ‘well, they suck.’ You just hang on. You win some close games and now all of a sudden we’re in first place, and teams look at it, ‘oh, they might be pretty good.’”
Even the teams that have lost to Emporia State could have come away scratching their heads, trying to figure out how that just happened. The Hornets have trailed at halftime in their last three conference wins.
And then there’s the fact that they just don’t look the part of a first-place team. Moe starts a lineup that includes 6-foot-3 Dustin Andrews matching up against the opposition’s power forward; baby-faced Matt Boswell, who is 6-foot-6 but maybe the skinniest player in the MIAA outside of Northwest Missouri’s Hunter Henry; another rail thin guard, Jeremiah Box, and a center from China — not exactly a basketball hotbed for talent (sorry Yao).
“We just looked outmatched,” Wilbern said. “I can just tell by the body language of guys we play, they think we’re no good. That kind of gives an advantage because we can still sneak up on people and hit them in the mouth.”
But now the honeymoon of the conference season is over. Washburn doesn’t need any motivation, because it’s Washburn and the teams have a history of just not liking each other, but it’s going to be hard for anyone to overlook the Hornets now. Their record alone will be an attention-grabber.
Moe has had plenty of challenges with this team. He had to tear them down and build them back up after getting overmatched in a preseason scrimmage at Central Oklahoma. He had to get them through games against Wichita State, Kansas and Kansas State without them losing their confidence. And in conference, he’s had to make sure they didn’t let things go south after blowout losses at Central Missouri and at home to Southwest Baptist.
Now, the next challenge is handling attention.
“Hopefully, they trust the coach enough and understand what it’s going to be like to have a target on your back and how much harder the other team’s going to take the game, how much more personal the other team will take the game,” Moe said. “Once you’re sitting at the top of the league, your games become personal because they want to beat the team at the top, and that’s just a little extra edge. ... You’ve got something to lose and your personal pride is at stake.”
Pride and conference rankings will be at stake on Saturday. Washburn comes into the game just a half-game back of first place at 6-3.
“The biggest thing for me, and I would say for us, is we’re in first place, just trying to maintain first place,” Wilbern said.
The biggest thing for the fans is bragging rights, as Wilbern has learned firsthand this week.
He’s also learning from his teammates. Earlier this week, the Hornets had a team dinner at a booster’s house and talk of the rivalry came up. Andrews, a veteran, has tried to explain the significance to his new teammates.
“I don’t think they quite understand it,” he said. “But they’ll find out once the girls game’s going and they’ll see how many fans are here.”
And for the rest of us, we’ll see if the Hornets’ success is a tribute to their lower profile, or if this team is going to contend all season.
“We’ve gotten kind of down when we’ve lost games, but, obviously, two games isn’t a lot to lose, because the best team that I’ve felt we’ve played so far lost two games,” Wilbern said. “It just lets you know anybody can be beat, so you’ve got to be ready to play.”
Notes
• Junior forward Doug Moore sprained his right ankle on Tuesday and will miss one to three weeks. Moore is averaging 2.6 points and 3.5 rebounds this season.
• Saturday will be the 189th meeting between Emporia State and Washburn. Emporia State has won six of the last seven, which has created a rarity for a 188-game series. The two teams are tied in the all-time series at 94 wins apiece, meaning Saturday will be the series grudge match.
• 2,000 general-admission tickets remain for Saturday’s women’s and men’s games. Tickets are on sale at the ESU Memorial Union and are available by phone at 877-341-NEST (6378). On Saturday, the ticket booth at White Auditorium will open at 3:30 p.m. with doors to the arena opening at 4:00 p.m.