Lancers’ quest for credibility

JOHN O'CONNOR TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Published: January 9, 2009

-- Jim Gussett became a Longwood basketball fan before the school had a men's program.

Gussett arrived in Farmville as a professor in 1966. He used to watch the women's team play six-on-six games. Three players were rule-obligated to remain on the offensive half of the court. Three others only defended.

The men's program launched in 1976, the year the school began accepting males. As schools such as James Madison developed into solid Division I players in the men's game, Gussett said he remembers thinking "maybe somewhere down the road, we might be that competitive."

He has seen it happen, at least in isolated cases.

Now in their second season as a full-fledged Division I members, the Lancers beat Colonial Athletic Association member JMU in early December and last Saturday knocked off George Washington, of the Atlantic 10 Conference. The Lancers also beat a 5-23 JMU team in 2006.

"They're coming along," Gussett, a Longwood season-ticket holder who retired from the school's math department in 1998, said of the Lancers (7-9), who are 5-1 at home.

Neither JMU nor George Washington is Final Four-bound, and the Lancers could use additional height to win on a regular basis. But Longwood's conquest of two programs with notable basketball pedigrees provides Longwood hoops with two things:

Accordingly, his expectations increase. After the win over George Washington, the elated Lancers felt validated, according to Gillian. The work, the preparation, paid off in what is viewed as Longwood's biggest Division I victory.

"This feeling that you have now, remember it," Gillian said he told his players. "We're trying to generate this feeling over and over again."

Contact John O'Connor at (804) 649-6233 or .