Lennie Acuff’s Lipscomb basketball team is nearing an NCAA Tournament bid | Estes

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What’s materializing with Lipscomb basketball feels right. Feels like it’s time.

The Bisons are due. Lennie Acuff is due.

A 35-year coaching veteran, Acuff has won more than 600 games, and few outside the hoops industry know about him. Because he’s done it at smaller schools, the bulk at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Sustaining one of the better programs in NCAA Division II for two decades won’t earn a coach much airtime, though it did – eventually – earn opportunity at a Division I program.

Now in his sixth season at Lipscomb, Acuff has fared well. He is coaching his third 20-win team in a row. That, too, has gone largely unnoticed. Too much heartache in March. Acuff’s Bisons haven’t turned success into an NCAA Tournament bid.

Yet.

Lipscomb’s best team so far under Acuff has his best shot at the Big Dance. Only two wins away, and both games – should they happen – would take place at Allen Arena. The Bisons (23-9) earned home-court advantage throughout this week’s Atlantic Sun Tournament (which is played on campus sites) by finishing atop the league’s regular-season standings and claiming the No. 1 seed.

They’ll face sixth-seeded Queens (19-13) on Thursday (7 p.m., ESPN+) for a spot in the championship game on Sunday (1 p.m., ESPN2).

“I’d love to do it for these kids,” Acuff said. “If everybody could know the kind of young men that are in that locker room, I want this so bad for them. And I also want it for our school. A school like Lipscomb to have a chance to play in the NCAA Tournament is a special thing.”

Nov 19, 2024; Lexington, Kentucky, USA; Lipscomb Bisons head coach Lennie Acuff yells to his players during the first half against the Kentucky Wildcats at Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center. Mandatory Credit: Jordan Prather-Imagn Images

Lipscomb only has one NCAA men’s tournament in its Division I history. Casey Alexander, now Belmont’s coach, led the Bisons into the 2018 bracket, where they lost as a No. 15 seed to North…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/article/lennie-acuffs-lipscomb-basketball-team-114202308.html

Author : The Tennessean

Publish date : 2025-03-04 11:42:00

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