TROY Basketball & Volleyball invade the postseason

TROY Women’s Basketball and Volleyball and the postseason are terms that are becoming synonymous with each other in recent history under the direction of Head Coaches Chanda Rigby and Josh Lauer, respectively. Now you can add the TROY Men’s Basketball program into the mix, which made its return to the postseason last year under Head Coach Scott Cross.

Women’s Basketball won the Sun Belt regular season title, its fifth Sun Belt championship in the last seven years, and earned the right to host Alabama in the opening round of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament in Trojan Arena.

Rigby’s Trojans posted a 24-9 record during the 2021-22 season, finishing just one win shy of tying the program record. TROY’s impressive season included a win over Mississippi State, 73-66, on the Bulldogs’ home court. The Trojans also boasted an 11-game win streak, spanning from Jan. 15 with a win over ULM to TROY’s Sun Belt Tournament Semifinals win over Little Rock.

The WNIT bid marked TROY’s fourth straight postseason appearance (not counting the 2019-20 season when COVID-19 canceled play) with two NCAA Tournament bids and two WNIT trips, both of which were hosted in Trojan Arena.

The Men’s Basketball Trojans finished the 2021-22 season 20-12 under Cross and advanced to the semifinals of the Sun Belt Tournament before accepting a bid to the Collegiate Basketball Invitational (CBI). The CBI appearance was the second in program history for the Trojans and the first postseason berth since TROY’s 2017 March Madness run.

TROY had its best season (based on win percentage) since 2003-04, completed its first 20-win season in Cross’ tenure and finished fourth in the Sun Belt.

The Volleyball team made its third straight appearance in the National Invitational Volleyball Championship Tournament and played host to the opening two rounds for the second consecutive year.

Lauer’s club finished the season 18-13 and 11-5 in Sun Belt play. The 11 wins in conference play were the most wins in program history and Lauer became the first coach in program history to lead the Trojans to four consecutive winning seasons while matching a program-high ninegame win streak.

The Trojans earned the No. 2 seed out of the Sun Belt West and advanced to the SBC Tournament semifinals after finishing with the third-best record overall in the league.