College Hoops Coach Cut Down Conference Tournament Net With Symbolic Pair of Scissors

When the clock hit zero at the Ohio Valley Conference championship game on Saturday night, history was made.

For the first time in school history, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville was going dancing, having beaten Southeast Missouri State 69–48 in the final.

For the Cougars of SIU-Edwardsville, the moment was a dream a long time in the making. You could say it was a goal for the school since 2008, when they made the jump to D1 play—every team in college basketball wants to make a run to March Madness.

But it was the hiring of head coach Brain Barone, who took over the top job at the school in 2019, that turned the pursuit of a tournament bid from an abstract goal to a concrete one.

“I’m about to go get a pair of scissors that I hung up six years ago above our locker room door,” Barone told the ESPN broadcast after the win. “We did that six years ago. It’s been hanging above our locker room door. People didn’t think we were going to be able to do it.”

Shortly after taking over as leader of the program, Barone got a pair of scissors framed and set them in the locker room—a symbol towards the nets they would eventually cut down. On Saturday, Barone and his players were able to break open the frame, and cut the nets in celebration.

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The moment was especially special for fifth-year senior Ray’Sean Taylor, who had to battle back from several injuries over the past few seasons to get back on the floor for the Cougars. In the OVC championship, Taylor led all scorers with 20 points on the night.

With the win secured and the nets cut, Barone, Taylor and the Cougars will now wait to see where they fall into the bracket on Selection Sunday. While they’ll undoubtedly be one of the bottoms seeds of the bracket, anything can happen in March.