Jim Gazzolo column: Southland’s hardwood just got harder
Published 9:18 am Thursday, January 15, 2026
Over the past two years, the Cowboys have played in a league of their own.
McNeese State went 36-2 during that time in the Southland Conference, winning back-to-back titles by a combined eight games while losing only once each season.
A 4-0 record in the postseason basketball tournament only confirmed the talent gap between the Cowboys and the rest of the field.
Some called it the Will Wade factor. Wade, a former LSU head coach who went to McNeese at least partly to rebuild his career and build the program, left for North Carolina State after two seasons. At McNeese, he compiled a 58-11 record and last spring secured the program’s first-ever NCAA Tournament victory, beating Clemson.
It was McNeese Athletic Director Heath Schroyer’s Hail Mary — pass completed.
Bill Armstrong took over the Cowboys for his good buddy, and not much, except the name of the arena McNeese calls home, has changed. The Cowboys are 14-3, 7-1 in the league, and look just as good.
Yet a little more than a third of the way through the conference schedule, they have company atop the standings. McNeese is tied with both Stephen F. Austin and Nicholls State. For that, the Cowboys can blame their own AD.
Back when Schroyer was courting Wade, he walked into a Southland Conference basketball meeting and told the rest of the Southland he was going to make a big move, challenging them to follow.
Legend has it that Schroyer used colorful words and told the room they’d thank him for it later.
He also had a partner in SLC Commissioner Chris Grant. Both realized men’s basketball was the quickest way to turn around a struggling league, one that just a few years before was on the verge of disbanding.
“Heath had the confidence to take a bold swing, and that has helped change the perception of the Southland nationally,” Grant said. “First, we had to stabilize the league, then we had to grow it. We saw basketball as the quickest way to do that.”
On Jan. 2, McNeese hosted the first SLC game ever broadcast on the CBS Sports Network. The Cowboys won the game against Lamar, but the real winner? The league.
“Getting the CBS Sports deal was huge for our league,” Grant said. “It opens up a lot of opportunities for all of us.”
The return of SFA to the conference was also a huge boost. It gave the conference another solid basketball program with a winning tradition. While McNeese beat SFA in the season’s first meeting, the score was close throughout.
The growth of basketball has been widely recognized. Before Wade entered the league, the Southland ranked 29th among 31 conferences. Last week it sat at No. 18.
“It was all a plan,” Grant said. “Every meeting we have now, we talk at some point about basketball and its marketing.”
Football may have benefited as well, with three teams making the playoffs this fall after often being shortchanged in the past few years.
As for this season’s basketball Cowboys, they are clearly deeper in talent compared to recent rosters, and so are others, as schools have seen the benefits of winning basketball for McNeese’s brand.
It’s a classic case of follow the leader. That’s making for some tense moments on Joe Dumars Court for McNeese fans, and especially for Schroyer.
Now he watches games nervously, like a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. As he watches, it’s clear his promise has come to fruition.
“The conference is much better this year,” Armstrong said. “It’s hard to win every night, especially on the road.”
He can blame his new boss and old buddy for that.
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Jim Gazzolo is a freelance writer who covers McNeese State athletics for the American Press. Email him at jimgazzolo@yahoo.com
