The city of Dalton held a "Victory Lap" parade for the Dalton State men's basketball team Friday night.
Three nights earlier, the Roadrunners won the NAIA Division I national championship in Kansas City, Mo.
This was the first season they were eligible for postseason participation -- and the second season of the program's existence. Coached by Tony Ingle, who won an NCAA Division II championship in his fourth year at Kennesaw State in 2004 and then led the Owls into the top level of the NCAA, the Roadrunners went 26-4 in their debut season and 32-4 this time.
Asked Friday afternoon what were his plans for year three, Ingle quickly said, "Go undefeated and win it all."
Then he laughed and pointed out that he's losing seven seniors, including four of the team's starting players and Isaiah Massey, a 6-foot-9, 235-pound transfer from Louisiana Tech who played in only two games before sustaining a season-ending injury.
"Whew. I don't know how good we could've been with him," Ingle said.
They were good enough without him, though they were essentially a six-man team -- short on depth but high on balance. Each of the six led the team in scoring at least once.
All-Americans Sean Tate and Ladaris Green averaged 36.4 and 31.8 minutes a game and fellow seniors Anthony Hilliard and Preston Earle averaged 31.8 and 31.5, while junior Jordan Bowling, the MVP of the national tournament, averaged 30.5. Junior sixth man Jamaine Burrey averaged 16 minutes for the season but became more of a contributor as the season progressed.
The season points averages were 14.8 for Bowling, 14.0 for Earle, 13.2 for Tate, 10.7 for Green, 9.8 for Hilliard and 8.0 for Burrey. Green also was second in the NAIA with 11.6 rebounds and Bowling added 7.1.
The seventh most minutes per game for Dalton State were 8.1 for senior Raheem Mosley.
"We did build our bench as time went on, but the minutes were limited," Ingle said, noting how that made winning five games in seven days in Kansas City all the more remarkable.
"It helped that we played a lot of those in the mornings," he acknowledged, "and we had off days at good times."
The Saturday game against third-seeded Cal State San Marcos was "a war," with the No. 6 Roadrunners winning 80-76 in overtime. But then they were off on Sunday -- they didn't even practice, Ingle pointed out, because "their legs were like putty" -- and were sufficiently refreshed before beating No. 2 Talladega 64-54.
"We were down two against Cal State San Marcos and they had the ball with 15.8 seconds to go, and we got it to overtime and then won," Ingle said. "Our will to win was so strong."
In the championship game against the Westmont team that had upset the No. 1 seed in the semifinals, Dalton State took a 16-point lead into halftime and won 71-53. After scoring just two points against Talladega, Bowling had 18 points and seven rebounds against Westmont, and Hilliard scored 14 points.
The team's season-long knack for picking each other up and taking turns as stars was a major goal of the previous season, when the set of transfers Ingle pulled together knew going in that they would have no postseason possibilities.
"We wanted to be competitive off the bat, and bring guys in we thought could win us a championship this year," Ingle said. "And I can't say enough about these guys. Some people might say they had nothing to play for last year, but we had to get them focused on playing for the love of the game, and for their teammates and their college and their community.
"In my opinion, friendships are a lot more important than championships," the NAIA coach of the year added. "And we really had a community and a school and a team effort. We got rewarded for that by winning the national championship."
The 62-year-old Ingle said someone in the last few days asked him how much longer he thought he would coach, "and I said I think I have only another 20 or 22 years in me. This is what I love to do."
Contact Ron Bush at rbush@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6291.