Virginia Commonwealth head coach Will Wade, who coached the Mocs from 2013-15 and led them to 40 wins in his two seasons, interviewed with the Richmond Times-Dispatch on Tuesday and spoke about his former team's success.
He watched the SoCon final and admitted he was glued to the TV and "yelling at the TV" throughout.
"I love those kids. They're great kids," Wade said. "I was really rooting for them very, very hard."
He said that he was tried to keep his distance from the program he guided to a pair of second-place finishes in the SoCon regular season, but that he still keeps in touch with some family members of the players.
"Greg Pryor was my first recruit there, and I love him to death and I love his family to death. They're the highest quality people on the face of the earth.
"He's the hardest worker I've ever been around, anywhere I've coached. I'll always have a place in my heart for Greg Pryor."
He spoke about the road that the Mocs had to take to get to the championship, winning what he called were "virtual road games" against Western Carolina in the semifinals and ETSU in the championship, as both schools are within an hour of Asheville and made their presences felt in their respective games.
"It's tough to win those one-bid leagues," Wade said. "Those tournaments are not easy. For them to win those games, that's not easy to do.
"You have to be by far the best team and they were."
Wade's Rams claimed a share of the Atlantic 10 championship and are 22-9 heading into their conference tournament at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. They are considered a bubble team for the NCAA tournament.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.