After winning the Big South Conference Title with a 29-5 record and an 81-69 win over Winthrop last Sunday, the High Point Panthers were well aware that they’d punched their ticket to the Big Dance for the first time in program history, and were well prepared to celebrate it on Selection Sunday. High Point arranged one of the biggest watch parties in the country on Sunday and packed the Qubein Center with fans eager to know where the team would play its first-round matchup this week.
The Panthers are riding a 14-game winning streak into the NCAA Tournament, but a fan in attendance for the team’s Selection Sunday watch party took a bad loss to an oversized flag.
High Point is going dancing for the first time in program history! The Panthers are the No.13 seed and will play Purdue in Providence on Thursday. @WFMY @HPUMBB pic.twitter.com/g1wlkinhWx
— Logan Campbell (@loganncampbelll) March 16, 2025
Head coach Alan Huss would certainly applauded the enthusiasm from the “left flag,” but when the aggressive waving snapped the flagstick clean in half, it gave us one of the funniest moments of Selection Sunday.
While that fan’s flag went down hard, if we’ve learned anything from sports, it’s about how you get back up and respond to adversity. So maybe Huss should show this clip as instructional tape before the Panther’s Round of 64 matchup with Purdue. Surely at some point on Thursday, things will start to fall apart for the underdogs, but like that fan, High Point will have to get back up and keep going.
Since he took over the program two years ago, Huss hasn’t met much adversity, winning 27 games and a regular season Big South title in his first year, then winning 29 and earning an NCAA Tournament bid in his second.
The Panthers could be a real Cinderella story if they knock off the Boilermakers, and we all know that Matt Painter’s team is susceptible to a plucky mid-major in March. If they do, then I’ll remember the fan who had the toughness to wave half a flagstick and the inspirational message they sent.