MEMPHIS, Tenn. – It was a gift they'll always carry with them, and that Lancer Nation will never forget.
 
Starting in late February, a close-knit Longwood team that had struggled at times but never lost faith proved it could find the greatness it always knew lay inside.
 
Over two magical weeks, the Lancers bested the very top teams in the Big South, earning a third-straight 20-win season and a Big South conference championship few expected. The prize: a second trip in three years to the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament – and a chance to play on the brightest stage in college sports.
 
But the tragic beauty of March Madness is that almost every college basketball season ends with disappointment and even some tears. For Longwood, the 2023-24 season reached its finish late Friday at the hands of No. 1 seed Houston, 86-46, in a first-round tournament matchup.
 
"Obviously tonight was not the Lancers' night, but extremely proud of our guys to get to the tournament," said Longwood Head Coach Griff Aldrich. "The resilience and the character that they've shown throughout the year to battle the ups and downs, and their genuine love for one another is why they here. Extremely proud of this team and what they've accomplished."
 
The Lancers (21-14) hoped to become just the third the third No. 16 seed ever to defeat a No. 1 seed in the men's tournament. But they met their match in a Houston squad that spent much of the season as the top-ranked team in the nation. Playing relentless, swarming defense that kept Longwood off-balance all night, the Cougars (31-4) jumped to a 10-0 lead and – save for one Lancer run midway through the first half – snuffed out every effort to get back in the game.
 
Jonathan Massie led Longwood with 10 points. Walyn Napper score 8 in his final game for the Lancers, who played hard until the final horn, even after the game was well out of reach.
 
"They earned my respect tonight," Napper said of Houston. "There's a reason why they're one of the best teams in the nation, if not the best team." Hundreds of Lancer faithful made the trip to Memphis, gathering on Beale St. for pre-game festivities and lining up to send off the team bus from a nearby hotel. They cheered to the end and offered a standing ovation as the Lancers departed the floor.
 
It was a long way from the miraculous result they dared to dream. But once the dust settles, the story of the season will be that Longwood has established a program able not just to reach the tournament once, but to carry the university's name and story to the national stage repeatedly.
 
For the players, there was little consolation in the moment. They came didn't come to just to experience March Madness. They wanted to win a game, and believed they could.
 
But there was also already perspective on the journey.
 
"I love this group of guys. I love the coaches," Napper said. "I don't know how I can repay them, but I'm just very thankful just to be in this moment, live out the dream that we all had as kids."
 
Aldrich, in turn, called coaching Napper these last two years the epitome of "the joy of coaching. It's the joy of seeing transformed lives through athletics."
 
The 2023-24 Lancers had nine new scholarship players on their roster but bonded early on a team trip to Great Britain and France, then gelled into a group Aldrich called the most closely connected group he's ever coached. In November the program opened its new home, the elegant Joan Perry Brock Center, on campus in Farmville and won 13 of 16 games there. And the final run of the season witnessed one player's sacrifice that will long be remembered in program history.
 
After a 12-1 start, Longwood struggled for a stretch of conference play in January and February. But in what is becoming a staple of Aldrich-coached teams, the team played its best basketball late in the season, beating the Big South's regular-season fourth place team, second-place team, and first-place team twice each during the final two weeks of the season.
 
A program that had just one winning season in its NCAA Division I history now has won at least 20 games three straight years. After never finishing higher than eighth in the Big South before Aldrich arrived, Longwood's been a top-5 team in the conference five straight seasons.
 
"The vision that was cast for me when I first interviewed at Longwood was really to build -- I think, really from the president down -- was to build a program that would be a championship-caliber program and to really dream big," Aldrich said. "Not just have a good team every couple of years, but one that would be a perennial contender in the Big South and that would get to the NCAA on a regular occasion. And I think three 20-win seasons in a row is a huge accomplishment.
 
"Really it's a big testament to the institution at large, not just the program, but I really think the institution. Their commitment to helping build a program, to recruiting Tim Hall who is a distinguished AD with a lot of experience, knows how to help grow basketball programs in particular."
 
Most memorably for Lancer Nation, students and alumni have enjoyed a chance to experience something only the tiniest slice of college basketball fans can claim: Dancing twice in three years.
 
And there's no reason to doubt they can be back again.
 
"I would expect we'll have a very strong team coming back," Aldrich said.
 
#GoWood