On a warm summer day, the court at Savage Arena was teeming with activity.
The University of Toledo men’s basketball team was a week away from taking a trip to Puerto Rico, and the extra practices weren’t going to be wasted.
The Rockets also weren’t interested in simply shooting baskets or having a low-key scrimmage. It would be easy to slack off in July, a time when college students are more interested in lounging by the swimming pool instead of dripping sweat on a basketball court.
But the nucleus of the 2022-23 Rockets had been tantalizingly close to reaching the apex for a mid-major program: crashing the sport’s biggest party, the NCAA tournament.