After a .500 record a season ago, Appalachian State is atop the Sun Belt Conference.
The conference-leading Mountaineers (19-4, 10-1 Sun Belt) are getting noticed as they carry an eight-game winning streak into Wednesday’s road game at Texas State.
App State received four votes in The Associated Press men’s basketball poll released Monday after receiving one vote last week, marking the first time in 14 years the school showed up on a poll ballot.
According to the school’s media relations department, the Mountaineers last received votes in the poll on Nov. 15, 2010, following a season-opening win over Tulsa. App State had previously appeared on AP ballots just once — at the end of the 2006-07 season.
Junior forward Tre’Von Spillers, sophomore forward Justin Abson and senior forward Donovan Gregory have led the way for an App State team that is one of 12 teams in Division I with 19 wins through Monday’s games. The Mountaineers are also the only team with two eight-game winning streaks this season.
App State extended its current streak with a come-from-behind 85-84 overtime win Saturday at Georgia Southern, led by a season-high 26 points from junior guard Terence Harcum.
Fifth-year coach Dustin Kerns said it has been a process to build the team from the ground up.
“It starts with our administration and their support,” Kerns said. “We have a great coaching staff and we’ve been having consistency there, and then we’ve got great players with great parents. But I also think we do it the right way. I think people appreciate how hard our guys play — we’ve got kind of a blue-collar mentality to us. We try to get out in the community and really engage, so I think it’s a lot of things.”
This season has improved Kerns’ record to 89-62 in his fifth year in Boone.
The goal is for the Mountaineers to earn their second NCAA Tournament bid under Kerns, which will probably require a win in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament — the Sun Belt hasn’t received an at-large bid since Middle Tennessee State earned one in 2013.
App State has made it to the Big Dance just three times, in 1979, 2000 and 2021.
“Right now, we’ve kind of taken a big step every year,” Kerns said of his team’s progression since he took over the program for the 2019-20 season. “In Year 1 we won 18 games, and people were just happy that we won. In Year 2 we go to the NCAA Tournament, so it goes from happy we won to expecting to win.”
In 2021, the 16th-seeded Mountaineers were defeated by fellow No. 16 Norfolk State 54-53 in a First Four game of the NCAA Tournament, ending their season before the bracket was set with 64 teams.
“In Year 3, we finished second in the Sun Belt and went on to post 19 wins,” Kerns continued. “In Year 4, we beat a Power Five team (Louisville) for the first time in eight or nine years. Then in Year 5, we’re picked second (in the Sun Belt preseason poll), which is a big step.”
The school’s fans are also taking notice. App State’s 82-76 home win over James Madison on Jan. 27 drew 8,052 people to Holmes Center, the third-largest crowd for a game in the Mountaineers’ home arena.
“Just keep packing Holmes and we’re going to keep winning games for you,” Abson said after the win over the Dukes. “Y’all just got to show up.”
The team has built an identity around its rebounding, ranking 10th in the country thanks to Abson and Spillers, who combine for more than 15 rebounds per game. No one on the team averages more than 13 points or 28 minutes a night, and Kerns regularly has a nine-player rotation.
It has the Mountaineers looking like the favorites in the Sun Belt, the next step in the program’s progression.
“I think we just keep kind of taking little stairs at a time,” Kerns said.
