A year ago, Grambling lost as the top seed in the Southwestern Athletic Conference tournament championship game, which kept the Tigers as the only longtime SWAC member whose players never experienced the ceremonial title game celebration of cutting down nets.

The agony of the 2023 SWAC tournament championship game loss is what the five returning seniors carried for an entire year.

“They remembered that pain,” Grambling coach Donte’ Jackson said Tuesday at his team’s NCAA tournament First Four news conference in Dayton, Ohio. “They didn’t want to lose another time around … when you get those moments, you’ve got to take advantage of them.”

The Tigers clipped the nylon following Sunday’s win over league rival Texas Southern and are looking to extend the school’s magical season in Wednesday’s opening-round game against Montana State.

For Grambling, reaching the men’s NCAA tournament for the first time is culmination of a lengthy journey.

“Still kind of at a loss for words,” Jackson said Tuesday at the first news conference held by a Grambling coach for an NCAA tournament game. “It’s been going so fast. Just happy to be here, ready to compete, ready to do what we do and kind of go from there.”

“I always say when you walk at Grambling, you know you’re at a football school. We’re trying to set the tradition where basketball is going to be great for a long time.” — Donte’ Jackson

When you think of Grambling you think of the legends that represented football, from the late Eddie Robinson, one of greatest football coaches of all time, to Doug Williams, the first African American quarterback to play in and win a Super Bowl.

Jackson is attempting to put his stamp on Grambling as a legit basketball program. In his seven years at Grambling, he has had his team knocking on the door — three appearances in the tournament semifinals, and one trip to the tournament title game before this year — before the 2023-24 breakthrough in which the Tigers beat Alabama State, Bethune-Cookman and Texas Southern on the way to the league title.

“Phenomenal opportunity for us to show our brand of basketball,” Jackson said. “I always say when you walk at Grambling, you know you’re at a football school. We’re trying to set the tradition where basketball is going to be great for a long time.”

It will be even greater, for Grambling and Jackson if he can lead his team to victory on Wednesday where he launched his college head coaching career at historically Black Central State University, located east of Dayton.

“Dayton is my second home. I met my wife here, I had my kids here, I spent 15 years there from 1999 to 2014,” Jackson said. “Ticket requests, sheesh, I had to make a Facebook and Instagram post. I have limited, limited tickets.”

The Tigers enter the First Four as one of the hottest teams in the country, winning nine of its last 10 games including the three games in the SWAC tournament. 

“I think, honestly, everybody started to click at the right time,” said guard Jourdan Smith, who played a year at Coastal Carolina before arriving at Grambling in 2022. “I think everybody bought in at one time. I feel confident coming in.”

Grambling felt confident going into the SWAC tournament a year ago, which it entered as the No. 1 seed. The sting of losing the 2023 title game as a top seed will never leave.

Smith and his teammates, both current and former, remain bonded in their grief.

“Winning this year, it was really for those guys from last year,” Smith said. “After we won, I called a lot of those guys, and they called me on the phone and said how proud they were. It’s more than just this team, we’re playing for last year’s team as well.”