By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
The immediate benefit for Washburn University's men's basketball team from Tyler Geiman's highly-publicized nearly three-quarters-court 3-pointer last Saturday night in Marysville, Mo. was an MIAA Tournament championship and the conference's automatic berth in the NCAA Division II Championships.
But the buzzer-beater that gave the Ichabods a dramatic 69-68 win over Northwest Missouri could be the gift that keeps on giving in terms of recruiting and exposure.
"Without question,'' said Washburn coach Brett Ballard, whose team will face Missouri Western Saturday night in the NCAA Central Region Tournament. "I think that for us that positive publicity can certainly help us in recruiting. You know a lot of people are aware of Washburn because we've got a great basketball tradition here, but certainly outside of this region it helps us, and even within the region.
"I think that notoriety and just the attention that has brought to our program, and even to Tyler Geiman and how much better he's gotten and what a season he's having, I think that whether its high school coaches or AAU programs or kids we're trying to recruit or their parents, they get Washburn in their head a little bit and that can be a positive, for sure.''
![Tyler Geiman's game-winning 3-pointer that gave Washburn the MIAA Tournament title last Saturday night could provide long-term benefits for his school and the Ichabod basketball program. [File photo courtesy of Washburn Athletics]](/images/aa-images/TylerGeimantriple-double.jpg)
Tyler Geiman's game-winning 3-pointer that gave Washburn the MIAA Tournament title last Saturday night could provide long-term benefits for his school and the Ichabod basketball program. [File photo courtesy of Washburn Athletics]
Geiman's shot and Washburn's title got attention on ESPN Sports Center as well as numerous other highlight shows and across social media platforms.
"We're always battling for attention with all the other schools in the area, so when you can get your name out there like that when something like this happens certainly through social media we're trying to publicize it and utilize that attention in the right way as much as possible.''
By Sunday night Ballard estimated he had already watched the re-play of Geiman's big shot more than 20 times.
"I've probably now seen it about 25 times at least,'' Ballard said in a Sunday Zoom session. "There's a couple of different angles and some different things people have sent me so I've watched it quite a few times.
"I watched it a lot (last Saturday) on the bus, just different people sending stuff to us on on the way home. I had some time (Sunday) to kind of reflect just a little bit and it was cool to see it. Just slowing it down to see different players' reactions was kind of fun.''
Ballard said he had received a lot of well-wishes from coaches, players and fans in the wake of WU's dramatic MIAA victory.
"I've heard from a ton of former players, a ton of coaches,'' Ballard said Sunday. "I've probably had 200 people reach out and that's been cool. I think the most special ones for me have been the former players. Almost every single one has reached out and said how excited they are and I've just let them know that they were a part of this and laid the foundation, the guys that came before this.
"It's been nice. I think that you coach for certain reasons and sometimes days like this, when guys like that reach out and express certain feelings to you about how they feel about you or your program, it's a nice reminder that hopefully you're doing things the right way and building things the right way here and bringing the right type of people into your program.''
