Tech's seniors go from unknowns to historic winners

RUSTON – Each year, there are so-called "diamonds in the rough" that go unnoticed in college basketball.

Whether under-recruited, under-valued or under-hyped, these players wind up slipping through the cracks. More times than not, it's to mid-major programs like Louisiana Tech, where coach Michael White scooped up the likes of Speedy Smith, Raheem Appleby and Michale Kyser.

It's not anything terribly unheard of or shocking, but they usually don't come in pairs, let alone in threes. They did at Louisiana Tech, though, when the Bulldogs landed all three in the same class back in the spring of 2011.

Four years later, the trio is set to graduate as the most successful class in Tech history, surpassing Robert Goldbolt and Roderick Hannibal's mark of 97 wins from 1983-87, with a victory Thursday over Southern Miss in the regular season finale.

"We're the best trio in Louisiana Tech history," Smith told The News-Star on Tuesday. "We're going to have the winningest class, the most single-season record breakers, the most career wins. We got a shot-blocker, we got an assist-maker and we got a scorer.

"The way we play the game is so unselfish, so fundamental, so hungry to win. We bring so much tenacity to the game. It's hard to explain sometime."

Their rise to stardom is hard to explain, too.

Before Tech, Smith didn't have any Division I offers, Appleby was viewed as too skinny and Kyser was tabbed as a low-level Division I player.

Ninety-seven wins, three straight regular season conference titles and two NIT berths later, the three seniors have one final chance to go out on top on senior night with the Bulldogs' first outright conference championship since 1999.

"From Day 1, they wanted to prove everyone was wrong," Tech associate head coach Dusty May said. "They meshed well, too. They picked each other up, they worked with each other and as a unit they had something to prove and went out and did it."

As of Sunday, Tech had the eighth-most wins in the country during the past three years, behind only Wichita State, Gonzaga, Louisville, Arizona, Stephen F. Austin, Duke and Virginia.

Fans can thank the seniors for that.

Shock the world

Smith and Appleby, who have lived together for the past four years, met on their official visit for the first time when they were introduced to Kyser.

Kyser's first words were fairly bold — he wanted to shock the world.

"I was confused at first," Smith said. "I was like we're not even an ACC school. We're not even a big-time school. This team maybe won six games last year. We've got a long way to go. But we all had the same mind-set that Mike had. We all came together and made something happen."

What started then has evolved into an unbreakable bond. Spending just a few minutes around the three seniors gives off a vibe that one would find with family members and not necessarily teammates.

"You get to know each other so well," Appleby said. "We're here every day six hours a day. It's a bond that started four years and it's hard to break."

It helps that all three joke around enough to make a coaching staff's head spin. After practice or at postgame interviews, the seniors are always known to crack a joke or butt in when the other is attempting to talk.

In between the lines, it's a different story.

"They don't like losing sprints, they don't like losing drills. When the lights come on they're super competitive," Tech assistant coach Darris Nichols said. "To have a core group of guys that are that competitive, they set the tone for us every day. That's the thing I'm most blown away by."

The results have been historic during the past four years.

Kyser has recorded 350 blocks, the most in school history, and holds first and second place for blocks in a season with just 21 more needed to break his record of 109 he set in 2014.

Smith holds the all-time program record in assists (814) and steals (214) and also holds the single-season record for assists and steals.

Appleby, meanwhile, is as consistent as can be. Despite an injury in 2014 that forced him to miss a third of the season, Appleby needs just 21 points to pass Tech legend Karl Malone and current NBA All-Star Paul Millsap for sixth place on the all-time scoring list with 1,717 points.

"If every senior class I had in my coaching career was this special then I will have been unbelievably blessed," White said.

Locating the diamonds

There were few NCAA Division I coaches interested in Smith, Appleby and Kyser.

White and his staff couldn't sign the trio fast enough four years ago.

White, who had inherited a team that went 12-20 the previous year, had his work cut out for him.

The former Ole Miss assistant came aboard that March and had little time to throw together a recruiting class, let alone one that would have the chance to win 100 games in four years.

"They were the first guys to take the leap of faith and decide to come play for a program they didn't know a lot about and to play for a coach that had never called a timeout," White said.

May first discovered Kyser at an AAU tournament. May was there to see another recruit, not Kyser, but the lanky forward caught his eye.

"A kid I was recruiting threw a lob kind of how Speedy throws to him now and he looked like (Los Angeles Clippers center) DeAndre Jordan coming off a trampoline," May recalled.

There was one problem — Kyser was already committed to Lamar. That changed when the coaching staff at the Texas school was let go, opening up Kyser's recruitment.

Kyser fit Tech's need of an athletic big man who could run the floor and block shots. They did well considering Kyser is ranked top 10 in the country in blocks.

Smith was a different story.

Tech received a recommendation from a recruiting/scouting service about Smith. White and May headed to Florida to watch Smith play and they came away impressed, but not blown away.

"It wasn't like we looked at him and thought he'd be the best player we've ever coached. Nothing crazy like that," May said. "We liked him and his intangibles and thought he'd really be able to help the program. With him, it's just been about hard work and improving."

Smith hasn't disappointed in that category, working his way up to one of the top distributors in the country.

Tech found Appleby up north in Jacksonville, Arkansas, where a scrawny prep player has morphed into one of the top scorers in Conference USA.

Appleby led Tech in scoring as a freshman and sophomore and has continued to act as the Bulldogs' top perimeter player.

"It's like someone passes up on a new car and you see someone else get that new car and put some rims on it and get it painted and now that car is shining," said Smith in response to getting passed up in high school. "What we did was we shining and we're still shining."

The one key theme with all three is they were grateful for the opportunity. White and his staff found them, and the trio repaid White throughout the years.

"Coming up from Victoria, Texas, it's not where most people come out of," Kyser said. "They thought I'd be a low Division I player and I wasn't going to make a name for myself. Coach White gave me a chance. He took me under his wing and molded me."

Play for each other

Smith will never forget last March when his tip-in carried Tech to a win over Iona in the NIT. The team fell short of the NCAA Tournament but still tied a program record with 29 wins.

He'll remember it as a team accomplishment, though, not something individual. Every time he breaks a record, he's the first to thank Appleby, Kyser or even Alex Hamilton for their roles in his success.

"We do everything together," Smith said. "We put ourselves in this situation together. We don't say I made a game winner or you made a game winner. We say we did it together."

That's exactly how White drew it up when he signed them and it has all come full circle. Kyser supplies the blocks and rebounds and Smith and Appleby provide the steals on defense, which in turn equates to dunks for Kyser, assists for Smith and points for Appleby.

And even with all the accomplishments to date, the seniors can still add two more to their resume — an outright conference title and the program's first trip to the NCAA Tournament since 1991.

"That's legendary for me and them two to come in. We came in and said we wanted to build this program up to its winning ways, and I think we're getting it back on that same page," Kyser said. "We're not finished yet. Like we always said we want to get back to the NCAA Tournament."

Connect with Sean Isabella on Twitter at ST_IsabellaTNS