Mike Carlson

The Truman men’s basketball team became just the sixth team in program history to reach the 20-win mark and the first since the 2005-06 season. The Bulldogs finished with an overall record of 20-7 and reached the Great Lakes Valley Conference tournament as the No. 5 overall seed.

Truman got off to a fast 7-0 start, scoring wins against longtime MIAA rival Northwest Missouri and its GLVC-opener against Quincy. After a brief hiccup at the start of the 2014 calendar, the Bulldogs rattled off seven straight GLVC wins—including a heart-stopping 109-105 overtime home win against Missouri S&T—before going 2-1 against a daunting three-game slate of top-25 squads Drury, Southern Indiana and Bellarmine. The ’Dogs then won three of five to close the regular season before getting upset in the GLVC first round by Illinois Springfield.

The squad earned high praise on an individual level, as senior Mike Carlson was named the GLVC’s co-Player of the Year, while juniors Seth Jackson and Reed Mells each earned second-team All-GLVC nods. Carlson eventually picked up first-team all-region honors by both Daktronics and the NABC before becoming only the sixth All-American in program history.

Head coach Matt Woodley’s squad loses just two seniors (Carlson and Marek Bush) and will return 14 squad members for the 2014-15 season.