Among its many wonderful traits, the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament has a way of creating indelible moments and making heroes of the people at the center of them.
It took only the fourth game of the first full day of the 2026 NCAA Tournament for such a moment to arise.
High Point pulled off the first upset of the tournament, with the No. 12 seed Panthers getting a bucket from Chase Johnston with 11.2 seconds remaining to earn an 83-82 victory against No. 5 seed Wisconsin on Thursday, March 19.
REQUIRED READING: ‘Nobody would play us’: High Point coach gives fiery interview after Wisconsin upset
As impressive as High Point’s players were in earning the win, it was the team’s coach who stole the show in the minutes after the victory.
In a postgame interview with TBS, Panthers coach Flynn Clayman used the opportunity to talk up not only his own team, but other talented mid-major programs who struggle to get non-conference games against squads from the sport’s Power Five (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Big East and SEC) that don’t want to risk a loss to a team from one of college basketball’s smaller conferences.
“It looks pretty obvious to me that high-majors need to play mid-majors during the season,” Clayman said. “Because they said we ain’t played nobody? We played somebody now.”
When later asked about how the win felt, he added that “It feels unreal, because nobody would play us, just like they wouldn’t play Miami (Ohio). But they got to play us in this tournament.”
The soundbites earned widespread attention and acclaim on social media, with college basketball fans won over by Clayman’s passion and the points he made.
As High Point moves on to face Arkansas in the second round of the NCAA tournament on Saturday, here’s a closer look at Clayman:
Who is High Point basketball coach?
Clayman is in his first season as High Point’s case, having assumed the role after Alan Huss left after last season to become the associate head coach and head-coach-in-waiting at Creighton, his alma mater.
Clayman had been Huss’ top assistant for the previous two seasons, a time in which the Panthers went 56-15 and made one NCAA tournament appearance. When Huss left, Clayman was promoted.
“As associate head coach, Flynn Clayman has played a pivotal role in HPU’s recruiting and offensive success during the past two seasons,” High Point president Nido Qubein said when Clayman was hired. “Players appreciate his leadership, and his values align with the values of our university. We are excited to have him lead the men’s basketball program as head coach.”
Clayman has made the most of the opportunity, improving to 30-4 this season after the win over Wisconsin. The 30 wins are a single-season program record and the NCAA tournament victory was the first in High Point’s history.
REQUIRED READING: High Point upset was going to take everything — including a first layup of the season
Flynn Clayman coaching career
Before arriving at High Point ahead of the 2023 season, Clayman had spent the entirety of his Division I coaching career at Southern Utah, where he was an assistant from 2017-23, before serving as the interim head coach for the final three games of the 2022-23 season. He went 2-1 in those contests.
In his two seasons as the associate head coach at High Point, he served as the team’s offensive coordinator. In each of those seasons, the Panthers finished among the top 40 teams nationally in adjusted offensive efficiency, according to KenPom, a remarkable feat for a program from a mid-major conference like the Big South.
Prior to getting into coaching, Clayman played college basketball, first at Colorado State before transferring to Troy, where he played from 2009-11. He played one final college season at the University of the Cumberlands, an NAIA school in Kentucky where his team won the Mid-South Conference Championship and reached the NAIA national tournament. That season, he led the NAIA in 3-point field goal percentage, at 48.1%.
Flynn Clayman record
After Thursday’s upset win over Wisconsin, Clayman has a career record of 32-5 as a Division I head coach, which includes a 2-1 mark as the interim head coach at Southern Utah in 2023.
This season, his first as High Point’s head coach, he was named the Big South Coach of the Year.
When it came to his team’s schedule this season, Clayman wasn’t lying in his post-game interview. The first-round NCAA Tournament game against Wisconsin marked the first time this season the Panthers have played against an opponent from one of the sport’s five major conferences.
Flynn Clayman age
Born Sept. 27, 1988, Clayman is 37 years old.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: March Madness: Who is High Point basketball coach Flynn Clayman?
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