Ten years after the Final Four Tony Skinn is now on the bench as an assistant to Eric Konkol at Louisiana Tech. At Mason, he finished his career with 1,079 points, averaging 11.6 points per game. He spent six seasons playing professionally around Europe soon after graduation in 2006. Skinn also was the starting point guard for Nigeria and played in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. GoMason.com caught up with Tony for a Q&A.
Q. Do you keep in touch with your Mason teammates? If so, how often do you talk or see each other?
A. I still talk to a lot of the guys. I was actually just in DC recruiting and I went to the St. John's versus Dematha game to check out some guys. I also wanted to give support to Lamar (Butler) over at St. John's. I talk to Jai all the time. We are very good friends. Social Media has been great, I haven't lost touch with any of the guys on the Final Four team.
Q. What have you been doing since you graduated?
A. I played six years in Europe. I was approaching my seventh year and I had a career ending injury. I was working out at a local high school where I grew up called Public Charter. Doing that for one and half years and coach Konkol gave me the call to be on his bench at Louisiana Tech.
Q. What experience did you gain playing overseas?
A. Unbelievable. A lot of people in DC don't get to leave DC where I am from. The opportunity to travel around the world and do what you love and what you work hard for is an unbelievable experience and shaped me into the man I am today with two kids and learning different cultures of and just being able to figure things out in other countries, where they don't give you a manual or how to figure things out in on and off the court. That experience was huge for me.
Q. Did you play with or against a Mason teammate overseas?
A. I played against Folarin Campbell in Germany in 2011. I also played against George Evans in the year he retired.
Q. Do you still get recognized as a member of the 2006 Mason team? If so, any good stories?
A. All the time! People just all around remember that run. That run was so significant. Even when I was playing overseas a lot of times I was recruited because I was on that team. People say 'he was the point guard on that team'. Even now at Louisiana Tech they remember that because you have basketball fans all over. It's very hard to forget that kind of run. It wasn't just your normal Cinderella story. It was huge and people still remember it.
Q. What do you remember about Selection Sunday?
A. I remember that day vividly sitting next to Coach L on the couch. I was sitting there obviously knowing the situation with selection process and knowing that we may not get an at-large bid. Obviously without me playing and knowing that the committee takes that into consideration and in knowing that I was suspended game one. I just wanted more than anything to make sure we got into the tournament, I didn't care whether or not that I played but I didn't want a mistake that I made to affect my teammates and coach L and the coaching staff because we deserved to be in that tournament. We were that kind of team. My biggest thing was the pressure of knowing that we got in, I didn't want that to be the reason we didn't get in. When I heard George Mason I was just super happy to hear the name called.
Q. What are your top 3 moments from the 2006 season?
A.
1. A combination… A domino effect. We don't get into the tournament if we don't beat Wichita State at Wichita State. That was such a huge game. It came down to the wire. The atmosphere was such an unbelievable atmosphere to be able to go into and come out with a win. I just remember it being super quiet for 30 seconds when it had been super loud for 39 minutes. That kind of set the precedent for us.
2. Sitting on the bench as a player/coach with the guys cheering them on in the first game against Michigan State. It went from getting into the tournament watching my teammates to halfway through the game knowing we had a good chance to win this game. And for me personally getting a chance to redeem myself and have a chance to play in the NCAA Tournament
3. The UConn game going into OT. Playing well for 40 minutes and really had the game in our hands and then kind of fumbling and giving them the opportunity. Knowing we had to fight them for another five minutes and I remember walking over to the bench before the OT knowing we should have won in regulation. When Denham Brown ran down the court for the last shot and it missed I just thought 'We did it!' Seeing the ball bounce off the rim made a dream become a reality because we were advancing to the Final Four and making history.
Q. Which pregame speech from coach Larranaga struck you the most? Why?
A. CAA (Connecticut Assassin Association) was my favorite because it was so random. He was so good at coming up with stuff that would make us laugh or give us that extra motivation and just play, not to be stressed out about playing just having fun.
Q. How do you fill out your bracket in March?
A. As a fan you know that some team will make a run. If people would have done research on us they would have seen during the year some of the things that made us such a good team. We were always top half in the country as far as our defensive percentage and those things don't happen overnight. We had the exact same team our junior year and the difference between our successes from that year to our senior year was just because we bought into it. Defense was such a huge thing for us and we did that for 30+ games going into the tournament. Most people didn't know that, but you can find that in a little bit of research, numbers don't lie. Anything can happen when you have two teams playing on a neutral floor.
Q. What do you do when you hear Bon Jovi's 'Livin on a Prayer'?
A. I used to hear it as a kid growing up and not pay any attention to it. But I remember it playing over and over during the run so obviously post-Mason any time I hear it I immediately think back to some of the memories of us playing. I identify our Final Four run automatically.
Q. How would you describe the 2006 run to the Final Four in one sentence?
A. Life changing. I'm a true believer that from a personal standpoint that I had it came as a direct result of us winning and making that run. Even sitting here as a coach I would think those opportunities sure help.
Q. After the team won against Michigan State and you had served your one-game suspension, one of your teammates wrote 'Tony is Back' on the white board? What do you remember about that game?
A. I think Gabe wrote that on the board. They all knew how important it was for us to win the game but to give me a chance. We had each other's back all year and those guy going out and playing that game against Michigan State the way they did and how Gabe stepped up the way he did, it was just tremendous. I had a lot of respect for my teammates, but I gained more respect for them when they were able to pull that off and give me a chance at redemption. It was like a trickle effect, one thing led to one thing and another. You could not have told us going into Selection Sunday that this was how it would play out.
Now as a coach I look back at it and it happens. You learn from it and move on.
