A year ago, Ritchie McKay was coming off his most disappointing season at Liberty since returning in 2015. In the program’s first season in Conference USA, the Flames struggled to win consistently in league play, finishing tied for 4th in the conference standings at 7-9 before losing in the quarterfinals of the CUSA Tournament and finishing the season at 18-14.

It ended a streak of seven straight 20-win seasons and sent McKay back to the drawing board. He had to figure out a way to get longer and more athletic to compete for conference championships once again.

For the first time in his coaching career, he leaned into the transfer portal bringing in several new pieces from the high major, mid major, and Division II ranks. He also went the JUCO route for the first time in a long time. When it was all said and done, McKay had brought in five transfers that he would have to blend in with three returners that were part of the rotation last year in Zach Cleveland, Colin Porter, and Kaden Metheny.

“I don’t think (the returners) get enough credit for what they did in inviting our (new) guys in the room without condition,” McKay said earlier this week. “I think it’s a really understated, undervalued quality that allowed us a fairly expedient connection.”

Once all the pieces were assembled on campus this summer, it didn’t take long for McKay to think he had something that could be special.

“I thought we had a chance to be special with the pieces that we added from the portal,” he explained. “We believe it’s teamwork that remains the ultimate competitive advantage. Because of that conviction and our guys’ adherence to it, I thought we might have a chance to be pretty good.”

The Flames started the year 3-0 before heading to Charleston to take on Florida Atlantic and Charleston. Liberty suffered its first defeat in a crushing, 77-74, loss in overtime to the Owls. Just 24 hours later, Liberty responded with a 21-point win over a Charleston team that went on to win 24 games. Following that trip, the Flames headed to the Virgin Islands and would defeat Louisiana and then their best two non-conference wins of the season by knocking off Kansas State and McNeese on consecutive nights.

“That Paradise Jam trip, the way our guys responded,” recalled McKay. “We had a bunch of road games early. You lose a tough one to FAU and you come back the next night against Charleston and play really well, I felt like we had a chance.”

After playing just one game at home in the season’s first eight, Liberty then closed out non-conference play with the start of a season-long homestand. The Flames would cruise through its next five games, finishing it’s out of conference season with an impressive 12-1 season. It had some thinking about a possible at-large resume to the NCAA Tournament.

Those dreams were thwarted thereafter as Minnesota transfer Isaiah Ihnen went down to a season-ending injury. The Flames wouldn’t be able to replace what the 6’9″ forward provided with his length and ability to impact the game on both ends. Through the team’s first 11 games, he was averaging 10.4 points and 4.3 rebounds while shooting nearly 40% from three-point range.

“Isaiah went out and a little doubt creeps in,” said McKay of his outlook on the season at that point. “You have to kind of restructure your team or the way we were doing things. Each and every one of those guys stepped up to a different level of competitiveness and excellence. It’s allowed us to experience some success and garner a little confidence in what we’re doing.”

Starting conference play and learning to play without Ihnen, Liberty struggled to a 2-3 stretch at the midpoint of the season. From there though, they would figure it out with their new look rotation. The Flames would go 14-2 the rest of the way, fighting back to win the CUSA regular season title, and then win three games in Huntsville, Alabama last week to secure the tournament title and league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Not only did the team get back to that 20-win plateau for the 8th time in nine seasons, but the Flames are also currently sitting at 28 wins on the season which is good enough for the third most in the program’s Division I era. The regular season title was the 6th in the last 8 seasons, if you include the division title in 2022. The Flames won their fourth conference tournament championship in the past seven seasons after advancing to a sixth conference tournament championship game appearance in the last eight years.

Earning the program’s highest ever seed in the NCAA Tournament, a 12-seed that ties that mark with the 2019 team, McKay and the Flames are preparing to take on No. 5 seed Oregon. The NCAA Tournament first round game is scheduled for Friday night at 10:10 p.m. Eastern from Seattle.

“We try and run a program that honors the University, the Lord, and our families,” McKay said. “Does that mean we’re going to win every time? No, but we’re going to try to run in such a way to win the prize. This team has a chance to have a memorable year. We’ll see how it continues.”