For many college basketball programs that aren’t traditional powers, the hope is that slow and steady will win the race. That’s the approach the Austin Peay Governors are taking to success on the hardwood. For many years, there was nothing but cheap APSU basketball tickets available while the Governors toiled in the lower levels. However, slowly but surely, the Governors have worked their way up the pecking order to the point that they are a contender in the Ohio Valley Conference and last-minute Austin Peay basketball tickets are a hot commodity in northern Tennessee.

Humble Beginnings

The Governors have been played basketball since the early 1940s, although they rarely put together quality seasons outside of a few trips to the Division II NCAA Tournament in the late 1950s and early 60s. But that changed in 1972 when Jason “Fly” Williams stepped onto the APSU campus. He immediately became one of the nation’s leading scorers while leading the Governors to their first appearance in the Division I NCAA Tournament in 1973. Austin Peay advanced to the Sweet 16 before an overtime loss to Kentucky ended the best season in program history.

Staying Loos

Austin Peay struggled to sustain the success the Governors experienced with Williams. But the program did find great stability under longtime head coach Dave Loos, who guided Austin Peay from 1990 to 2017. During that time, the Governors were frequently in the top half of the Ohio Valley Conference standings, winning at least a share of the conference regular-season title five times. Under Loos, APSU also made four appearances in the NCAA Tournament while also receiving occasional invitations to the NIT, CBI, and CIT. After Loos retired in 2017, he left the program to Matt Figger, who made the Governors a perennial 20-win program, continuing to build Austin Peay into an Ohio Valley Conference powerhouse.