Warsaw native built a perennial Division III contender with Emory basketball through TCC, loyalty

INDIANAPOLIS — Less than 20 minutes after losing the Division III national championship on a buzzer-beater , Emory guard Tyson Thomas prematurely walked into the Gainbridge Fieldhouse interview room, waiting to face the music of the heartbreaking loss. An NCAA communications staffer told Thomas to wait before re-entering the room, and Thomas told the staffer they'd need more chairs at the dais for when he came back. Only two players are required to speak alongside their coach after the game, but when Thomas came back, he was joined by his three fellow seniors — Jair Knight, Ben Pearce and John Coppolino IV — and Emory coach Jason Zimmerman, a native of Warsaw.

Thomas and Coppolino didn't even play in Emory's stunning loss to Mary Washington, but the team's leaders still chose to show up and take the weight of the defeat off other teammates' shoulders. The decision for all four seniors to attend the news conference comes down to Zimmerman's code for the program: trust, commitment and care (TCC). "This whole season, we've been trying to live that (code) out," Knight said.

"And that just lived out in many different ways. We came in this together, and I think we should finish it together as well. I feel like win or lose, there's no way we would rather have it.

" "These are three of my brothers," Thomas said. "Everything we do, we do together. And when we were leading this year, we came in with goals.