Portland State’s Jase Coburn Says Vikings Have A Chance To Make The NCAA Tournament

By 750 THE GAME STAFF

The Portland State Vikings haven’t made the NCAA tournament since 2009 when they lost to Xavier in the first round as a no. 13 seed. It was the Vikings second consecutive NCAA tournament as they had lost to no. 1 seed Kansas the year before. But that’s it. For their entire history of the NCAA tournament.

Portland State has only been to those two NCAA tournaments in their school history. But the Vikings have a chance to make it again as the men’s Big Sky basketball tournament gets going on Saturday and Portland State has a bye.

Portland State will take on Montana in their first tournament game on Monday in Boise, Idaho.

If Portland State it to win the tournament. The Vikings are going to have to rely on Senior KJ Allen. Allen has been a rock for the Vikings all season long averaging 13 points and 7 rebounds a game this season. Head coach Jase Coburn was on the Bald Faced Truth with John Canzano and he spoke about Allen. Coburn says not only is he a great basketball player. But all the players love him.

“He’s freaking awesome. And I say that as not only a basketball player but as a person. He’s a very humble guy. He’s a great teammate. To go on top of that he’s a great basketball player too. He can do a lot of different things on the floor. I’ve been very lucky and fortunate to coach him this year. Because a guy like him. You talk about Last Chance U and being in the Big 12 and all that stuff. He could have a huge ego but I think anyone on our team will tell you that he’s a great teammate who doesn’t have an ego and is very humble.”

While the Vikings are the no. 6 seed in the Big Sky tournament. Portland State has had some really good stretches this season. The Vikings started the season off winning 6 of 7 games including road wins at Air Force and Santa Barbara. That is something that Coburn is thinking about as he says all it takes is three wins.

“I definitely think our conference is wide open. Everybody has beaten everybody and everybody has lost to everybody. It’s pretty crazy. It’s going to make for an exciting tournament for sure. We know we need to win three in three days and all it takes is three. But at the same time all of those games are going to be tough and we got to take it one game at a time so we are focused on the first one on Monday. If we are fortunate enough to get that one then we’ll get to Tuesday, but we are going to take it one game at a time.”

Listen to the full interview with Portland State Vikings men’s head basketball coach Jase Coburn by clicking the podcast below. Catch the Bald Faced Truth with John Canzano weekdays 3-6 p.m. in Portland exclusively on 750 The Game.

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