Liberty came into the 2025-26 men’s basketball season with incredibly high expectations. Coming off the 2025 CUSA regular season and tournament championship, the Flames were the preseason pick to repeat and get back to the Big Dance. The team looked like it had that potential early in the season, racing out to a 5-0 start to the season with impressive wins at home over Charleston and FAU.
Then, it seemed like things got off track. Liberty lost its last two games in the ESPN Events Invitational in Florida, falling to Towson and Bradley, before suffering a 40-point drubbing at NC State, 85-45 in early December. Losing three of four and an embarrassing setback to the Wolfpack, the Flames were licking their wounds a bit.
“I think this group was really humbled on December 10th when we were in Raleigh,” said head coach Ritchie McKay. “We weren’t as bad as the scoreboard. No one is exempt from a bad night. I think a humbling and kind of re-centering propelled our group to be a little bit more connected or intentional about the value of each possession.”
Liberty senior Zach Cleveland had similar thoughts.
“I was very timid (at NC State),” he said. “You’ve got to be confident and know who you are. We were in the locker room after the game and Coach McKay was showing us some clips from (NC State head coach) Will Wade’s post game interview. It was a little disrespectful. Not that that’s our motivator, but it’s like, ‘Ok, there’s some work to do.’ In that locker room, we were like, ‘Ok, we’re not going to be this team. We’re not going to just fall over.’ It would have been easy to drop a couple after that going into Dayton, but it was a moment that we had a choice to turn the page and we did.”
Since that game over a month ago, Liberty has not lost. The Flames have reeled off nine straight, including a now Quad 1 win on the road at Dayton, ending a long non-conference home win streak for the Flyers. Dayton hasn’t lost since then and is currently 14-4 on the season and 5-0 in the A10. Liberty then gutted out a win in overtime in Miami to open conference play at 1-0 after knocking off FIU, 97-94. Liberty has gone on to control its last six conference games, improving to 15-3 on the season and 7-0 in conference play. The Flames have led for 86.4% of the minutes in the last six games.
“I think we all agree we weren’t ourselves at NC State, but we kind of just tried to turn the page as quick as we could,” said JJ Harper. “Just focus on the next game, just take it game-by-game. We try not to think about (the win streak) or being undefeated in conference. I think the leadership that we have and the coaching staff that we have, they put it in our head to stay level-headed and take it day-by-day, game-by-game, and practice-by-practice.”
For many, the lost to NC State was reminiscent of the 81-52 loss to Oregon in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last March. Zach Cleveland, Colin Porter, and Kaden Metheny have each talked about wanting to not just get back to the Big Dance but to have a much better showing than they did last year. The loss to the Wolfpack may have been an early season wake up call to get this group back on track heading into conference play.
“They felt similarly like we did after the Oregon game,” said McKay. “To have that regurgitated and to hear all the doubt and disappointment that maybe they were hearing from others. ‘Guys, this is about us. Let’s make sure we’re pursuing the right thing.'”
It’s been a great run for the Flames over the past five weeks or so, but there are still 13 games left in the conference regular season before we even get to Huntsville and this year’s CUSA Tournament. Liberty has its eyes set on being its best version in March when it really matters.
“I don’t care what the standings are right now,” said McKay. “I’d rather be what we are than (not), but it’s a one-bid league. Our charge has to be making sure that we are pursuing improvement. That’s going to be our barometer of success. Are we invested entirely to that pursuit of development?”
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