Troy Head Coach Scott Cross Only Recruits Players Who Love Waffle House

If you don't love a big plate of scattered, smothered, covered hash browns, you can forget about playing for Scott Cross.

The Troy head basketball coach revealed to Kentucky Sports Radio on Monday that he has an interesting way of evaluating potential recruits for the Trojans: he has to know their opinion of Waffle House.

"Started off, the first two recruits we brought on campus, we're driving down the main street, I point out Waffle House, and ask them if they want to eat there for breakfast," Cross explained. They were like 'Waffle House? Hell nah, I don't want to go to Waffle House.' I'm like, 'OK, my bad. We'll try to eat somewhere else.' Long story short, we signed neither one of those guys."

After striking out with those two recruits, the Trojans hosted forward Nick Stampley, who originally played at Eastern Florida State, for an official visit in 2019.

"We're driving by, and we don't even say anything about Waffle House," Cross said about Stampley's visit. "He sees it and is like, 'Oh Coach, y'all got a Waffle House here? Can we go there tomorrow?' He was our first signer, and he was one of the toughest guys we ever coached.

"From that point forward, we offhand ask them, do you like Waffle House? If the answer is yes, we sign them. If it's no, we never get them."

I guess this is what they mean when they talk about the "culture" of a program.

Cross and his band of waffle-loving hoopers are slated to make the school's third-ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament on Friday against the Kentucky Wildcats in Milwaukee. The Trojans finished the season with a 23-10 record and earned an automatic bid to the tourney by winning the Sun Belt Conference Tournament.

And if they manage to pull off the upset against UK, I have a pretty good idea where the celebration meal will take place.