There wasn't much that Marked Tree Coach Barbara Wilburn-Covington needed to tell her team to get it motivated before this year's Class 1A boys state title game against Nevada unfolded.
The image of what happened the year before was still very much ingrained in their memory banks.
The Indians lost to County Line 46-44 in the 2023 final, and they weren't exactly in a rush to feel that same way in their return trip to Hot Springs.
"They always knew what it'd take to get," said Wilburn-Covington, who's the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette All-Arkansas Preps Boys Coach of the Year. "I'm glad we got [the title] because they work so hard. We just do what we do. We just go in there and work hard, strive to be the best that we can."
The best is precisely what Wilburn-Covington's team was during 2023-24. Marked Tree started the season ranked No. 1 in its class and never relinquished the spot. The Indians went 35-3 -- their losses coming to teams in larger classifications -- and ripped off 23 consecutive victories to end the season.
During that 23-game run, the closest margin of victory Marked Tree enjoyed was a 46-44 semifinal win against a Brinkley team that spent all season ranked No. 2. That triumph gave the Indians a prime opportunity to completely erase whatever lingering sentiments they had from last season's loss to County Line.
Marked Tree trailed Nevada for just 49 seconds and plowed its way to its first state championship since 2001. The Indians scored 34 points inside in the lane and had six players finish with at least seven points to outlast the Blue Jays, who'd come into the matchup riding a 14-game winning streak.
"It's nothing that I do, it's what [the players] do," Wilburn-Covington said, who steered Marked Tree to its sixth state championship overall. "I didn't score a basket or get one rebound. They did all of that. The goal was set. They already knew what they had to do.
"It's not about me at all, it's about them. I just prepare them and set them up to get what they need. We preached to them in the locker room that you don't give up because [Nevada] is not going to give up, they're not going to lay down. Just continue to play defense because that's what got you here."