Steve Lutz kept calm and cool when discussing how his team could pull off the near impossible. Though the head coach of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi did say he may need God’s help or at the very least the 24-hour flu to afflict star Alabama freshman Brandon Miller.

The opening round of the NCAA Tournament begins tomorrow afternoon and the 16-seed Islanders are slotted to face off against the No. 1 overall-seed Crimson Tide in a de-facto home game in Birmingham.

Lutz hasn’t brought up the only other major upset in March Madness history — when the University of Maryland-Baltimore County upset No. 1 seed Virginia in 2018 — but he dropped a few one-liners on his team becoming the latest to achieve a historical win, even if it means stopping by a local Birmingham church before tipoff.

“I tell them to be thankful to be here and don’t b—h because there’s a lot of teams sitting at home wanting this opportunity. It is what it is, guys,” Lutz said. “They deserve to have every opportunity afforded to them as the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament. … I wouldn’t trade this for anything. We have a chance to go play them. Hey, everybody in the country, in most of the world would know who the heck we are if we beat them tomorrow. It’s what you dream about as a kid. It’s what you dream about as a coach.

“We gotta stick to what we do and be great at it. … We’ll all go to mass before the game, we’ll start there. But no, we’ve had some injuries.  … I’d have to be an idiot to think that Southeast Missouri State or Northwestern State, no offense to them, are of the same quality and caliber as Alabama.”

The Islanders are 24-10, winners of five in a row including the Southland Conference championship. The team has posted a 45.5% field-goal rate while shooting 36.5% from 3-point range and 78.9% at the free-throw line. Lutz said limiting Alabama’s transition and drawing fouls will be the key to knocking out a tournament favorite on the first day.

Due to injuries in the frontcourt, specifically to reigning conference defensive player of the year Terrion Murdix, the Texas A&M-CC used a six-player rotation in its victory over Southeast Missouri State on Tuesday. The Islanders traveled to its first-round site afterward, with redshirt-senior guard Simeon Fryer comparing the team’s hectic schedule to an AAU tournament.

“It’s March,” Fryer said. “I feel like at this point anybody can beat anybody. We’re not really coming here to lose obviously. We’re actually coming here to shock the world.”

Texas A&M-CC was beating Mississippi State at Humphrey Coliseum in Starkville at halftime of the team’s season-opener on Nov. 7. It also hung with Arizona, a No. 2 seed in the South Region, for about 15 minutes of game time on Dec. 13. Senior guard Treviian Tennyson has led the team in scoring, averaging 15.6 points per game.

Any key to the upset will be limiting Alabama’s Miller, but aside from joking that Miller comes down with a cold between now and the 1:45 CT start time, Lutz noted it would take a team effort to stop the Crimson Tide’s star freshman.

“We’ve gotta do our best. You can’t put one person on Brandon Miller and expect to hold him below his average,” Lutz said. “It’s gonna have to be a team effort and we’re gonna have to know where he’s at. Give the guy his credit. He has a chance to have a lengthy, lengthy NBA career.”

RELATED: Alabama basketball avoids commenting on ‘traumatic’ Jan. 15 shooting

Brandon Miller is Alabama’s second-ever consensus second-team All-American

Brandon Miller has received threats, accompanied by armed guard at NCAA tournament

Nick Alvarez is a reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @nick_a_alvarez or email him at [email protected].