LORMAN — Second-year Alcorn State baseball coach Barret Ray has spent the last couple of days getting his Braves to believe that anything is possible with the team’s first-ever trip to the NCAA Tournament.

Ray has gone as far as comparing the Braves to a young Cassius Clay when he fought Sonny Liston for the heavyweight championship in 1964. Alcorn State’s foe, Conference USA champion Rice, will be the favorite Friday night at 6 at the Houston Regional at Reckling Park. Baylor (29-26) meets California (31-20) in the regional opener at 3 p.m.

“No one is giving us a chance,” Ray said. “Just like they didn’t give Cassius Clay a chance against Liston. Well, I’ve tried to get my guys to buy in that we’re Clay and we’re going to ‘shock the world.’”

Rice (41-17) comes in with excellent credentials. The Owls are the eighth national seed in the 64-team field. Alcorn State (27-28) got into the field by winning the Southwestern Athletic Conference title on May 22 in Shreveport.

It was the school’s first SWAC Tournament championship.

For senior Brandon Hollins of Yazoo County, making into the NCAA Tournament was a dream come true.

“It means a lot to do this for Alcorn State University,” Hollins said. “We’re very excited to get an opportunity to play in a NCAA Regional and represent the SWAC.”

Ray, meanwhile, has tried to get his team to focus more on the task at hand and not rest on its laurels.

“Let’s go and compete,” Ray said. “Rice is probably going to throw their No. 3 against us, thinking he can get by us and then they can save the No. 1 for either Baylor or Cal. But I feel we have the team that can make a mark. I was an assistant at Southern University in 2003, when we beat Southern Miss in the opening game of that regional. In 2004, Texas Southern beat Rice in that regional. It can be done.”

Hollins will be a key figure. The speedy centerfielder ranks second in the nation with 37 stolen bases.

“I know I have to be the spark plug for the team,” Hollins said. “I’ve got to get on base and set up things for our (No.) 2 and 3 guys. We basically know Rice is going to be well-coached with pretty good position players and good hitters. But I think the schedule Coach Ray handed us this year helped us. We played 13 ranked teams this year.”

Ray said a good non-conference schedule was instrumental in getting the Braves primed for the SWAC Tournament. Alcorn State played at Alabama in a three-game set to open the season, and then followed it up with road games at Southern Miss, Mississippi State, LSU and Wichita State. The Braves capped it with a three-game trip to Arizona on May 6-8.

“I felt like this year, I had a team that could get it done and I didn’t want them to be afraid to play the bigger schools,” Ray said. “That’s why I scheduled it this way, so that we could get over that hump. No matter who we played, Southern Miss, Mississippi State, Arizona or Tulane, I thought we competed well with everybody.”

When the Braves got to Shreveport for the SWAC Tournament, they were ready. They won all four games using a big offense in the final three to put up at least 12 runs. They smashed Southern 12-6 in the title game.

Kilby Perdomo was named the tournament’s MVP. The senior from the Dominican Republic leads the Braves with a .357 average, 10 home runs, 48 runs scored and 49 RBIs.