Waffle House serves as 'retreat area' for Troy: "It's the type of place we want to represent ourselves with."

The Troy Trojans are known for forcing turnovers, offensive rebounding and Waffle House, in no particular order. Actually, they might be known for Waffle House more than anything else — and they’re proud of it.

Scott Cross said he only recruits players who like Waffle House because they are ‘my kind of people.’

“A lot of the time, after we win, it’s one of the few places that’s open. I’ll go there with my family,” the Troy head coach said in an exclusive interview with KSR+. “We’ll eat there and soak it in before we put the win to bed. Every time we celebrate a birthday, we celebrate it there. We take our team there.”

Their obsession is no exaggeration. When talking to the Trojans ahead of the team’s matchup vs. Kentucky in the NCAA Tournament on Friday, they called Waffle House their home base for any and all gatherings. All week long, they use the 24-hour breakfast joint to break bread (or waffles, rather).

They cherish those 11 block letters and the yellow and black logo.

“The whole last summer, I mean the whole team just after every practice, we would go there and eat,” second-leading scorer Myles Rigsby told KSR. “This team is different. That’s our our retreat area, as you can say. That’s our retreat area.”

“We all got here around, I want to say two years ago. And we started going there in the summer, like almost every day — maybe four or five times a week,” Marcus Rigsby Jr. added. “Then over the years, as the years have gone by, we just kept going. We got closer with the Waffle House family, the people that work there. They embraced us and we embraced them, which is great, honestly.”

Waffle House. Four or five times a week.

It’s part of the team’s blue-collar approach, a way to keep themselves grounded and establish gritty culture. If you think you’re too good for an order of hash browns scattered, smothered and covered, you’re not someone they want to play with.

Does that make sense? Standout forward Thomas Dowd did his best to explain.

“That kind of came from Coach Cross, just like — it’s kind of hard to explain,” Dowd told KSR. “You don’t really want someone that thinks they’re too good for Waffle House. Like, you know, it’s Waffle House? How can you be too good for Waffle House? It’s hard to explain, we just go there for all of our team meals and stuff. We know all of the workers personally, we’re good friends with them.

“It’s open 24 hours, so it’s just the type of place that we want to represent ourselves with.”

With countless visits over the years, they have to have go-to orders, right? Obviously.

“I’m more of a like — I get two things. I get a hash brown bowl, and then I get a Texas bacon and cheese sausage plate,” Rigsby said.

Then you have the classics.

“I get the All-Star Special, plain waffle, scrambled eggs, cheese grits and some bacon,” Dowd said.

“You have to get the All-Star Special. Gotta get your eggs scrambled, gotta get hash browns, toast, all of that,” Rigsby Jr. added. “Gotta get a double waffle — double waffle, regular waffle. Or I get a little Philly cheesesteak sandwich with hash brown, extra steak and light onions.

“It’s great, it’s amazing. You gotta get there.”

What does the weekly Waffle House schedule look like? You’d actually be proud of them. At most, the Trojans are there four to five times a week, but they’ve recently cut back.

“It died down a little bit, so I’d probably say three,” Rigsby Jr. told KSR.

Talk about self control.

Let’s hope the Trojans loaded up on breakfast and come out sluggish against the Wildcats. Eat all of the continental waffles you can throw down, Troy!