Post by dex on Feb 26, 2017 11:57:36 GMT -5
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COMMENTARY
Rams, Friars hoping to ride a wave into NCAAs
BILL REYNOLDS
ON THE BUBBLE — That’s where I spent Saturday afternoon, watching both the University of Rhode Island and Providence College, two teams that in the eyes of the NCAA Tournament selection committee have yet to do enough to garner a bid come Selection Sunday.
Two teams, as of Saturday morning, that had more winning to do.
Two teams on the bubble.
And two coaches — Dan Hurley at URI and Ed Cooley at Providence — whose seasons will be viewed as a success if they are selected, and something less than that if they’re not.
That’s the reality in today’s college basketball world, the NCAA Tournament as a public measuring stick, the NCAA Tournament as validation. Get invited and everyone’s happy. Don’t get invited and no one’s happy.
A stretch?
Maybe.
But not too much.
So there I was Saturday afternoon at the Ryan Center where the Rams played Virginia Commonwealth, which was 23-5, 13-2 in the Atlantic 10, with three of its losses coming in overtime. Talk about a tough matchup.
And there were the Rams at 10-5 in the conference, 18-9 overall.
You didn’t need to be the reincarnation of Red Auerbach to know the Rams needed this game if they were to have any real hope of getting back to their first NCAA Tournament since Lamar Odom threw a jumper in at the buzzer to win the 1999 Atlantic 10 tournament, long ago and far away in college basketball reality. Either that, or win the Atlantic 10 tournament and the automatic bid that comes with it.
For college basketball is all about the tournament, and there’s little question that Hurley chases it like some contemporary Captain Ahab chasing the Great White Whale. He no doubt knows the history.
So the Ryan Center was jammed, rocking with energy, expectations hovering over the building like coastal fog over Scarborough.
And by halftime the Rams were ahead, a game they would go on to win, and I was running to my car and the ride to Providence for PC-Marquette.
To another team on the bubble.
This time it was at The Dunk, the noise all but bouncing off the walls.
The Friars began the season as a young team looking for Kris Dunn and Ben Bentil, a team that spent the first half of the season trying to find its identity, a team following three straight trips to the NCAA Tournament, heavy baggage for a young team.
No big surprise.
Cooley already has built the kind of program that Hurley is trying to build at URI, the kind of program that’s about winning and big cheers. So, in many ways, this was the free pass, the reward for the past three years.
But a funny thing happened as the season played itself out. The Friars are not only better than anyone thought they were going to be, they’re also playing themselves into the NCAA discussion, a team that’s not only going to be very good next year, but is good right now.
Is it good enough to get rewarded on Selection Sunday?
That remains to be seen.
But they won a big one on Saturday, not only beating Marquette in a bizarre game where the ice underneath the court was making the floor very slick, players routinely slipping as the game wore on. To the point I suspect the game came close to being called off, a logistical nightmare.
But in the end the Friars prevailed, and coming off their big win on the road at Creighton on Wednesday, this is a team peaking at the right time, especially Kyron Cartwright, who keeps getting better and better.
And maybe it’s this simple:
Like the Rams, the Friars figure to go to their conference tournament with the potential to make some noise in it, and who would have believed that back when Bentil announced he was leaving school and this officially became a rebuilding year, a team without a senior in its rotation. A team that is much better than it was supposed to be.
Two teams on the bubble.
College basketball’s version of Purgatory, with the outcome undecided.
COMMENTARY
Rams, Friars hoping to ride a wave into NCAAs
BILL REYNOLDS
ON THE BUBBLE — That’s where I spent Saturday afternoon, watching both the University of Rhode Island and Providence College, two teams that in the eyes of the NCAA Tournament selection committee have yet to do enough to garner a bid come Selection Sunday.
Two teams, as of Saturday morning, that had more winning to do.
Two teams on the bubble.
And two coaches — Dan Hurley at URI and Ed Cooley at Providence — whose seasons will be viewed as a success if they are selected, and something less than that if they’re not.
That’s the reality in today’s college basketball world, the NCAA Tournament as a public measuring stick, the NCAA Tournament as validation. Get invited and everyone’s happy. Don’t get invited and no one’s happy.
A stretch?
Maybe.
But not too much.
So there I was Saturday afternoon at the Ryan Center where the Rams played Virginia Commonwealth, which was 23-5, 13-2 in the Atlantic 10, with three of its losses coming in overtime. Talk about a tough matchup.
And there were the Rams at 10-5 in the conference, 18-9 overall.
You didn’t need to be the reincarnation of Red Auerbach to know the Rams needed this game if they were to have any real hope of getting back to their first NCAA Tournament since Lamar Odom threw a jumper in at the buzzer to win the 1999 Atlantic 10 tournament, long ago and far away in college basketball reality. Either that, or win the Atlantic 10 tournament and the automatic bid that comes with it.
For college basketball is all about the tournament, and there’s little question that Hurley chases it like some contemporary Captain Ahab chasing the Great White Whale. He no doubt knows the history.
So the Ryan Center was jammed, rocking with energy, expectations hovering over the building like coastal fog over Scarborough.
And by halftime the Rams were ahead, a game they would go on to win, and I was running to my car and the ride to Providence for PC-Marquette.
To another team on the bubble.
This time it was at The Dunk, the noise all but bouncing off the walls.
The Friars began the season as a young team looking for Kris Dunn and Ben Bentil, a team that spent the first half of the season trying to find its identity, a team following three straight trips to the NCAA Tournament, heavy baggage for a young team.
No big surprise.
Cooley already has built the kind of program that Hurley is trying to build at URI, the kind of program that’s about winning and big cheers. So, in many ways, this was the free pass, the reward for the past three years.
But a funny thing happened as the season played itself out. The Friars are not only better than anyone thought they were going to be, they’re also playing themselves into the NCAA discussion, a team that’s not only going to be very good next year, but is good right now.
Is it good enough to get rewarded on Selection Sunday?
That remains to be seen.
But they won a big one on Saturday, not only beating Marquette in a bizarre game where the ice underneath the court was making the floor very slick, players routinely slipping as the game wore on. To the point I suspect the game came close to being called off, a logistical nightmare.
But in the end the Friars prevailed, and coming off their big win on the road at Creighton on Wednesday, this is a team peaking at the right time, especially Kyron Cartwright, who keeps getting better and better.
And maybe it’s this simple:
Like the Rams, the Friars figure to go to their conference tournament with the potential to make some noise in it, and who would have believed that back when Bentil announced he was leaving school and this officially became a rebuilding year, a team without a senior in its rotation. A team that is much better than it was supposed to be.
Two teams on the bubble.
College basketball’s version of Purgatory, with the outcome undecided.