Category Archives: General

This is the end

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During the Division III basketball season, I’ve been reading John Feinstein’s The Last Amateurs in which he chronicles a season in Division I’s Patriot League. There are lots of parallels to Division III, especially since many of the Assistant Coaches in the Patriot League are now Division III coaches. The list includes Carl Danzig at Scranton, Jimmy Allen at Averett and Nathan Davis at Randolph-Macon.

Much of the book is about players fighting to prolong their basketball careers. Like nearly all Division III athletes, they are “going pro in something other than sports.” When the final Patriot League team, LaFayette, has its season ended by Temple in the NCAA Tournament, senior Mike Homer says, “I’ll always love this time in my life. I’ll love having been a basketball player. But I’ll be ready to move on. Endings are always sad. But they lead to beginnings.”

For me the enduring images of the 2009-2010 season were those in which players and coaches reached the end of their college career.

Clark senior forward Mark Alexander never missed a game in his college career due to injury. Not over 100 plus games. He was a big reason for the Cougars’ opening round upset of Albright and undoubtedly a major part of their strategy to beat Randolph-Macon. But he hurt his knee badly enough in the opening minute against the Yellow Jackets that he never returned. He spent the game on the bench, icing his knee or leaning on crutches. The Cougars scrapped but came up short against Randolph-Macon, ending their season and Alexander’s career. He put a towel over his head and cried when the final buzzer sounded. I’m not sure if he could’ve played in the next round of the tournament, even if the Cougars advanced. Maybe he spent the whole 39 minutes of action thinking about the end of his career. It still wasn’t enough to staunch the emotion.

Coaches don’t normally have to wrestle with those emotions quite as much. There’s usually next season to think about. But during Marymount’s season, women’s coach Bill Finney announced that he would retire after it was complete. His last game was a close one against Hope in the sectional semifinals. Unlike Alexander, he didn’t have time to think about this being his last game even while it being played.

Finney had a tremendous coaching career, winning over 500 games and impacting countless lives. He has also been a great supporter of this site. I’ve benefited from the insight he’s shared with me directly or through other staff. I wanted to get his insight on what he was thinking, what he was feeling that night. Because Marymount’s semifinal was the first game in a double header, I didn’t get the chance to ask him. Maybe no media did since Marymount didn’t appear to have a writer or radio station at the game. I’m not sure I would’ve had the gumption to ask anyway and intrude on that personal moment.

I did get the chance to talk to D3hoops All American Christina Solari about that moment a couple hours later. Her Illinois Wesleyan Titans played a tremendous game against UW-Stevens Point. The Titans went from nearly surviving and playing Hope in the Elite 8 to being beaten on a shot with 2.2 seconds left. Throw in the timeout the Titans called to set up a final play and that’s not a lot of time to think about your last game. I have no idea what Solari was feeling on the inside when I talked to her afterwards. But I was struck by how at peace she seemed to be when I asked her about this being her last game.

Solari has a medical redshirt that would enable her to play another year. But she didn’t seem inclined to use it. At least not right now. Maybe she’ll decide to come back, like Kean’s Melissa Beyruti did. Kean obliterated most of their opponents this season, seemingly on track for the Final Four. Then Beyruti got hurt in the NJAC tournament championship against William Paterson. Two Saturdays later, Rochester ended Kean’s season with Beyruti playing limited minutes. She finished her career tied for the most games played in women’s Division III basketball history.

This weekend the seniors at Rochester, Hope and Washington U. saw their college basketball careers end at the women’s final four. For Hope who lost in the championship game, the ending was emotional for seniors Jenny Cowen and Philana Greene. Cowen admirably wrestled her emotions to the ground during the post game conference. Without knowing what Greene was really feeling, she seemed at peace with the end of her college basketball career.

Amherst didn’t have any seniors on its roster. After its heartbreaking loss to Washington U in the national semifinals, there was a sense of unfinished business. Coach G.P. Gromacki implied as much by calling the team a “work in progress.” He and his players have done an incredible job already, building that program into a national title contender. There’s only one more step they can take, and that’s winning the national championship. Maybe they’ll get there. They will almost certainly be very good again next year. However next season ends, I hope they can enjoy the journey and don’t feel so much pressure trying to win a national championship that the rest of the season feels like the prelude to two games in March.

Of course, not all endings are sad. Two groups of seniors – one men, one women – get to have a happy endings to their careers. Washington U. graduate student Jaimie McFarlin had a rare opportunity to rewrite the end of her college career. Afterwards she told me that her basketball career still may not be finished. She hopes to play in Europe next year. UW-Stevens Point senior Matt Moses also had a happy ending, one that was a long time in the making.

For lots of players, they’ve reached the end, whether it’s happy, sad or somewhere in between. Wherever life takes those players next, we wish them the best. Thanks for giving us a small window into this part of your lives.

Welcome to Salem

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I just wanted to write to say it’s a heck of a lot nicer here than the last time I was in Salem, Va.

It’s a beautiful day, with the temperature hitting 70, making me wish I had time to go out and play a round of golf. Or that I were capable of playing golf.

Getting ready for Hoopsville tonight, games tomorrow and the All-American announcement on Saturday. Oh, and the All-Star Game and championship game, too.

The essential guide to the Sweet 16

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A D3hoops.com reader named Mike Sullivan passed along his essential nickname guide to the NCAA Tournament, also calling it “Musings Over Lunch while avoiding going back to work.”

We know how that goes. His take follows:

In bracket order, beginning with men’s bracket.

SUNYIT Wildcats at Williams Ephs – SUNYIT soccer team more well known, the Wildcat Strikers

Rhode Island College Anchormen vs. Brandeis Judges – prefer the band to the Supreme Court

Wooster Scots at Guilford Quakers – good, the Woos crush Earlham Quakers all year long

Eastern Mennonite Royals vs. Whitworth Pirates – Whitworth higher-seed than cross-town Gonzaga

Texas-Dallas Comets at UW-Stevens Point Pointers – a little creativity problem in dairy country?

Illinois Wesleyan Titans vs. Carthage Red Men – ironic that D-III has the least politically correct nicknames, I thought these were all Liberal Artsy Fartsy colleges

Franklin & Marshall Diplomats at St. Mary’s Seahawks – F&M only team named for a cigar

Randolph-Macon Yellow Jackets vs. DeSales Bulldogs – no NCAA bubble anxiety for these Yellow Jackets

Charging on to the Women’s bracket.

Williams Ephs at Amherst Lord Jeffs – if men and women both win, Williams expands to become Eph U. Rhymes with reef, not with ref? What is it, short for Ephesians?

Gettysburg Bullets vs. Babson Beavers – Gettysburg Bullets basketball teams known informally as the Bay O Nets

Mount Union Purple Raiders at Washington Bears – MU trying to make up for pathetic 2nd place football finish

George Fox Bruins vs. Carthage Lady Reds – why not the Ladies in Red (Are Dancing With Me)

Bowdoin Polar Bears at Kean Cougars – the ultimate who’s the predator, who’s the prey matchup

Christopher Newport Captains vs. Rochester Yellowjackets – always confusing pregame coin-flips with Captains’ captains

UW Stevens Point Pointers at Illinois Wesleyan Titans – women’s teams also known as the Pointer Sisters

Marymount Saints vs. Hope Flying Dutchmen – office colleague and her husband making the 760-mile trek to cheer on the Saints, and why Flying Dutchmen? The Hope Eternal Springs is so much more marketable

OK, I’m worn out. Go Polar Bears! Go Scots! Go Saints!

Insider: The four best years of my life

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For Cabrini’s senior class, it’s been a tumultuous four years, with two coaching changes and a five-win season on their record. But the Cavaliers turned it on this year in a big way, entering the NCAA Tournament ranked No. 20 and sporting a 25-2 record. For forward Chris Blake, Cabrini is a long way from home in San Francisco, but it’s been, as he put it, the four best years of his life. His thoughts entering this weekend’s NCAA Tournament are below:

Chris BlakeI will never forget my introduction to college basketball. In 2006 Cabrini opened up its season against the No. 2 in Division III hoops of that year, Wooster College. From the start, Wooster dominated the game; in fact to this day I have still never seen a better shooting performance by a team. They made an unbelievable 25 three pointers in 45 attempts, crushing their school record and sending our team home with the first of 20 losses for the season.

After the game the team went back to the hotel and while watching a prerecorded broadcast of our game on television the Fighting Scots’ announcer jeeringly remarked “I don’t know what the weather is like in Radnor, but it’s raining tonight in Wooster.” I knew then and there that no matter what level of college basketball you play when things are going good they’re going good and when they’re bad, they’re real bad.

​From the start I understood that Division III basketball was extremely competitive and only with hard work and team unity would a program find success. My first season at Cabrini was a roller coaster with more ups and downs than any team should ever go through. For me I was just excited to be a part of the Cabrini program. I didn’t know if I would ever have the opportunity to play at the college level and just being a member of the team was a great feeling. However, by the end of the season the excitement and passion I had for the game was slipping away.

Losing games is never easy, but what was most upsetting was the entire operation. The entire program needed a change. After the last day of the season the coach who had recruited me from California was let go and I seriously doubted myself and whether I wanted to play basketball in the future.

​Cabrini basketball has a great legacy and has produced many championship teams. But when I walked around campus and told people I was on the basketball team they looked at me and said, “Oh well you guys aren’t any good are you?”

This was hard to handle.

When a new coach was hired I hoped for the best, I hoped our team could improve. Not that wins were everything but that we could at least come together and find a team bond. We did just that and our win count improved to 12.

​I was on my way to study abroad in Spain. Awaiting the airline attendant to check my bags in JFK, my phone buzzed, I had a message. I listened to the message, and I could not believe it. Our coach whom had helped us improve was leaving for another college. I walked on the plane and forgot about everything. Basketball was over for me then and there.

​October 15, 2008 came, the first day of practice my junior year. I ran up and down the court for about ten minutes before I had to stop and throw up. The new coaching staff was highly unimpressed. They knew I hadn’t given anything to my conditioning in the offseason, for someone who was now an upperclassman, this way no way of showing an example for the others on the team.

​However, I stuck with it and to my delight our team was turning everything around. We were winning games, coming together and starting to put the Cabrini program back on the map. The season came to an end and although we failed to win a championship, losing to Gwynedd-Mercy College in the championship game, we all knew that if we came together the next year we would be team to beat.

​The past season at Cabrini has been one I will never forget. One thing you learn in playing a sport in college is that not one season is ever the same. You can never forecast how a new group of individuals will come together and play.

I knew in the offseason that our team had improved with many new faces, but I did not know how much the additions would influence our team in a positive way. Although my playing time dropped, as long as I was contributing on a winning team is all I could ever ask for. We had our best year at Cabrini during my four year tenure and the light at the end of the tunnel finally shown through when I climbed the top of the ladder to cut down a piece of the championship net. All was worthwhile. My mind was at peace. We had reached our goal.

​I decided to write this not to inform others about my playing days at Cabrini, but to send a message that it’s worth committing yourself to something, even though there are many times we doubt ourselves and we feel like quitting, if you hold on with all you’ve got and work hard, I believe all of us can accomplish their goals. I would have never been able to stick with basketball if I did not have the support of my family, friends and teammates. Without the encouragement of my coaches, fans, and the entire community, my dreams would have vanquished a long time ago.

​In a few hours my team will depart for the NCAA Tournament. This is a feat I never dreamed possible. No matter what happens in the tournament, I’m very proud of my team. I feel very honored and humbled to have ever worn the Cabrini jersey on my back.

​At the end of the day, it is not about the wins and losses or who scores the most points. What I will remember for the rest of my life are the bus rides to and from games, the feeling I had in my stomach the moment I woke up on a big game day, and the high fives my teammates and I gave one another in warm up lines. I am so fortunate to have been a Cabrini Cavalier. I will support this program for the rest of my life.

Thanks again to all of those who made this possible for me. Without you I would have never had the courage to be here in the first place.