BROOKLYN– Atlantic 10 commissioner Bernadette McGlade is hopeful five of the teams from her league– Dayton, St. Bonaventure, Virginia Commonwealth, St. Joseph’s and George Washington– all receive bids to the NCAA Tournament on Selection Sunday.
She can make a case for every one of them.
But in this season, where bubbles are constantly being popped on championship week– there are no guarantees.
Most bracket projections have Dayton, which defeated Richmond, 69-54, Friday in an Atlantic 10 quarterfinal, solidly in the 68 team field, whether they win the conference championship or not. Virginia Commonwealth, St. Bonaventure’s and St. Joseph’s also appear be in good shape. But George Washington will have to wait until Selection Sunday before they learn their fate.
St. Joseph’s, who are 25-7 with a 32 RPI, can breathe easier after the fourth-ranked Hawks rallied from a 14 point halftime deficit to defeat the fifth-seeded Colonials, 86-80, Friday to advance to the semi-finals of the Atlantic 10 Tournament against top-seeded Dayton Saturday here at the Barclays Center.
“I often say to these guys, ‘Look, we have a game plan and if the other team beats the game plan by making shots, then we shake their hand, get on the bus and go home,” St. Joseph’s coach Phil Martelli said. “At halftime I told them, “I don’t mean at halftime we could shake their hand and go home.”
Martelli can laugh about it now.
The tension is finally starting to subside on Hawk Hill. But Martelli isn’t taking anything for granted. “I don’t know,” he said. “And I want you to understand this. I have Joe Lunardi (a St. Joseph’s administrator who does the bracketology for ESPN) right across campus. If he was to come in here right now, hand on the Bible, I have not said a word to him. I have not looked at an RPI. I have not looked at any of those experts. I have no idea.
“I knew we came in here on a two-game losing streak. That was it. So all I wanted to do was play tomorrow and what I’m saying about them is they are college basketball players. They watch ESPN, it’s all along he bottom of the thing. They all have the internet.. They then discuss it.
“:When we started practice Tuesday, I was sitting in our video room on the other side of the wall and I heard them. This guys has us as a 9, this guy has us and an 8, this guy has us as a 7. They came in and I was calm about it. I said, “I have us as a 4. We’re a fourth seed in the Atlantic 10 tournament because of what we did lat week. And other than that there’s been no conversation.
“Look would I have wanted to go through the next 48 hours with a three game losing streak. No. NO. I wouldn’t .Would not. But campaigning wouldn’;t do anything. Putting more pressure on then wouldn’t do anything for us for this game, for this moment. I knew one thing, we’re playing next week. Might not be the tournament we all have worked so hard for, but we’re playing next week. So let’s play for today, this day and this day only. A champion never worries about what happened or what will happen because that takes all the strength from the moment in time. We had this moment in time, and it took every once of our strength for 40 minutes.
“I’d have been pissed though, if we we’re not in. I’ll be honest with you.”
George Washington coach Mike Longeran does not have Martelli’s margin for error. His team is 23-10 after letting a golden opportunity slip away.
It probably didn’t help his anxiety level when Greg Shaheen, the former NCAA Senior Vice President, who used to work for the selection committee and knows the math, just came out with this piece of interesting information. Right now, Shaheen says, there are 21 teams competing for the final three at large spots.
St. Mary’s, Valparaiso, Arkansas Little Rock, Monmouth, George Washington, Syracuse, Michigan, Florida, LSU, Clemson and George Washington are in for a nervous weekend.
Longeran was still actively lobbying for a spot for his team for a second straight day. “I just hope the committee looks at our entire body of work,” he said.
GW has impressive non conference victories against Virginia, Seton Hall, Tennessee and Penn State, and have beaten VCU in the conference.
“I think if you take the names off the top of the list and you do a blind taste test, if you look at the resume: Seton Hall was a top-three Big East team last time I looked,” Longeran said. “Virginia might be No. 1. Penn State is not a bad team, they beat a couple nationally ranked teams. VCU at VCU. St. Joe’s would gie us four Top 50s Even within our league if you look at some of the teams that everybody has locked in, some of them don’t have four Top 50 wins.”
George Washington also has losses to DePaul, which is mired toward the bottom of the Big East, and St. Louis, which just fired their coach Jim Crews after a 13-21 season.
Longeran said the Colonials should not have to win the A-10 tournament to get in if it comes down to GW or MAAC regular season champion Monmouth or LSU, with its All American freshman forward Ben Simmons
“Some of those other teams I see on the TV, they can’t do anything else. They’e done,” Longeran said. “I’l put our wins against Monmouth’s wins any day ofthe week. They’re a big story, but I truly believe if we do the right things here, the people on the selection committee who know basketball, It’s not gong to be about who has the best player in the country or the bench, it’s going to be about the deserving teams.”
Monmouth defeated some high profile teams early in the non-league in UCLA, Notre Dame and Georgetown, all on the road or at neutral sites, UCLA and Georgetown both ended up having sub par seasons. The Hawks also split with USC on road and neutral site games and lost to A-10 regular season champion Dayton by three. But they also lost to Army, Canisius and Manhattan and dropped two games to Iona
“We have not lost a game to a team from a one-bid conference all year,” Longeran said. “If we were in the Big East or the ACC everybody would be talking about we lost to Dayton, we were up six with five minutes left and Joe McDonald didn’t even make the trip, but no knows that
“We’re still fighting for respect just like our league is. I don’t tak to the team about that but I laugh when people say we hae to win the whole thing here to go the the NCAA Tournament.”
GW coach Mike Longeran sounded like a man who won’t get much sleep in the near future.
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Dick Weiss is a sportswriter and columnist who has covered college football and college and professional basketball for the Philadelphia Daily News and the New York Daily News. He has received the Curt Gowdy Award from the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame and is a member of the national Sportswriters Hall of Fame. He has also co-written several books with Rick Pitino, John Calipari, Dick Vitale and authored a tribute book on Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski.
