Some observations after three days of watching college basketball:
— The pain of St. Bonaventure’s heart-breaking loss to Saint Louis in Friday afternoon’s Atlantic 10 quarterfinal at Washington’s Capital One Arena lasted only about 50 hours.
That’s when we found out the Bonnies, at 20-9, had earned a berth in the NIT.
The reality is this, there’s no guarantee, had they beaten the Billikens, that they would have followed it with a victory over Davidson in the semis, then topped Richmond in the finals.
What the Spiders did, as a sixth seed, was extraordinary, earning their way into the NCAA Tournament … something Bona had hoped to pull off.
But the NIT berth helped the Bonnies and their fans distance themselves from the disaster against Saint Louis and very possibly give them a longer tournament run than March Madness might have provided.
— Probably the happiest Bonnie when the NIT announced its field was Kyle Lofton.
The “goat” light unfairly shone upon the point guard whose two missed free throws with 1.9 seconds remaining let Saint Louis survive for a 57-56 victory.
And late tonight, in Boulder, Colorado, St. Bonaventure gets its second chance, this time against the Buffaloes.
But Lofton isn’t the first Bonnie to endure the feeling of guilt by failing on a pair of foul shots with a postseason game on the line.
Bona fans over age 60 will remember the 1971 NIT semifinal against Georgia Tech at Madison Square Garden.
Junior guard Paul Hoffman was fouled as time expired in the first overtime with the game tied at 67. Hoffman, an 1,100-point scorer who still ranks 38th on SBU’s all-time list, wasn’t quite as proficient at the line as Lofton (83%), but he still made two-thirds of his free throws that season.
However, he missed both and the Yellowjackets went on to win 76-71 in double OT.
Still, the Bonnies had some solace as, back then, the NIT had a third-place game and they beat Duke before North Carolina won the title over Georgia Tech.
As Schmidt did for Lofton, then-coach Larry Weise made it clear that Hoffman’s misses didn’t cost the game … the result was a product of errors that occurred earlier and, oh yeah, he pointed out they still had a second overtime to win it.
— In my business, we’re not supposed to root for teams, but once the Bonnies were eliminated from the conference tourney, I did just that.
My two favorite opposing A-10 coaches are Davidson’s Bob McKillop and Richmond’s Chris Mooney.
McKillop, at age 71, is finishing his 32nd season coaching the Wildcats and owns 634 wins over that span. But what makes him stand out, beyond his success, is the respect he has from his peers. A picture of class and dignity, in an era where college coaches wear pullovers on the sideline, McKillop still wears an expensive suit with perfectly coiffed “Man From Glad” white hair.
Mooney, 50, is an alum of Princeton and still runs his college coach’s “backdoor cut” offense. He’s a gentleman of the McKillop ilk and several years back bore a striking resemblance to movie actor Judge Reinhold in his younger days.
Normally, I wouldn’t care whether Davidson or Richmond won the Atlantic 10 championship, given the coaches.
But the Wildcats, who won the conference’s regular-season title, seemed a lock for the NCAAs with their 27 victories, but the only path to the “Big Dance” for the Spiders was to win the A-10 tourney and the only way the conference would get two teams in.
— Neither team got the best of draws as Davidson is a No. 10 seed in the West and will play seventh-seeded Michigan State (22-7) Friday in Greenville, South Carolina.
Meanwhile, Richmond (23-12), seeded 12th in the Midwest meets No. 5 seed Iowa (26-9) Thursday at Buffalo’s KeyBank Center.
Speaking of draws, the Bonnies are merely glad to be in the NIT, but playing three-quarters of the way across the country on short notice against a 21-11 team on its home court is a heavy lift, to be sure.
And, oh yeah, try to get a nap this afternoon, Bona and Colorado don’t play until 11 o’clock tonight on ESPN2.
— Only two hoops teams of the eight in the Big Four are still playing, the Bonnies and the Buffalo women, who along with three-quarters of the NCAA field, have their own pairings gripe.
At 25-8, the Bulls, who won the Mid-American Conference championship, are a 13th seed and meet fourth-seeded Tennessee (23-8), Saturday in Knoxville.
Yeah, the Vols home floor.
Of course it’s not just Buffalo.
Each of the NCAA’s 16 early-round sites will have a team ranked in a region’s Top 4, hosting games on its home court for the first two rounds.
It’s a ploy to increase attendance, but a bit of an advantage don’t you think?
(Chuck Pollock, an Olean Times Herald senior sports columnist, can be reached at cpollock@oleantimesherald.com)
