A string of numbers, 1 through 19, is posted in Stony Brook’s locker room. The first 15 are crossed out, each one marking a Seawolves’ victory.
Next to No. 16 it says “Great season.” Next to No. 17 it says “Unbelievable.”
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Next to No. 18 it says “Incredible.” Next to No. 19 it says “NIT?”
“I think athletics has a lot to do with dreaming,” coach Nick Macarchuk said from the school’s campus on Long Island. “You try to get your players to dream. Coaches dream too. Sometimes dreams become reality.”
For many programs the NIT is not exactly the stuff of dreams. In fact, it might as well stand for “Nightmare Invitational Tournament,” for it often denotes underachievement. Right, DePaul?
But because the Seawolves are independents, one of only six in Division I, they can’t earn an NCAA tournament by winning a conference tournament. So they’re happy to beg for a berth in a tournament viewed by bigger schools as a nuisance.
“If money would help, or pearls, we’ll bring all kinds of gifts,” Macarchuk joked.
Macarchuk, who led Fordham to the NIT three times and the NCAAs once, has no illusions that NIT would take his unknown team over a .500 major-conference team with a television following. The Seawolves’ RPI has been above 175 most of the season, and three of their wins came against Division III opponents. Stony Brook lost to St. John’s by 30 points and Maryland by 48 but hung within 10 in losses at Connecticut and Rutgers.
“Being a local team, we’d like to think that they would look at us as maybe a Cinderella team,” Macarchuk said. “It’s a matter of whether our RPI is going to be high enough, which is their excuse to say you can’t get in. Or would they look at us as a darling in their area?
“Of course if we lose one more, forget about it.”
Even if Stony Brook spends March at home, it has had a superb, some might say storybook, season. The Seawolves went 6-23 last year, their first in Division I. Improvement came quickly when 6-foot-8-inch center Leon Brisport, a transfer from Providence, became eligible. Macarchuk, who has 331 career wins, has assembled a scrappy group of role players overlooked by the major conferences.
Macarchuk has to replace Brisport, a senior, next season. But the future brightened considerably last month when the America East Conference announced Stony Brook would join in July, along with fellow independent Albany. This time next year, Stony Brook will be gearing up for the America East tournament, where it could earn an NCAA invitation.
“I told our freshmen, we’re going to get to the NCAA tournament while you’re in school here,” Macarchuk said.
He can dream, can’t he?
Eagles take wing: Boston College is trying to do the unthinkable.
Not finding a parking space on Commonwealth Avenue? Harder than that.
The Eagles are trying to become the first Big East team to go from worst to first in one season. BC finished 13th a year ago, winning only three conference games. Going into Tuesday night’s defeat at Connecticut, the Eagles were 9-1 and perched atop the Big East’s East Division. With 18 wins overall, the Eagles have assured themselves an NCAA bid. The only question is how high they’ll be seeded.
“It’s been amazing,” associate head coach Tim O’Shea told the Boston Globe. “To do this basically with the same team we had last year is incredible. Overall we’re not that talented. Not one of our guys was in anyone’s Top 200. But we’ve played incredibly well as a team.”
Rock talk, Jayhawk: The love-hate relationship between a segment of Kansas fans and Eric Chenowith continues to simmer. They just love to hate the 7-1 center, and recently he fired back at Allen Fieldhouse boo birds.
“It’s fun to tick those people off,” Chenowith said. “I do not care what fans think about me. I used to. It started to bug me, so now I don’t care. I just sit back and laugh.
“All those people saying bad things about me probably grew up in Kansas and their lifelong dream was to play here,” said Chenowith, who emigrated from California. “I get to play here and they don’t, so I win.”
After seeing his remarks in print the next morning, Chenowith quickly called a news conference to “clarify” his remarks and let reporters know he appreciates the fans’ support. If Chenowith responded to opponents the way he responded to the fans–that is to say, with attitude–he probably wouldn’t be booed in the first place.
Al’s Night: The Feb. 22 DePaul-Marquette game in Milwaukee’s Bradley Center is being dubbed “Fill the Corners for Al” and will feature tributes to former Marquette coach Al McGuire, who died last month after a long illness. Fans attending the game will receive a lapel pin and a commemorative souvenir ticket.
“Al McGuire always checked the corners [of the arena] when he came on the floor, and if they were filled he felt that he had done his job,” Marquette Athletic Director Bill Cords said. “We need to fill the corners so if Al does check the corners he will still feel that he did his job.”
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In 13 years at Marquette, McGuire won a school-record 295 games and led the Warriors, as they were known before the school bowed to the politically correct, to the 1970 NIT and 1977 NCAA titles.
The baseline: At times it seems as if the three-point shot is the most important weapon in college basketball. But is it? In the Big Ten, at least, teams that rely heavily on threes have struggled this year. Eleventh-place Northwestern has launched the most treys, 511, followed by eighth-place Penn State (478) and ninth-place Minnesota (468). Meanwhile Missouri’s Brian Grawer scored all 24 of his points from beyond the arc at Iowa State Sunday. But the Tigers still lost to the Cyclones 72-64 … Speaking of Iowa State, the Cyclones look to make it five straight over Kansas when they meet the Jayhawks in Hilton Coliseum Saturday. The Cyclones’ four-game win streak is their longest in a series that tipped off in 1908 … Speaking of Kansas, the Jayhawks fell behind by 25 at halftime in an 85-77 loss Monday night at Big 12 also-ran Baylor, after which KU coach Roy Williams did his customary hand-wringing over his players’ lack of emotion. It was Kansas’ third straight loss in a Monday night TV game. Good thing there’s only one Monday night game in the NCAA tourney–and don’t look for Kansas to play in it.
Big game out in Pauley Pavilion Thursday night. Arizona takes on UCLA in a battle between teams that have flirted with disaster all season. The Wildcats, who have dedicated this season to the memory of Lute Olson’s late wife, Bobbi, have surged to within a game behind front-running Stanford in the Pac-10. And the third-place Bruins have responded to talk that coach Steve Lavin was on his way out by winning 12 of their last 14.
Was it really an upset when Ole Miss smoked Tennessee 87-71 last weekend in Oxford? Only if the preseason magazines were to be believed. The Volunteers were supposed to contend for the national title but have slipped to 5-5 in the Southeastern Conference, and no one will be surprised if this underachieving bunch is bounced out of the NCAA tournament in the first weekend. The Rebels, meanwhile, have come out of nowhere to take over first place in the SEC West.
“What we’re trying to do is win the whole thing–the SEC title,” guard Jason Flanigan said. “Then we want to go to the Final Four.”