Playing in March

Soon it will be March, and everyone wants to be playing ball in March. Three of the past four years, Cuse has won a tournament in March. Twice it was the Big East tourney in the Garden. Last year, against long odds, Gerry McNamara’s late game heroics gave us a thrilling, and enormously entertaining four day ride to the Big East championship. A year earlier, Gerry and Hak had led the Cuse to its first Big East championship in a long time. But as satisfying as these wins were, both years they were followed by first round exits from the NCAAs, and as nice as it is to get invited to the NCAA tournament, the season ends anti-climactically, if the team doesn’t hang around to play the following week. But in 2003, when Carmelo led the Cuse to their first ever basketball championship, when we all watched in amazement as the Orange dispatched consecutive number one seeds, then shot the lights out against Kansas, we hadn’t even made it to the Big East finals. UConn sent the Orange home early with a semi-final whupping, that maybe served as a wake-up call to inspire the team to play that much better in the weeks to follow. The point being, after last night’s win against Georgetown, and who better to beat up in the season’s final game than Georgetown, there seems no way the selection committee can deny Cuse a bid. So we don’t need four Big East wins to land an NCAA invite. One or two wins will suffice, and then we can go home, perhaps pissed off that we still don’t get enough respect, and rest up for the following weekend.

Some observations from the past five games. Andy Rautins shooting around sixty percent from three-point range. That’s like ninety percent from inside the arc. Plus, with Andy on fire, teams can’t swarm all over Demetrius, and he’ll get better looks. Not that he needs good looks; that fall-away is crazy. Eric D is playing the point better all the time, eleven assists last night, and he doesn’t have to carry the offense. He’s a credible three-point shooter, maybe not as hot as Rautins or Nichols right now, but when did we ever have three decent shooters from three-point range? The big guys have played better of late, although it’s too bad T-Rob is banged up. And what about my man PH? I couldn’t figure why the coach had him on the bench during much of the mid-season, but I don’t think it’s a coincidence that this five game win streak has seen PH playing close to thirty minutes a game. His rim-rattling dunks, his fierce rebounding (That last rebound at Providence that sealed the victory), his tough man defense, and his deft passing have helped the team out as the season progressed. He’s only a freshman, but like Josh Pace, he helps out everywhere.

I don’t ask for much this year, it’s almost enough to have seen the team turn itself around and earn a spot in the post-season. But I’d really like to see them playing for four more weekends, Nova, then the Big East, then the tournament, and finally the regionals. The sweet sixteen. Does that seem like too much to ask for?