Will It Be March Madness or March Sadness For PC Basketball and Hockey Teams?
Robert McMahon, Sports Columnist
Will It Be March Madness or March Sadness For PC Basketball and Hockey Teams?
The Friar skaters, ranked at #10 in the college hockey pairwise rating system, looked like a sure thing to be one of the 16 teams selected for the NCAA hockey tournament. But the PC skaters had a bad week last week losing to lowly Merrimack, 2-1; tying Northeastern, 3-3 (won in shootout 2-1); and losing to #2 Boston University, 4-2. The PC sextet has slipped to #14 in the rankings and is in danger of staying home this tournament season.
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PC Basketball Friars (19-12)
When the Friars jumped out to a 15-2 lead against UConn Saturday night, I was one of the Friar dreamers thinking that this was the night that PC would stun the Huskies, and the win would propel them into the Big East tournament for another couple of wins and a trip to the NCAA’s. Nope. Connecticut is too good a team, with too good a coach, with too many answers, and they quickly showed PC why they are one of the best teams in the country. They have balanced scoring generally getting 5 guys in double digits every night.
While this loss was expected, the manner in which it was suffered by the Friars will put them in the wrong frame of mind entering the Big East tournament. Coach English has his work cut out to get this version of the Friars psyched for the Big East tournament. There is not much time to provide inspiration to the PC hoopsters. They will meet old Coach Cooley and Georgetown on Wednesday evening at 6:30 at Madison Square Garden. This is not a gimme, Georgetown is actually playing better of late, and PC will need to be motivated to win.
If the Friars are successful against the Hoyas, they will play Creighton on Thursday in one of the Big East quarterfinal matchups. To have any chance to be selected to the NCAA tournament, PC will have to beat the Blue Jays (they went 1-1 this season against them) and hope that one or more of the other bubble teams vying for an NCAA invite slip in their conference tournaments. Even a PC win against Creighton might not be enough, but it will give us all a reason to watch the NCAA Selection Sunday show on March 16th.
PC Hockey Sextet (18-12-4)
The PC skaters looked like a sure thing for the NCAA tournament virtually all year, but its 0-2-1 record in the last week of the regular season and the continued success of the teams near them in the ratings, have put the Friars suddenly in a desperate situation. Their “second season” starts next Saturday in the Hockey East Tournament in a quarter-final match-up when the #4 seed Friars will face the #5 seed UMass Minuteman at Schneider Arena. The puck drops at 4 PM. This is a must-win for the Friars. Their opponent is ranked at #15. PC lost both of its regular season games to UMass, 3-2 and 2-1. A PC win would eliminate UMass from further consideration. But if the other teams bunched near PC in the rankings—Omaha, Colorado College, Cornell, and St. Cloud State—keep winning in their conference tussles, PC would probably also need a win in the Hockey East semifinals against either BC or BU at the Boston Garden on Friday, March 22nd. Those teams are ranked #1 and #2 respectively in the country.
In Case You Missed It…
I would be remiss in not mentioning that the Brown Bear men's basketball team, who have struggled all year, won their last regular season game against heavily favored Yale this past Saturday, 84-81 in OT, on a last-second shot by Aaron Cooley, for their 6 straight Ivy League win. Brown was behind by as many as 15 points in the second half. The Ivy League Final Four tournament takes place next weekend at Columbia. #4 Brown will duke it out with heavily favored #1 Princeton. #2 Yale will face #3 Cornell. Brown has a 12-17 record entering the tournament, and the other 3 teams have all won 20 or more games.