(Crusader Basketball? Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz)As Anna Lou fell asleep in her Holy Cross gear, the Crusaders were in the midst of losing the Patriot League Championship game to American University. Ralph Willard's Holy Cross squad made a valiant run through the tournament...defeating Bucknell in a grudge match, followed by a win against an upstart Colgate team to reach the finals. The Patriot League Championship has the best start-time of any title game, 4:45 pm the Friday before Selection Sunday. As the #1 seed, American hosted the championship in front of a standing-room-only Bender Arena crowd of 3,123. (I'd like to take a moment to point out there were 3,227 of us loyal fans cheering on Robert Morris during the NEC Championship game) Chaz, Liz, and Anna Lou were some 600 miles away at (I believe) Between the Buns...a fine restaurant and sports bar in South Bend, Indiana. Beers were had, purple was worn, hearts were broken. Thus is the life for Holy Cross devotees. American U. won the game 73-57, earning a #14 seed in the NCAA Tournament and the right to play Villanova in the first round. You'll get 'em next year Crusader fans. You'll get 'em next year.
The bright spot for Holy Cross was freshman R.J. Evans, who was named Patriot League rookie of the year. Evans was also named to the Patriot League All-Rookie team while averaging 13.4 points per game and running the floor for the Crusaders. Another Holy Cross player, sophomore forward Andrew Keister, was selected to the All-Patriot League first team. American U. loses three key seniors when their season is over. This Holy Cross team is relatively young and should be competitive for the next couple of years. Keep your chin up Chaz.
Before we close the curtain on the Patriot League, I'd like to try and address the topic of why Holy Cross declined an invitation to join the Big East Conference back in the late-70's. The truth is...I couldn't find much information concerning this important question online. Perhaps sometime in the next year, I'll finally get around to reading The Last Amateurs: Playing for Glory and Honor in Division I College Basketball by John Feinstein. Maybe Feinstein's text will provide more insight as to why Holy Cross went the more academic route.
I did find this blurb from the New York Post in an article discussing the Big East's 'Glory Days', "The Big East had been created in advance of the 1978-79 season as a way for a consortium of like-minded basketball schools to arm themselves against the coming age of television, against long-established bastions such as the ACC, the SEC, the Big Ten and the Big 8. It was such an outside-the-box idea that not everyone wanted in right away: Holy Cross actually declined the invite, a fact over which its alumni have been torturing themselves for 30 years."
Apparently the Big East was a wacky idea at the time. One that some people and institutions didn't think would last. Was Holy Cross ahead of the curve or behind it? I suppose that's for history and disgruntled alumni to say.
Speaking of disgruntled Holy Cross alumni...here is blog favorite, and notable ESPN personality, Bill Simmons venting his frustrations about Crusader basketball back in 2007:
Simmons: "My problem isn't with the players, the coach, or the character/resolve/dignity of the team. My problem is the situation itself. Back in the '80s, when the Jesuits inexplicably decided to cripple sports at Holy Cross and kill our famous rivalry with BC, their explanation was that we needed to raise the school's profile as an academic/athletic institution. So we left the MAAC and joined the Patriot League, which was originally envisioned as a Division I version of the NESCAC (like a poor man's Ivy League with better sports). Well, guess what? That idea bombed. They should just change the name of the league to No-Man's-Land.
You know why I know this? Because the head coach of my basketball team just told me, [Ralph Willard] "We don't have the most heavily recruited players in our program and rarely any with exceptional natural ability. We have no innate advantages over the rest of the programs in Div. I, and some real physical and fiscal disadvantages."
This isn't a new thing, either. When I was attending school there from 1988 to '92, nobody understood what was happening with the Patriot League move and our curious decision to scale back sports when the football and basketball teams were such an enormous part of the Holy Cross experience. At the time, the direction was sweepingly unpopular. I even wrote a newspaper column or two for the Crusader about it -- they were crippling our football and basketball programs for reasons that didn't make sense to anyone. Nearly two decades later, the reasons STILL don't make sense. It's the equivalent of a triathlete intentionally amputating his left leg, then continuing to compete while telling you, "Look at me, look at me. I'm doing this with one leg!" Admittedly, it's impressive and takes a ton of heart and courage. At the same time, HE STILL CHOPPED OFF HIS LEFT LEG FOR NO REASON. There's a difference between courage and abject stupidity.
That's where we are with Holy Cross sports right now."
Thank you for doing my work for me Bill.
Props to the Patriot League.
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