By Chris Granozio
For the unprecedented sixth time in 19 years, since the expansion of the NCAA field to 64 teams, the East Region Final was an unconventional match-up between the first and seventh seeds. And for the fourth time, it was #1 that moved on to the Elite-8.
Bentley – which held off St. Thomas Aquinas in a battle of two conference champions – is the only team to win as many as four regional titles over this stretch (Stonehill and UMass-Lowell are the only other multiple winners with three and two, respectively). Jay Lawson’s seasoned, efficient and symbiotic team may not be as talented as his dynasty that captured East Region crowns in 2007, 2008 and 2010 (with runner-up trophies in 2009 and 2011 for an insane five-year run of 142-24) but the coach will be the first to tell you that this is the tightest group he’s ever assembled. And that’s what gives them a fighter’s chance against the reigning D2 champs, Northwest Missouri State. The 31-5 Bearcats are no strangers to the Elite-8, having captured three of the last four national titles, and showcasing a sensational shooter and passer named Trevor Hudgins, who happens to be the defending National Player of the Year. But they’d be fools to sleep on the Falcons, who are carrying the tattered banner for an East Region that is starved for a national championship, enduring a 33-year drought that is by far the longest in D2. The last time a school from these parts popped the champagne bottles was in 1988, when underdog University of Lowell (now UMass-Lowell in D1) turned the trick, making it two New England programs to take the grand prize in three years (Sacred Heart prevailed in 1986). Here’s hoping this extremely likable Bentley club makes us all proud.
The following are some notes that stood out to me as I reflected on last week’s East Regional at the Dana Center – a seven-game soiree that provided a little bit of everything. I’ve organized my thoughts by school:
BENTLEY
The top seed lived up to its billing by annihilating Felician in its opener, using a 35-2 first-half avalanche to run away and hide. The third-ever match-up between the Falcons and Golden Falcons reached the surreal level midway through the second half, when the margin mushroomed to 51 points (80-29), something no one I spoke with can remember ever happening in a game of this magnitude. The next night was much more dramatic for the hosts, who suffered a fundamental meltdown in the final five minutes of regulation vs. Pace, uncharacteristically allowing a 10-point lead to disappear amidst a series of turnovers and fouls. Bentley returned to form as soon as overtime commenced, however, with Colton Lawrence’s back-to-back 3-pointers capping an 8-0 spurt that ultimately decided the outcome. The tough and talented Zach Laput – who made the All-Regional Team despite his freshman designation – recorded a career-high 26 points, eclipsing the 25 he scored in his only other meeting vs. the Setters back in January. Two days later in the final, the Falcons unleashed a 28-7 tear over the first 10:46 of the second half, transforming a 37-33 deficit into a 61-44 lead that bent but never broke as the champs improved to 4-2 in regional finals… 3-2 at home. Early in the contest, Mason Webb became the 56th player in program history to reach the 1,000-point plateau, while fifth-year quarterback Jordan Mello-Klein took home Most Outstanding Player honors, remarking in the postgame presser that there was no way he was going to lose his final home game.
FRANKLIN PIERCE
The only team to have beaten Bentley twice – and the only one to leave Waltham with a victory in its pocket – was the second-seeded Ravens, who were the deadliest 3-point shooting team in the field and featured the East’s Player of the Year in junior guard Isaiah Moore. Pierce seemed in control of its opening game vs. St. Thomas Aquinas, constructing a 44-29 lead less than two minutes into the second half before Moore started cramping up. So badly, in fact, that he couldn’t even take the court down the stretch, sitting out for 5:11 of the last 9:57 and only attempting one shot over the final 12:23 (a made 3-pointer from nearly 30 feet out). Without their star at full strength, the Ravens succumbed to STAC’s pressure and saw their season conclude with two disappointing defeats on the same Dana Center floor, having dropped the NE10 championship game six days earlier. Still and all though, a marvelous season for David Chadbourne’s squad.
SAINT ANSELM
The third of the Top three seeds that all hailed from the same division (Northeast) of the same conference (Northeast-10), the Hawks were participating in their region-high NINTH consecutive NCAA Tournament, and gave New Haven a good run before bowing out, ending a season filled with injury obstacles and meat-grinder games (a whopping seven decided by just one possession). The image that will last most in my memory will be the emotional embrace between star senior Chris Paul and his coach, Keith Dickson, and the genuine affection the two displayed postgame. Paul capped a marvelous career with 22 points in the setback, but he and the senior class can regale their grandchildren about a Final Four appearance in 2019.
DOMINICAN
Like Saint Anselm, Joe Clinton's charges withstood a disappointing close to a season that started with lots of promise, as they were the last team of the 37 to endure a loss. Jalen Burgess’ first point of the regional – a jumper five-and-a-half minutes into his team’s game vs. Pace – gave the grad student 1,001 as a Charger, but the highlights were few and far between for the four-seed the rest of the night as the Setters rode a 25-7 wave early in the second stanza to jump in front, 52-35, and never looked back, consigning Dominican to its second straight quarterfinal defeat. The clash featured two fifth-year point guards: Daniel Grant (DC) and Brandon Jacobs (PU) who had combined for 2,042 career points and 1,166 assists heading into that game.
PACE
After taking down the Chargers – oddly, the two teams’ third all-time meeting despite their campuses being just 17 miles apart – the Setters gave Bentley everything they had in a semifinal match-up of NE10 division winners, using a 17-7 run to conclude regulation with the score knotted up at 80-80. The pendulum swung the other way as soon as overtime began, but by that juncture, Pace had more than made its presence felt, not only participating in its first NCAA Tournament in 15 years (on the same court, as it turns out) but actually winning a game in the regional for the first time in 20 campaigns. The Powell Brothers – Bryan and Brandon – were dominant vs. Dominican, combining for 43 points on 15-of-25 shooting, but took a back seat in the semis to grad student guard Austin Gilbertson, who nearly tripled his scoring average with 21 points while handing out five assists and playing all 45 minutes in his final collegiate game.
NEW HAVEN
The Chargers kicked off the lower-seed success story in the regional lid-lifter, avenging an overtime home loss to St Anselm in the NE10 quarterfinals as the two rivals squared off for the third time in as many gyms over the course of the campaign. It was also their fourth postseason meeting in as many seasons, so naturally, there was heavy familiarity. Dynamic D1 transfer Tavin Pierre-Phlippe carried the load with 17 bench points for New Haven, but the hopes of advancing to a regional final for the first time since 1988 were crushed by St. Thomas Aquinas the next night. Despite six blocked shots from national swat leader and fellow D1 transfer Majur Majak, the Chargers ran out of steam in the second half, seeing a 14-point advantage crumble as they failed to win two games at a regional for the fifth time in as many chances. New Haven can boast the region's stingiest defense this season, and most of the roster returns so this could be a stepping-stone season.
ST. THOMAS AQUINAS
The Spartans’ pressure defense, which forced over 18 turnovers a game (fourth-best in D2), saw the ECC's pre-eminent program nearly become just the third non-Northeast-10 team to take down three NE10 opponents in an NE10 gym at a regional before coming up short in its third consecutive regional final. Riding the hot hands and sneaky defense of senior guards Demetre Roberts and Grant Singleton, the Spartans fell into double-digit, second-half holes in all three of their games, but rallied to win in the first two (-15 to former NAIA rival Franklin Pierce and -14 to former ECC foe New Haven). The 17-point hole they dug for themselves against Bentley, though, proved too deep to climb out of, despite drawing within five on five occasions within the last five minutes. But the Falcons sank 11 of 12 foul shots over the final 1:22 to secure the spoils in a highly memorable, first-ever encounter between the two regional powers. It was also a battle of the East’s only ranked teams in the NABC Top 25, with Bentley at #14 and St. Thomas Aquinas at #19. Had STAC come all the way back to win, it would have been the program’s first 29-win campaign since going 32-4 during the halcyon NAIA days in 1996-97 under previous coach Dennis O’Donnell. Nonetheless, kudos to current mentor Tobin Anderson, who has guided Aquinas to its greatest NCAA heights, overseeing a program that has compiled a gawdy 173-38 record the last seven seasons. While it’s true that they play in the lowest-rated conference in D2, which includes two schools transitioning from D3, anyone who has seen STAC play could clearly deduce that this is a team that deserved to play on the big stage.
FELICIAN
For the second time in program history. The Golden Falcons stunned everyone by cutting down the nets at the CACC Tournament and crashing the party. But as was the case in 2010, Felician came up empty in Massachusetts, initially falling to Stonehill, 75-52 before losing to Bentley this time around, 95-63. Though the result was clearly embarrassing to the players and coaches, just about everyone is scheduled to return next fall, and Ivan Lewis has promised to roll the tape of this year’s blowout over… and over… and over again, so that his team will see “the blueprint for what it means to be #1 in the region.”
…AND MORE NCAA NUMBERS
So with East seeds 1 and 7 meeting for a sixth time in the Sweet 16, you might be wondering which match-up ranks second in a 64-team field. Well, it’s the chalk line of 1 and 2, which has occurred only half as often, and not since 2009 when C.W Post rallied to beat Bentley on Long Island, 82-76. It’s also worth noting that the last two years of the 48-team field (2000-01 and 2001-02), the top two seeds met in the final, as was the case last season, when, amongst an extremely limited field, Daemen shaded STAC in overtime… the only instance of the 2 eliminating the 1.
As for the “Seed Scoreboard,” the 1 has predictably prevailed most often, taking home 11 of the 19 trophies. The 2 seed is second with 3, the 7 has two and the 4 and 5 one apiece. That means that the 3, 6 and 8 seed have never represented our region in the Elite-8 (FYI: There was no regional in 2020 as COVID canceled NCAA Tournament games across the board).
The NE10 remains the dominant conference, having won 15 of the 18 regionals among 64-team fields beginning in 2002-03.
There has also been at least one NE10 team in every regional final during this stretch. The last time that was not the case? Well, it was 1999 and involved two old NYCAC schools that now reside in the Northeast-10: Saint Rose and Adelphi, with the Golden Knights taking that one at the University at Albany.
Going deeper into the research, the last time a team outside the region’s pre-eminent conference won consecutive regionals? It was Adelphi, which hosted twice at Old Westbury in 2001 and 2002, defeating St. Michael’s and Assumption, respectively.
The last team to host back-to-back regionals was Le Moyne in 2017 and 2018. Only two others have achieved that distinction in the past 20 years: Bentley (2007-08) and UMass-Lowell (2003-04). The last team to win three straight was New Hampshire College (now Southern New Hampshire) from 1993-95. That is a record for our region, having been set by St. Michael’s (1958-60) in what was then known as the Northeast Region. It was them equaled by Assumption (1973-75), Sacred Heart (1982-84) and Bridgeport (1990-92).
The last team to win three straight days – in the old format – was St. Anselm in 2000. The fourth-seeded Hawks took down American International, host Southern Connecticut and Adelphi in earning their first regional title.
And yes, I left you hanging earlier by hinting that there were only two non-NE10 teams to defeat three NE10 teams in an NE10 gym en route to the Elite-8. The first was also the only CACC school to win the title: Bloomfield, which eliminated AIC, Stonehill and Bentley in 2011 – the last season prior to this one in which the Falcons hosted. The second was St. Thomas Aquinas, which successfully ran the gauntlet of St. Anselm, Merrimack and Saint Rose at Le Moyne in 2017.
FINAL THOUGHTS
- It must be bittersweet for New Haven’s 7-1 eraser Majur Majak to watch D1 Cinderella St. Peter’s reach the Sweet 16 after dispatching second-seeded power Kentucky and the hottest team in the tourney, Murray State. Majak played 47 games and started 16 for Shaheen Holloway’s Peacocks between 2018-20.
- And there’s another connection between St. Peter’s and our region: the Peacocks’ two non-conference wins this season came against LIU and our very own Nyack on December 12 (87-48).
- STAC Coach Tobin Anderson mentioned in one of his postgame press conferences that his team lost just once after his birthday heading into the regional final. His birthday happens to be December 1. That’s the day the Spartans won an ugly game at Stonehill by the score of 53-49, which sparked a 25-1 streak that culminated in 16 straight “W”’s and landed them in the Sweet 16.
- One coach compared the transfer portal to “the wild west” and another predicted it will be the end of D2 basketball as we know it. Ouch.
- Life will not be the same for me now that University of the Sciences is gone. Turns out Herb Magee isn’t the only Philly institution to depart the region in 2022.
- In a similar vein, none of us will ever see Daemen College play another game going forward. They will now be known as Daemen University. Gotcha!
- Had a chance to check out nationally-ranked Yeshiva in the D3 NCAA Tournament. Was dying to see highly-touted pro prospect Scott Turell, who didn’t disappoint, though his Maccabees team fell to Johns Hopkins at Stockton College despite 28 points from the Los Angeles Native whom some scouts project will get an invite to an NBA camp.
- If I hear one more advertisement for a gambling scam disguised as a sports betting enterprise, I’m going to vomit.
- From the Small World Dept.: Imagine my surprise when I found out during a fun postgame chat with Austin Gilbertson and his parents that the Pace guard and my cousin Josh Giardina have been summer workout buddies in suburban Harrisburg, PA. Josh was a point guard at D3 Marymount in Virginia before becoming the grad assistant this season with the Tennessee Volunteers. Proud of him and sad that his Vols exited the tourney in the second round.
- And lastly, a heartfelt thank you to all the good folks at Bentley University for their hospitality and professionalism. The food in the beautiful Carleton Room was terrific, Dick Lipe supplied terrific notes and stats, and all his support staff made life much easier for me as I prepared for seven broadcasts over the course of four days. The same kudos to my friends at BTV, whose productions continue to shine despite limitations beyond their control. Having worked at many levels of professional sports, I can honestly say that these folks model humility and service in a manner that shames all the other groups with whom I’ve worked. It’s been a blessing to know you guys for all these years and I smile every time I learn I’ll be working with you!
- For my last column of the season, expect a stream-of-consciousness piece from my seat in Evansville on Tuesday. My goal is to share with you my experiences of covering an Elite-8… on my favorite day of the college hoops season. Until then, Happy Hooping to All!